Easter 4 B Whodunnit?

 

Whodunnit?

The back story. Acts Chapter 2 concludes: Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. [Acts 2: 43-47a]

 

Well, not all the people really. Our snippet from Acts 4:5-12 finds Peter and John before some Temple authorities after a night spent in jail. The offense? One day Peter and John went to pray at the Jerusalem Temple. A lame man begged them for alms. Peter looks the man directly in the eye and declares, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.  Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.  All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” [Acts 3: 6-10] Peter then gives yet another rousing speech as he had the Day of Pentecost, 5,000 people, we are told, convert to The Jesus Movement, and now he stands before the Temple authorities, priests, rulers, elders, and scribes, whom the narrator tells us, are ‘annoyed,’ and demand to know, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

 

Peter, ‘full of the Holy Spirit’ from the Day of Pentecost, tells them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” These ‘rulers and elders’ are ‘amazed’ that a couple of fishermen who are ‘uneducated and ordinary men’ could be so articulate and ask them to step out of chambers while they decide to order them to no longer teach ‘in the Name of Jesus.’ To which Peter replies, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” [Acts 4:19] Snap! Wisely, the rulers and elders, seeing how 5,000 people have joined the Jesus Movement, realize there is no way to punish them, so they go on their way back to there friends and pray. The chapter telling us  of those in the Jesus Movement selling their homes and possessions to provide for the neediest among them so no one would be reduced to begging.

 

There are a few problems with all of this, and at the same time some instructive moments as well. First the problems. The scriptures of Israel are devoid of stories of beggars, and in fact there is no word for “beggar” in Biblical Hebrew! That’s because, for at least 1,300 years before the time of Jesus all of Israel was required to provide for the needs of the poor, as well as widows, orphans and resident aliens in the land. To do so is detailed among the 613 commandments in Torah. This means, of course, the early Jesus Movement did not create this idea of pooling resources to take care of the needy. Since most of them at this point in the story are Jews, they have been doing this for generations. It is not likely there would be a beggar at the gates of the Temple, but possible somewhere on the streets.

 

Then there is the condemnation of the ‘rulers and elders’ of responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus, a feature of Peter’s speeches in the book of Acts, despite the fact that under Roman Law the Jewish leaders had no standing to order the execution of anyone. And the fact that crucifixion was a distinctive form of state-sponsored execution used by the Romans to maintain law and order throughout the Empire. These speeches in Acts, among others in the New Testament, have caused much mischief throughout the history of anti-Semitism right up to the complicity of some Christians in the Holocaust: the genocide of some Six Million Jews, and internment and enslavement of millions of other Jews as well as Romani, homosexuals, and those with physical and mental impairments as well. The only good news in all of this is that beginning with Vatican II, Christians of many denominations have accepted responsibility for our contributions to anti-Semitism and today work to foster positive relations with the Jewish people around the world.

 

What, then, are we to make of this remarkable story? I would suggest two things. First, the core question under examination before the rulers and elders is, in the vernacular, “Whodunnit?” Everyone appears to have seen this lame man one time or another, and now he is walking and leaping and praising God! It is possible that even Peter and John are amazed as Peter denies having done anything at all, but rather credits “the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” as having the power to change and transform lives. Once Peter was an ‘uneducated and ordinary’ fisherman, and now he can go toe-to-toe with the wisest rulers and elders in Israel! It’s not us, he says. And when told to stop teaching in ‘the name of Jesus’ he brilliantly replies, “Should I listen to you or to God? We only speak of what we have seen and heard,” thus silencing the accusers.

 

Yet, Peter also speaks with the kind of characteristic humility that once-upon-a-time was a core value of the Jesus Movement. For in fact, Peter did do something. He reached out and took the man in the street by the hand. One does not have to stretch one’s imagination to know that this man had likely not experienced human touch in quite some time. Likely for years. Peter very well may have been the first and only passerby to reach out and take him by the hand. This man, who was convinced he needed alms, money, really needed something far more fundamental to human existence: human touch. “Reach out and touch, somebody’s hand, make this world a better place if you can,” penned Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson for Diana Ross’s first solo effort after leaving the Supremes. It is a gesture that has had a long history of practitioners ranging all the way back to this moment when Peter and John went to pray.

