Friday, 2 April 2021

SERMON 156 - THURSDAY 2 APRIL 2021

 Sermon on Maundy Thursday -  Clarendon Team Online Service  –  Thursday 1st April 2021

Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-7, 31b-35

There can be no doubt that this year, as with last, this important service in our Christian Year, Maundy Thursday, has to take on a strange and unusual form as we celebrate it together online.  Normally, we are familiar with the physical aspects of this service which give us such a vivid imagery of what took place on that evening immediately before that first Good Friday – the washing of feet, the partaking of bread and wine and the vigil in the garden – all real and actual physical elements of those important events.

Whilst we cannot do anything of these things together this year, we can, nevertheless, reflect strongly on their significance and the words associated with them.  In our Gospel reading John reminds us of Jesus’s words to Peter when he demanded that Jesus wash all of him, of Jesus’s revelation that one of those who was going to sit at the table and eat and drink with him at the last supper was to betray him.  We all know the story so well, I dare say, but have we ever thought to really reflect how these words connect with us today?  How the disciples must have felt to hear them and the disbelief and anguish they suffered after Jesus was arrested?

Let’s look a little closer at each of these elements.

The washing of feet.  This was usually the task of the lowliest person in a household – an unpleasant task as the feet, however clean the rest of person might be, would still be rather dirty and smelly as their owner had trudged through the dusty dirty streets in open sandals to reach the house of their host. The host would therefore arrange for somebody to undertake this task so that the guest would be completely clean. Jesus is thereby reminding his disciples that he came into the world to serve, not to be served and implores his disciples to likewise serve each other.  We are his modern day disciples and we too are expected to act humbly and serve one another. We no longer wash the feet of our guests because we have rather more sophisticated footwear these days but there are many other ways in which we can show our humility and service – by giving our time and money, without detriment to our family, to help others.  During this past year of the pandemic it has been wonderful to see so many doing just that by helping those who find it difficult to get out or who have struggled in other ways.

However, this story of the feet washing has another major point to illustrate. Peter, once more, doesn’t really understand what Jesus is trying to portray. He asks Jesus to wash him all over thinking that he, in allowing Jesus to do this, is currying favour with him by allowing him to do this and fully cleansing him.  As mentioned before, it would be expected that the guest had cleaned himself up already before attending upon his host except for the feet which, of the necessity of travel, would have become dirty. That is why Jesus says “You have no need of further washing if the rest of you is clean” and then goes on to reveal his knowledge of his forthcoming betrayal when he says “but not all of you are clean”. A clear reference to Judas Iscariot’s complicity. 

The bread and wine. We are informed in the bible that after the meal was concluded Jesus took the bread and wine and this was shared out amongst the disciples.  In our Epistle reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us of the words spoken by Jesus as he did so. He reminds us that the bread and wine are symbols of his soon to be broken body and shed blood.  Of course those words are very familiar to all of us as part of the Liturgy for the Eucharist or Holy Communion.  As we normally go up to the Altar to receive them during the Holy Communion service these words are repeated as the bread and the wine are administered to us.  Today that cannot happen because of the Covid-19 restrictions.  However, I would like to suggest a good way of using these elements to remember the great sacrifice he made for us.

Back in those times, wine, corn/wheat and oil were often the means by which people were paid for their labours. These were essential – corn or wheat to make bread, oil as fuel and wine as purified water. Every day people would eat bread and drink wine – a common every-day and essential occurrence. In asking his disciples to remember his sacrifice on the cross each and every day of their remaining lives he took those everyday necessities and used them to symbolise his forthcoming fate. Likewise, as his modern day disciples so should we remember him in our everyday lives and be in communion with him; not just when we take the sacraments in church on a Sunday or at a formal church or worship service but every time we sit down with our families and/or fellow Christians to eat and drink. Meal times were very important to Jesus, he loved a good party or feast, and similarly to the early Christians as we read in Acts how those early Christians met in each other’s home to break bread and presumably also drink wine remembering Jesus’s sacrifice as they did so.

At Passover celebrations in the Jewish faith, an empty chair is set aside for Elijah at the meal table, who, it is believed, will return to join in those Passover remembrances one day in the future.  It is therefore very significant that Jesus’s trial and execution occurred at around that time of year when the Passover is celebrated and why Jesus used that special supper as the occasion to meet with his disciples and tell them what was about to happen. The symbolism is massive but at the same time simple and ordinary.  That is how Jesus wants us to remember him and have a relationship with him – in our everyday lives as a fellow diner with us.  In many traditions, for example in the navy, during or after a meal there is a toast to absent family members, friends and fellow serving officers and ratings – to remember them and feel close to them.  Jesus wants us to feel close to him too at those times.

The vigil in the garden. The third element of the Maundy Thursday services is the vigil in the garden. In past years many of our churches have gone to wonderful efforts to make these gardens inside our churches so realistic to enable us to re-enact the time Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples in order to pray to his Father before he was arrested, tried and executed.  He asked only one thing of his disciples, minus of course Judas, and that was that they stay awake with him.  Of course we know that they fell asleep!  If any of you have undertaken the vigil on Maundy Thursday you may have yourself started to nod off.  I have to confess that I have. In a way that was also a betrayal of Jesus, and, as we afterwards learn, they also denied their involvement with him and/or ran away.  It is a reminder that we should at all times be vigilant in our Faith, to be alongside him as he is alongside us – remember when Jesus said to his disciples – “you know not when the thief may come in the middle of the night”.  It is yet another reminder that our Faith should never be put away in a box to bring out on Sundays or on special occasions, but that we should to awake to his presence with us at all times.

As we move forward in our Easter remembrances and celebrations, hopefully with family and friends as much as we can, let us apply all of these elements to our thinking and remembrance of the great sacrifice which Jesus made for all of us, atoning for our sins and the great debt we owe to Him every day of our lives.

Amen                                      MFB/156/31032021

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