Saturday, April 3, 2021

Maundy Thursday – Introduction (sermon) 2021

Maundy Thursday – Sermon
 
Welcome to our worship service this evening – tonight’s service can be separated into four distinct parts and we will simply let these parts unfold in the course of the worship.
 
I will, here at the beginning, give a brief overview of each part.
 
Part One: A New Commandment
 
The first part of our liturgy acknowledges that one of the main reasons why we worship on this day is that Jesus gave us a new commandment, to love one another. In John’s Gospel, in the days leading up to his arrest, Jesus gives a new commandment, a commandment to love one another – as he loved us, we are to love one another. Over and over again, in parables and with actions, Jesus illustrates just how important, just how central love is to who he is, and who he wants us to be. These chapters in John’s Gospel are known as the Farewell Discourses – the final sayings, the final instructions Jesus has for his followers. It is those words repeated again and again – love one another, as I have loved you. No Christian, no one committed to Jesus Christ can ignore this commandment, this plea, to love one another. Love is simply the one characteristic Jesus wants to see in his followers.
 
This day is known as Maundy Thursday, “maundy” is a word that comes from a Latin phrase, a Latin translation of, “I command you.”
 
Before Jesus is arrested on trumped up charges of blasphemy and sedition, put on trial in the middle of the night with very few people watching, and before Jesus is nailed to a cross, he illustrates his commandment to love one another by washing the disciple’s’ feet. Part Two of our worship draws attention to this powerful action of foot washing.
 
Part Two: Washing the Disciples’ Feet
 
It is one thing to tell people what to do, it is quite another to show them what to do. Jesus can, with parables, tell us of the importance of loving one another, but inevitably, someone will need, someone like me, will need to be shown what love is. So, in a remarkable scene, one that even shocked those who were present, Jesus, after having shared a meal with his disciples, a last meal, a Last Supper, Jesus takes a bowl of water and washes everyone’s feet. Peter protests, but Jesus explains that submitting to this action is how one becomes a part of Jesus. Furthermore, this is the expectation that he has of his followers, we are to serve God by serving one another. We are to love God by loving one another.
 
So much seems to have happened on this day: Jesus commands us to love one another; Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, illustrating what love means and it is the time he institutes the Last Supper.
 
Part Three: The Liturgy of the Upper Room
 
After the Farewell Discourses and before washing everyone’s feet, Jesus sat down to celebrate the Passover with his closest companions. At the end of the meal, Jesus took some bread and some wine and connected these everyday objects with himself. He asked that every time we eat together, we would remember him, remember his teaching, perhaps especially his commandment to love one another. And in this simple act of remembrance, he would continue to be a part of us and we a part of him.
 
It doesn’t matter what we call it: the Liturgy of the Upper Room; the Thanksgiving and Consecration; the Mass; the Holy Mass; Holy Communion; the Eucharist – it’s all the same thing and it is central to who we are as a people, as followers of Jesus Christ. It is a sacrifice we make to call to mind, as an act of remembrance, everything Jesus does for us – or more precisely, what God does for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
 
God’s goodness and love has been made known to us in creation; as revealed in Holy Scripture and above all in the Word made flesh, Jesus, God’s Son, who for our salvation became obedient unto death.
 
Jesus Christ, God incarnate, Emmanuel (God with us), Prince of Peace, Redeemer and Saviour.
 
On this very night, Jesus took bread and wine, and for us, made it his body and his blood, that in sharing this meal we are one with him, one with God, and one with one another. That in sharing this meal we are in communion with God and all of creation.
 
No amount of devotion, no amount of scrubbing one another’s feet, no amount of communion bread and communion wine, no amount of holiness – can stop us from remembering the bitterness and hardship that follows, for tomorrow is Good Friday. Tonight, Jesus is arrested and not long after that – he will be put to death.
 
Part Four: Going into Gethsemane
 
After we recall the commandment to love one another, after we wash this stone cross, in the place of our feet, and after we share communion with one another, and with God – we will strip the church-building of all its finery and turn our minds and hearts to Good Friday and the sacrifice Jesus makes for the world for ever.
 
We will hear the story from Mark’s Gospel of the arrest of Jesus. Jesus, in the garden, prays for a different way but realizes that this is the road he must take – a dark road of pain and suffering, but a road that leads ultimately to the resurrection – I will have more to say about that on Sunday, on Easter Day.
 
Tonight, there is no dismissal at the end of this service because by entering into prayer on Maundy Thursday we begin one long vigil through Good Friday and Holy Saturday to the joyful celebration of the resurrection on Easter Day.
 
We will, after the reading from Mark’s Gospel this evening, leave the church-building in silence…

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