 

The truly good news in this story is that it is a reminder that with this very simplest of gestures, lives can be transformed and changed. We might well ask ourselves, when was the last time any of us felt, like the man in the street, to go walking and leaping and praising God? Note that even he knows who gave him new life. He did not need to ask by whose name or authority he was now back on his feet. He knew it was by the grace and mercy of God and God’s people Israel. People like Peter, and John, uneducated by some accounts, had brilliantly seen and heard Jesus reach out to others all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem. Peter simply did what he had seen and heard. He reached out his hand and made this world a better place for at least one man. And an example for the rest of us of what it means to call ourselves, Christians: disciples, followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Whodunnit? The Good News is, we all can! Amen! It is so! It is truth!

Easter 3B Resurrection Life Given to All

Resurrection Life Given to All

In chapter 24 of the Gospel of Luke we get the Day of Resurrection in Five Scenes. To make any sense of our text, Luke 24:36b-48, which is scene 4, a review of the first three scenes is instructive. As he encounters his followers who are described as grieving, disbelieving, astounded, startled, terrified and still wondering about each report and experience, Jesus addresses one and all as he reminds them how he had opened their hearts to the scriptures.

Scene One: A group of women, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, go to the tomb only to find it empty except for two men “in dazzling clothes” who announce that Jesus is alive. They remember he had told them that he would rise again on the third day. They go tell the news to “the eleven” and “all the rest,” who dismiss it as an “idle tale” – or “women’s trinkets” in the Greek – and did not believe them. Unlike the women, they do not “remember” the scriptures he had opened to them. They could not remember what he had taught them about their future mission, which, we learn later, is to be “witnesses of these things.” But the women remember, share the news and already embrace the mission.

Scene Two: Peter goes to look for himself, and stooping over to look into the tomb he sees that it is just as the women had described. Except by now the men in “dazzling clothes” are no longer there. Peter goes home. We are told he is amazed, but like the rest, he does not remember.

Scene Three: Two of “all the rest,” one named Cleopas, the other unnamed, are walking home from Jerusalem. The Risen Jesus joins them on the way, but “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” He asks, “What’s going on?” “Are you the only one who does not know the things that have taken place in Jerusalem the last few days?” Playing along, Jesus says, “What things?” They speak of his trial and execution, their hopes that he would redeem Israel, and that this morning some women astounded them with the crazy news that his tomb was empty and that they had had a “vision of angels” who told them Jesus was alive. “Oh, how foolish you are,” says Jesus, “and slow to believe what the prophets have declared! All this was necessary!” He then “opens the scriptures to them,” beginning with Moses and all the prophets. Resurrection life begins with remembering and knowing “the scriptures” of Moses, the prophets, and Jesus.  

As they reach their home in Emmaus, Jesus plans to keep going, but they convince him to stay and have supper. He agrees, and at the table he “takes, blesses and breaks the bread, and gives it to them.” Just as he had done at supper with them on Thursday. Just as he had done when feeding the 5,000. To take, bless, break and give away is the pattern of his life. Suddenly they recognize him. Just as suddenly he disappears. “Were not our hearts burning as he opened the scriptures to us on the road!” To study the scriptures with Jesus sets your heart on fire!

Scene Four: The two hurry back to Jerusalem where they find the eleven “and their companions”- that is, com=with; pan=bread; i.e., “those with whom you share bread.” The two from Emmaus tell them what happened on the road, and how he had been “made known in the breaking of the bread.” While they are talking about all this “Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’” Startled and terrified they think it is a ghost! “Why are you scared and why do you not believe – here look at my hands and feet! Touch me and see! No ghost has flesh and bones as you see I have!” And while they were still wondering and disbelieving, he adds, “I haven’t had a thing to eat since supper on Thursday. Have you anything here to eat?” They give him a piece of broiled fish which he eats in their presence. Ghosts don’t eat fish! But the Risen Lord eats bread and fish – just like the 5,000 had not so long ago.

