Why is this night different from all other nights?

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Our first lesson for Maundy Thursday from Exodus 12 gives instructions for celebrating Passover, the foundational event for the entire Bible. At the traditional Passover Seder Meal today, a guest, usually the youngest person at the table able to do so, asks, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” As the story of the Passover and the story of Jesus are inextricably linked throughout the gospels and our liturgies, the question for this year’s Maundy Thursday: Why is this Maundy Thursday different from all other Maundy Thursdays?

As we gaze upon the stripped altar, all decoration removed from the sanctuary, lights dimmed, even for this Spiritual Pilgrimage we call Covid-19 Coronavirus it all looks stark and spare. Which may not be a such a bad thing. We usually end up at this place, tonight we start here. We usually listen to the lessons, a sermon, wash each other’s feet, and celebrate Holy Communion. In this time of Coronavirus, we hear the lessons and move directly to Stripping the Altar.

We start here because the things we usually do that we think “require” all the things now missing we cannot do in the reality of our virtual worship while we self-isolate, self-quarantine and practice Compassionate Distancing: the ritual washing of feet and Holy Communion. We are reminded of that night before Good Friday in storyteller John’s account of the Last Supper, where all focus is on Jesus washing his disciple’s feet, insisting, against Peter’ s protest, that he must do this, taking the form of a servant. Foot washing was the job of the youngest household servant or slave.

John’s account in chapter 13 and following is unique in that although it is comprised of several long chapters there is not one single mention of bread and wine, body and blood. Which is precisely where we find ourselves on this night and where we will be until Governor Hogan lifts the Stay At Home regulations. So, this night is different than all other Maundy Thursdays in that we can neither wash feet nor share in Holy Communion. What we can do is ponder just why John and Jesus feature the washing of feet so prominently?

The answer lies in the name for this night in Holy Week: Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum, which means commandment. Jesus issues a new commandment: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. It may not seem so new. We have heard it so many times we have domesticated it and neutered it of its power. As we ponder this command and gaze on the stark rawness of our marble altar we begin to see that this New Commandment takes us beyond the Second Great Commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The newness lies in the words “as I have loved you.”

Can we begin to understand just how much God in Christ, how much the Word made flesh, loves us? I say ‘us’ since the Greek word for “you” in the text is plural, not singular. English fails us at times like this, and our cultural bias toward individualism takes over. In the American South this might sound something more like this: Just as I have loved y’all, y’all also should love one another!

There is a similar text in Matthew chapter 11 that captures another sense of what was going on around that dinner table the night before Jesus was executed: “28 Come to me, all you that are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give y’all rest. 29 Take my yoke upon y’all, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

As it is with the current pandemic, we are to be reminded that so it was that night long ago as Jesus got on his hands and knees and washed our feet: we are all in this together. And what we are in is God’s love, God’s agape love and charity. Faith, Hope, and Love abide these three; the greatest of this is Agape Love – Agape Love is the Love of God for humankind, and our Love for God. We are to be washed into loving all humanity with the same charitable love God has for all of us – all of us who make up “y’all”!

Though we often forget that God’s Agape love is for all of us, the revealed strength of this marble altar upon which we fix our gaze means to remind us that God’s love for all is steadfast, immovable, and unyielding. So it is that the priest strips off all adornments that seek to soften our view, to reveal the solid strength that lies beneath all the decoration we think makes it more pleasing to the eye. Lest we forget, this night is different in that we reveal the essence of what stands before us night and day, week after week: the solid rock of a sacrificial altar. Jesus is that Sold Rock. As Bob Dylan sings it,

“Well, I'm hangin' on/

To a solid rock/

Made

 before

the foundation

of

the world/

And I won't let go, and I can't let go/

Won't let go and I can't let go/

Won't let go and I can't let go no more!”

And tonight is not like all other nights and Sunday mornings in that instead of using the water and wine for communion, we wash the altar with the water and blood that storyteller John will tomorrow describe as pouring forth from our Lord’s pierced side – a sign of his final emptying of himself to take the form of a servant as Paul describes it. Marble altars often have crosses engraved in surface of its top in all four corners and in the center. The priest pours the wine and then the water on those five crosses as a reminder to us all the length to which God has gone to say, I love you – I love all of you – Love one another as I love all of you. I empty myself this night and hand over the love I have for all people to all of you to convey to all the others – all others – the Agape Love I have for all people everywhere throughout all time.

We see the wine and water poured, but this night there is no bread. Once again as on Palm Sunday, the altar is revealed for what it really is – a place of sacrifice, not a dinner table. When looking on altars such as ours we are to be reminded of the sacrifice made in Christ’s ongoing attempts to unite us as one people – his invitation into At-One-Ment with the source of God’s Agape Love. For we all come from the source of God’s Agape Love, and we all return to the source of God’s Agape Love – just as during this supper Jesus knew that he had come from God and was going to God – and so he invites us to be the ongoing source of this Agape Love throughout all the world throughout all time. We Come from Love. We Return to Love. And Love is All Around.

My sisters, my brothers –

We are the Love that is all around!

Jesus calls us to follow him

so that we might do something beautiful with our lives

and bear much fruit.

The World needs us.

The Church needs us.

Jesus needs us.

They need our power and our light.

Know that there is a hidden place in our hearts

where Jesus lives.

This is a deep secret we are called to live.

Let Jesus live in among us.

Go forward with Him.

Let him wash your feet tonight.

Feel just how good it feels to be touched by Jesus.

To have him pour water over your tired feet and dry them with a towel.

And know that when the Sacrament of His Body and Blood is not available as we travel virtually through this Spiritual Pilgrimage,

He is still present with us

As he promises

To the end of the Age.

“For we, sisters and brothers, are the Body of Christ.

His broken body is our broken body upon which others feed.

His blood spilled is our blood shed to rejoice the hearts of all.

His tomb is ours, and in it others die to rise again.

Even now we are becoming him.

When once again you hold his body in your hand, it is to this we say “Amen,” before we receive what we have become.” *

For this night is different from all other nights!

And we are made different and new being here together,

Gazing upon The Solid Rock of our Existence:

Christ the Lord.

Amen.

*Aidan Kavenaugh, Christ, Dying and Living Still