Sermon for Maundy Thursday 2005

Key Text Proclaimed in Sermon: John 13:1-17, 31b-35
         
           "Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ ⁷Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ⁸Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ ⁹Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ ¹⁰Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’ ¹²After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them...
            31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Maundy Thursday Sermon-   “Hurried Preparation”
       
          Nascar has its pit stops.  Soccer moms and dads offer half-time orange slices and juice-boxes.  Basketball has its breaks.  The type of refueling and rejuvenating we are invited to contemplate tonight is more like these examples and less like eight hours rest, or even a family picnic; more like grab and go meals, fast food so to speak, but much healthier.  We’re going to hear God tell the Israelites, “This is how you shall eat the Passover Meal; dressed to leave, your shoe laces tied, and your car keys in hand.”  Well ok, God says to the Israelites, “your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand: and you shall eat it hurriedly.” 

          I used to become bothered as an intern from Seminary, when I passed out the bread or wafers from the Lord’s Supper and people wouldn’t wait for me to finish my part where I say, The body of Christ, given for you, or broken for you.  It’s not totally uncommon for a person to cut to the chase and pop the wafer in their mouth before saying, Amen.  It used to bug me a lot more than it does now.  I am more mindful now that while meaningful, the ritual doesn’t depend on the exact wording or give and take, like it depends on the presence of Christ.  In some ways, a sense of hurriedness, rings true as the scriptures connect Jesus’ Last Supper with the instructions of God for the Passover; “eat it hurriedly” God said. 

          Even at a fast pace, as everything is racing towards the cross, as we’ll hear “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the father”; even as the pace was hurried, danger lurked all the more imminent; just as when higher and higher speeds are driven on the highway- the likelihood of death increase from a poor driving maneuver.  Along with the Last Supper, from which we will come and go from the rail and altar tonight, there are gloomy overtones: recall the words with me, “In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took Bread…”
         
          Our Gospel Lesson tonight will skip over this part (vss. 26-30) of the story that even further illustrates the two sides to hurriedness.  There are at least two tensions, two types of hurriedness; one is a hurriedness that prepares one for being of God’s service; but another way of hurriedness propels Judas into smashing through the guardrail of betrayal.

          “So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. 27 After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do.” …30 So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

          Hurriedness has become a way of life for many.  Hurry here, hurry there, hurry up on the road, hurry, hurry, hurry.  Bumper to bumper traffic and people will still want you to hurry up.  What do we need Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday for?  Let’s just hurry up and get to Easter.  But the journey of faith, isn’t about a hurry to get to the end, to get to the ultimate beginning of Easter, it’s not even a hurry to get to heaven.  The forty days of Lent stress this juxtaposition of patience and hurried readiness to prepare a way for the Lord in our lives.  At the Eucharist, we are to eat hurriedly in the sense that we are then prepared to turn around and serve.  In the remembrance of the Last Supper; in the Lord’s supper, as in the Passover- God is preparing us to come out of a type of slavery of hurriedness to get something or somewhere- a type where the ends justify the means.  Rather, God wants to refuel in us a hurriedness to serve himself, in love.  In a way, the texts today will not be about the ends, but the means.  The Israelites, the hapiru of Egyptian stone inscriptions, spent perhaps 300 years as slaves in Egypt, after Joseph had rescued them from starvation.  They were destined to inherit the promised land, yet God wasn’t just interested in them accomplishing this, but in how they accomplished this.  After Moses murdered a man in haste, he spent 40 years of patient contemplation before serving God to proclaim to the Pharaoh, let my people go.  There is a tension in the hurriedness that can overwhelm us to make poor maneuvers of life and death, and there is another tension of hurriedness in preparation for God’s next call of duty; ironically, and for our benefit, sometimes God does ask us to hurry up and wait. 

          Today, Jesus speaks about the new commandment of means, The New Commandment- “That you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  In Holy Communion, we not only accept God’s gracious presence and forgiveness, but we also practice this love, we get only a brief refreshing taste before we are to go back out of church and serve in the larger world.

          We are to be hurried to love one another, in anticipation to present forgiveness, in a hurry to turn and serve. 

          Our first and second readings tonight will focus on the way in which the Last Supper is represented as the new Passover.  Our reading from John will mention the supper but will dwell instead on the way in which Jesus refocuses the love of God through service, the means and meaning of service to others- loving one another; Jesus will show his service by washing the disciples feet, a humbling act, one which prepare them for the means of the journey to come.

          Jesus knows that his disciples haven't grasped his teachings well. And he realizes how weak they'll be in the coming hours. Yet, despite his awareness of their weakness and of their unprepared haste - even telling them that they'd be ashamed of him, deny him, and abandon him, leaving him to die alone - he repeatedly tells them: "Remember me as loving you."

          Our final ritual tonight will be the Stripping of the Altar and Sanctuary.  Our final preparation after the transition of Jesus into the Passover Lamb for us, is to gather one last time before Easter at the altar.  There we will, with solemn gesture, ritualize what we as a community are doing to prepare for Good Friday. We strip our focus down to Jesus alone. All the signs and symbols are put aside. We are left with the taste of the Eucharist and the gratitude in our hearts. We leave in focused silence. We leave with the image of Jesus, as servant for us, our hearts readied to celebrate the mystery of his passion and death for us and to love one another.