Jesus then proceeds to open their minds to understand the scriptures, that everything about him in the “Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” It is written that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. “You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so, stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” To live into resurrection, one needs to be open to the scriptures and engaged with the mission: to proclaim repentance, forgiveness of sins, and the love of God to all people everywhere!

Scene Five: Jesus takes them out to Bethany where he blesses them, he ascends into heaven, and they return to Jerusalem with great joy! “And they were continually in the temple blessing God.” From here the story will be continued in Volume Two: The Book of the Acts of the Apostles!

Like most of us this past year of the Pandemic, civil unrest, endless shootings, the loss of so many lives, they all had been through a very difficult time. They had reason to be terrified and afraid. They had no idea what to expect next. It must have seemed as if life as they once knew it was over. Their hope for freedom and redemption with Jesus seemed to end on the cross. But then their hearts and minds are opened to read the scriptures in new and empowering ways. Along with that, they are given new hope and a new mission – a new life: to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’s name “to all nations” – to everyone, everywhere. They are to be witnesses of all these things – to tell the story, to share the news that God forgives you, God loves you. Just the way you are! We all can begin again! We all can have new life. Lives were changed forever – as were all those to whom they began to bear witness to the power of Jesus’s name. Because the eleven and their companions finally embraced the mission as the women had at the dawn of that new day, we are here to let our minds be opened and our hearts set on fire!

We all can and will begin again. We all can and will have new life again. Our hearts will be set on fire when we allow the scriptures to be opened to us, beginning with Moses, the prophets and the psalms! We can all learn how to take, bless, break and give away Jesus’s power and love to everyone we meet, to everyone everywhere. As we live through the most difficult of times, there will always be resurrection life on the other side if we embrace the mission like the women did from the beginning. The meaning of resurrection for us all is forever inextricably linked not only to the study of scripture, but with our engagement with the mission. It turns out that the meaning and experience of resurrection is not to be found historical research and scientific scrutiny. As his companions find out on the road from Jerusalem to “all the nations,” the presence of the Risen Lord is always with them in new and different ways. There is no need to ask what form his presence might take. Engagement with the message of repentance and forgiveness, and God’s love no matter what, hope is restored. And the world has never been the same. Once they were terrified and hiding, now they were raised to new life themselves! Their hearts and minds were opened. Their hearts were set on fire. This is what resurrection looks like for all who study the scriptures and engage with the mission.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

And so are we! And so are we!

Easter 2 Shalom, my friends

 

Shalom, my friends

“Peace be with you.” In the Hebrew/Aramaic Jesus spoke, “Shalom lehkhem.” In John 20:19-31 he says it three times. It could simply be a common greeting, yet, even at that it is more than a casual, “Hi, how are you!” It is meant as a blessing and a wish of well-being for the other. Shalom. Shalom is at the very heart of everything Jesus says and does.

 

Shalom, writes Walter Brueggemann, embodies the central vision of world history in the Bible that all of creation is one, every creature in community with every other, living in harmony and security for the joy and well-being of every other creature and creation itself. It goes even further than that: the most staggering expression of the vision of shalom is that all persons are children of a single family, members of a single tribe, heirs of a single hope and bearers of a single destiny, namely, the care and management of all God’s creation. [Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom, Walter Breuggemann; United Church Press, 1982, New York: p.15]

 

Earlier in the Fourth Gospel, at the Last Supper, Jesus self-identifies as shalom. It is the one single word that embodies his vision of the Reign or Kingdom of God, when he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” [John 14:27] Shalom is his parting word to his friends at supper the night before he is to be killed by state-sanctioned execution. Now it is the first word with which he greets them the evening of the day of his Resurrection. Shalom. The word that embodies the Bible’s vision “of personal wholeness in a community of justice and caring that addresses itself to the needs of all humanity and all creation.” [Ibid p 185]

 

A community of shalom is a unique triadic, or trinitarian, notion based upon righteousness, compassion and worship – worship of the One true God from whom our life together in community arises solely as a gift of a loving God – a God who creates out of nothing, delivers the enslaved to freedom, defends the vulnerable, nurtures the weak, and enlists in a universal purpose of shalom all those who respond to the divine call. The final unity of the community that answers this call to shalom is focused in our worship, from which we derive our understanding of what is true, just and good along with the courage and power to stand on the side of truth and justice, whatever the cost.

 

Jesus embodies the cost of shalom, and at supper with his friends, and three times after he returns from the dead, he gifts “his shalom” to those who will accept it. As he does so, he breathes on them. Just as the opening words of John recall Genesis 1, “In the beginning…”, so does his breathing on them now recall Genesis 2 when God breathes his ruach, his spirit, his breath, into the first human fashioned out of a handful of dust and water. This also recalls that night he tried to explain to Nicodemus that he comes to give one and all new life, new spirit, and new courage to continue his work of shalom for all. Breath is life, and we are to note that this risen Christ is still breathing! This is no ghost! He is alive! The Dead One is on the loose! And now he breathes resurrection breath that gives them a new sort of life that goes beyond the life they had before.

 

Embracing Christ’s shalom, Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus, “He [Jesus] is our Shalom!” [Ephesians 2:14] And to the Galatians he breaks it down even further, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are One in Christ Jesus...” [3:28-29] We can rest assured that were he still writing today, Paul would go on to say there is to be neither white nor black nor brown, neither straight nor LGBTQ, neither rich nor poor, neither Democrat nor Republican, neither you nor me, but only we – a community of Shalom for the common good and the well-being of all – not some, not many, not a few, but All. As such, shalom “bears enormous freight—the freight of a dream of God that resists all our tendencies to division, hostility, fear, drivenness, and misery. Shalom is the substance of the biblical vision [and Paul’s understanding] of one community embracing all creation.” [Brueggemann, Peace. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2001- p14]

 

After all, Brueggemann concludes, he got the lepers and the Pharisees together again, the sons of Isaac and the heirs of Hagar – or so the vision lets us hope. He is known in the breaking of bread, he is crucified and risen; he is coming again – he who draws all people to himself who rose from the dead and defied the governor, but who could not save himself. We say he embodies our vision and empowers it. [Ibid LTV p. 24] This is the vision of the Shalom Jesus breathes upon those folks hiding behind locked doors – well-being, economic justice, and freedom for all.

 

A week later, Jesus returns for Thomas who missed the moment of Shalom his companions experienced. It is tragic and ironic that we call this Doubting Thomas Sunday since the word “doubt” does not even occur in the Greek text! It is the Greek word for “unbelief” that sadly gets translated as “doubt.” Thomas remembers the torture and violence of just a few days ago. Thomas wants to believe and insists on seeing the wounds, or else all talk of resurrection will be meaningless. Thomas does not doubt, he remembers. He is to be commended for his memory and for his integrity. For any resurrection, any resolution, any rescue or recovery that moves forward by forgetting the past will be insubstantial. Any moving forward that forgets the victims of torture, abuse and discrimination will be ill-prepared to the task of Shalom when dealing with the ongoing reality of violence and abuse in this world. Which is the task Jesus hands over to them, and to us, and to all who would live by his name, “Christian.” When he greets us, “Shalom be with you…my shalom I leave with you,” he calls us to be the community of “his shalom.”  Thomas remembers, he asks, he sees, he believes, and is the first person recorded by John to declare, “My Lord and my God!”

 

Those who answer Jesus’s call to a life of Shalom join ourselves as a community of worship so as to deepen our understanding of what is true, just and good along with the courage and power to stand on the side of truth and justice, whatever the cost. Like the God, in whose image we have been created, we are to be those people who seek to free those who are enslaved, defend the vulnerable, nurture the weak, tend to and heal creation, all while we enlist others into the joyful life of Shalom Jesus gives us as his last and final gift of life – true life, real life. Life as Shalom for all people and all of creation itself. For our joy, security and well-being, our personal sense of shalom, depends on the well-being of every other creature, and that of the health of creation itself.

Amen. It is truth. It is so. Shalom, my friends, shalom. 

 

 

Easter 2021 See The Son Rising!

 

Easter 2021    He Gave Up His Spirit

People often ask why Good Friday is so Good if the result of a week in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover, teaching and making symbolic gestures, was to end up on a Roman Cross as an example to others not to do as he had done? Visitors from all over the ancient world had come to watch, study, and simply gawk one suspects, at the customs such a festival of Freedom evokes. The Roman hand of law and order and bread and circuses was felt far and wide, and if the God of Israel had succeeded more than once in ransoming his people what’s to say it won’t happen again? Perhaps, they are thinking, we will all be free again.

 

But of course, it didn’t. Rome burned Jerusalem, The Temple and much of the rest of Israel to the ground in 70 CE after a real attempted revolt in the year 69 CE. The goodness of this day is not readily apparent to all people, but sisters and brothers, it is very good indeed. Because The Last Supper, Good Friday and Easter are all one continuous event, not the three discreet, isolated moments our Kalendar and liturgies make it out to be. Against the oppression of Rome, Jesus charts a different way, a new way, a non-violent way to secure peace, shalom, and justice for all people everywhere. And that is very very good!

 

Good Friday and Easter ask, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” The answer, of course, is Yes. Every time we witness an injustice like that which occurred that Friday outside the walls of Jerusalem and we don’t speak out, we are there. As Elie Wiesel and Archbishop Tutu have said over and over again, neutrality, not speaking out, is to side with the oppressor every time. That is how they persist year after year, century after century.

John tells us, “Jesus knew everything that would happen to him.” Seems likely Jesus knew it would not end well. Yet, I suspect even he was surprised on Sunday morning, after the other two disciples had run off to hide behind locked doors with all the rest, to all-of-a-sudden see Mary Magdalene standing, looking at the now empty tomb, descending into grief at having lost the only person who understood her, but still holding her ground, still waiting to see him one last time – the only person who made her feel whole, forgiven, and loved. Not as in being “in love,” mind you, but loved as one of God’s Beloved. Two angels dressed in white in the tomb ask her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”  They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where to find him. She turns around and sees Jesus, but does not recognize him. Then comes my favorite line, as if from an Agatha Christie mystery, “Supposing he was the gardener,” she asks, “Where have you put him, show me and I will take him away!” Try to imagine this once broken and now grieving woman carrying him off all by herself, wrapped up as he is with 100 pounds of aloes!  I imagine Jesus smiling as he realizes, perhaps for the first time, that his appearance was not only surprising, but must have changed. He says only one word. “Mary!”

 

Only one person could say her name like that. She feels whole again. She cries out, “Rabbouni,” which means teacher; teacher, and more than teacher: visionary, one who walks the walk, one who walks in the Way. The text is vague, but it appears as if she lunges at him and grabs onto his feet as if never to let him go again, because he says, “Do not hold onto me as I still have to ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and yours! Tell the boys I am risen, I am ascending, I am going home!” It appears she might have held back his ascension, but instead she becomes the first evangelist, the first sent by God to announce the Good News!

 

Listen, she says. Not only is he not in the tomb, he is no longer dead – dead as we last saw him high on the cross as he breathed his last. Or, as John puts it, “Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” His last most precious gift to the whole world: his ruach, his spirit, his breath. He breathes his last and at once his breath joins with all breath blowing throughout the world, so that when we breathe in, it is a portion of his Spirit that inspires us. We all become the Magdalene. Like her we are changed. We are made whole. He is risen. And so are we!

 

It is just so like Jesus. They did not take his life on the cross. He would not let them. He gave it up so that we all could live with his Spirit in us. How could any thing be more-good than that? How could any day be more-good than that day that he willingly gave up his spirit for us? Every single one of us all around the world! There had never been another day like that ever. There has never been a day like that ever again. Except perhaps that day Dame Julian saw everything, all things, in some-thing the size of a hazelnut. Or, when Martin King went to Memphis to sacrifice his time, his energy and ultimately his life as part of his Poor People’s Campaign on behalf of some 1,300 African-American Sanitation Workers. Or, when Gandhi led the Salt March. When Archbishop Tutu stood firm against Apartheid. When Bonhoeffer returned to confront Naziism in the name of Christ. When John Lewis walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Every time Mother Theresa touched an untouchable and breathed on them the breath of God. Jesus gave up his Spirit, and people like all of them and more have accepted his Spirit as their own.

 

Make no mistake about it, there are those who have used Jesus’s name, who did not take his Spirit upon themselves, and therefore have done great tragic and evil things in his name. Make no mistake about it, when the church became the organizing principle for the Empire of Constantine and beyond, much harm has been done and continues to be done in the name of Jesus. But that he gave up his Spirit and there have been those who have breathed that Spirit not only into their own lives, but into the lives of others, eclipses all of that! That is what makes Good Friday not just good, but very good for all who open themselves to receiving the Spirit he gives up on the cross. That cross that was meant to warn people not to do the things that he had done, but now inspires people not only to do the things that he does, but, as he promises, greater things than these they have done, they still do, and will do forever until the end of time itself.

 

Maundy Thursday, ending in his arrest, was dark and dreary, but the one who is the life and light of the World continued to shine, and still does! The Spirit-Breath of God blows mightily across the land and around the world for any and all who will receive it and become one more person walking in the Way of the Cross – the Cross of Jesus. It is no longer, nor ever will be again, a Roman Cross. He not only redeemed the cross that day on Golgotha, but he offers redemption, forgiveness and love for all who are simply willing to risk breathing in that Spirit he gave up that day for one and for all, now and forever.  

Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen, indeed! Alleluia! And so are we! And so are we!

Amen. So be it! It is truth!

MaundyThursday: Christ, Dying and Living Still

 

Maundy Thursday - “Christ, dying and living still…”

Maundy Thursday, the night of the Last Supper, is made up of what have been described as ‘gestures charged with soul.’ Each gesture is meant to be more shocking than the next. So much so that it is a wonder the disciples did not all pick up and go home that very night in Jerusalem, during the celebration of Passover – that festival that remembers when the Lord God YHWH heard the cry of a disparate group of slaves in Egypt and came to their rescue and to deliver them to a new life of Freedom in covenant with the One God of what would become Israel – those who strive with God. The One of whom our Book of Common Prayer says, “In whose service is perfect freedom.”

 

In 1^st Corinthians 11: 23-26, Paul is reminding one and all that the Eucharist is not some sort of ecumenical high tea, nor is it the kind of bacchanalian mad house that has become the church in Corinth! Paul reminds us that this is a sacrificial meal that proclaims Christ’s death until he comes again. Yes, The Eucharist recalls a final meal before the soon-to-be prisoner Jesus is hauled off to be executed by a merciless local Roman official, but Paul knows it represents a sacrifice on a number of levels. Later this evening when we strip the altar, what will remain is not a dinner table, but a stone slab like that in the Temple upon which animals would be sacrificed. The priest would butcher the animal, drain the blood, burn some parts on the altar and return the rest to the worshiper to eat. The worshipper would be symbolically sharing a meal with God. Jesus, in dramatic fashion, says that he is that meal – that the bread he blesses is his flesh. But he goes one step further in calling all present to drink the blood of his sacrifice, which was strictly forbidden in the dietary rules of Israel. At the very thought of this, the disciples cry out, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” [John 6:60] It is a gesture charged with soul.

 

As we look at the altar when it is stripped, we are to be reminded of the tension between however elegant the dining room may be, it begins in the soil, the barnyard, and in the slaughterhouse. Table manners depend upon something’s having been grabbed by the throat. Now we wrap meat in plastic wrap on a foam tray as if to hide the violence that goes into fixing dinner.  

 

The scandal deepens as John tells the tale in chapter 13, where the shock-effect is heightened when their Lord and Master, the Son of God, strips off his robe, takes up a towel, and gets on his hands and knees to wash their feet – usually the task of the youngest slave or servant in the household. Walking the dusty, rocky roads of Israel to get to Jerusalem from Galilee with bare feet, or sandals at best, would make having your feet bathed feel really really good. Speaking for everyone, however, Peter blurts out, “No, Lord, I should be washing your feet! I won’t let you do this!” Once again rebuking Jesus in front of others. Yet, Jesus insists on making his point – his followers are to be servants to one another and to all whom they meet. We are called to a life of perfect service, acts of faith, to put the interests of others before one’s own, most especially for the poor, widows, orphans, the homeless and sojourners in the land, and even to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. Yet another gesture charged with soul.

 

On Columbia Road in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of the District of Columbia is a statue cast by Jimilu Mason of Jesus, on his knees, ready to wash feet. It sits in front of a building called Christ House, a shelter and medical center for homeless men. In the evening, some of the men sit on benches around the figure of Jesus, watching the traffic and pedestrians pass by. Established by the Church of the Saviour, the men are grateful that there are Christians in our Nation’s Capital who sacrifice time and money to help them experience new life. I know because they have told me so on those nights when I used to play music next door at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room. After setting up my drums, I would ask if I could join them for a while, getting to know them, and resting around this figure of our Lord, on his knees, as if inviting those walking by to rest and let him wash your feet, while reminding one and all of what Jesus chose to do that last night in Jerusalem to remind us what it means to take up your cross and follow him.

 

The final gesture is declared in a New Commandment: “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. … Little children, I am with you only a little longer. … so now, I say to you, `Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a 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.” It is a new mandatum, a new command, a new mandate from which this night gets its name – Maundy Thursday. This final gesture charged with soul lies in the hook: “Just as I have loved you.” Just as I go to lay down my life for you, and for the whole world, you are to offer your entire life as a sacrifice for one another and for the whole world. John’s description of the Last Supper is symbolic of a New Passover that marks the movement from sin to reconciliation, from death to life. Jesus is the Paschal Lamb of the Passover feast, in whose service is perfect freedom.

 

Benedictine monk and priest, Aidan Kavanaugh summed up the Eucharist like this: “His broken body is my broken body upon which others feed. His blood spilled is my blood shed to rejoice the hearts of all! His tomb is mine, and in it others die to rise again. I have become him, the Stranger, and through me he beats the bushes, herding everyone in to dinner by creation’s fireside. His unique Spirit I breathe into each of my sisters and brothers. For he and I have merged by grace into one being, and we abide together for the life of the world.”

        [Aidan Kavanaugh, “Christ, dying and rising still…” in The Sacraments, Alba House, NYC: 1981, p. 271]

 

Later that night, Jesus prays in Gethsemane that the cup of his suffering be taken away, but if it is my Father’s will, then I say “Yes.” The true miracle of that night in Jerusalem is that those present said ‘Yes’ as the bread that is his flesh and the cup of wine that is his blood was passed to them, and that they let him wash their feet. Just as Mary said, “Yes.” Just as Abraham and Sarah had said, “Yes.” Just as Ruth and Naomi said, “Yes.” Just as the Church of the Saviour said, “Yes,” when they built Christ House for homeless men.

 

Gestures charged with soul. Christ, dying and living still. This evening, the last thing we will do on our way out is to pick up off a tray a paper pill cup with the sacrament – a safe practice during this time of the Pandemic. We have just a short time to reflect on the altar stripped bare and all that it represents, but that is enough time to remember what we are saying “Yes” to as we pick up that cup. “Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.” We are called to consider just how much sacrificial love do we mean when we take the cup, look at the bread, and remember all those who have said “Yes” throughout the ages, to become one with the Body of Christ who gives life and light to the whole world. Now it is time once again for us to join with them and say, “Yes,” I too dedicate my whole self to a life of perfect freedom serving others as Christ serves all who come to him for rescue and relief. 

Amen.