More than remembering

A sermon preached on Maundy Thursday, April 17 at St. Augustine's Church, Wiesbaden

Exodus 12:1-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-17, 31b-35, Psalm 116:1, 10-17

Why is Maundy Thursday called Maundy Thursday? Does anyone know? Well, the name comes from the Latin ‘Mandatum’ meaning command or commandment, we can still recognize this in words like mandatory or mandate. And as we heard, all three readings contained commands or commandments, in fact our last reading from the Gospel according to John ended with Jesus giving the disciples a new commandment as his farewell gift.

But let’s begin at the beginning: In the Exodus passage about the first Passover, that night when  God passes over the Israelites striking only the Egyptians with the 10^th, last and worst plague: the death of the firstborn, the Lord also commands the people of Israel to remember this event by celebrating Passover every year. It is to be a day of remembrance and a festival to the Lord. The Israelites are to commemorate this event not just with readings and prayers, but by eating the same food that the exiles ate in Egypt on that first Passover night, just before leaving: lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. This is how Jews still celebrate Passover today, with the so-called ritual Seder meal that includes retelling the story of the Exodus, eating matza – unleavened bread – and partaking of symbolic foods. I was able to take part in a Seder meal while at seminary, which has been very helpful in making me more aware of our common heritage.

Then in the reading from the 1^st Letter to the Corinthians Paul retells the story of the Last Supper, that last common meal before Jesus’ arrest and execution, and he reminds the Corinthians that Christ instituted the repetition of this meal as a perpetual remembrance – do this in remembrance of me he told the disciples when he broke and gave the bread and took and shared the cup. At this church we follow this command every week in the Eucharist, our ritual meal, which includes retelling the story of that first thanksgiving meal before the passion and partaking of bread and wine.

Finally in John’s Gospel we heard how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet during that Last Supper and that he commands them to wash one another’s feet following the example he has set. That is what we will do later in this service too when I wash your feet acting as the servant all Christian leaders are also supposed to be.

Tonight we have had a common and simple meal together, we have retold the stories of the Exodus and of the Last Supper, and later we will wash one another’s feet and share communion. So presumably we deserve a big pat on the back as we have we done everything the Lord has commanded us to do? I’m afraid not. There is of course more to these commands than just the active remembrance of a common meal, or a visible act of service, or the myriad rituals that have developed around these very simple acts. They stand for something much deeper, with much more commitment, and that is much more difficult to keep.

The Passover meal is not only a reminder of how God liberated the Israelites and it is not just a way of participating in that escape from Pharaoh’s dominion. It is also the command to be ready to depart at a moment’s notice, to be ready to leave your home and possessions behind, to be ready to change your life if that is what God commands you to do.  The Israelites were to eat the Passover meal with their loins girded, that is with their lower garments or robe pulled up and tied between their legs so as not to trip themselves up, and with their sandals on. This should have been easy for the Israelites to do, after all they were being oppressed and very unfairly treated in Egypt. But somehow they had learned to become comfortable even with a bad situation and the risk of change seemed greater. And of course their experiences in the wilderness were not just positive, their forty year trek was no comfortable package holiday, and they came close to dying of hunger and thirst at times. But in the end they reached the Promised Land.

The Eucharist is also much more than remembering and reenacting Christ’s last meal with his disciples. What we do, Paul tells us, is to proclaim the Lord’s death to the world and all that Jesus’ death stands for. We proclaim his death as a great saving act of love. We announce that through his death and through his sacrifice death and death’s allies in the world were, are, and will be defeated. And now comes the difficult bit - we promise that we will act in the same way, that we too are willing to sacrifice something for love - perhaps not always our whole lives, but certainly some part of them. In the verses immediately following this passage, Paul goes on to warn the Corinthians that if they “eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,” (1 Corinthians 11:27) that is without real love for one another, they are not celebrating the Eucharist Christ instituted and instead are eating and drinking judgment against themselves. (11:29)

The foot washing episode echoes the prologue of John’s Gospel. Jesus takes off his clothes to act as a servant or slave just as the Word laid aside clothes of glory to become human. Jesus washes the disciples’ feet not despite being God’s Son, but because he has come from God. His actions are a sign of that even greater sacrifice that will follow the next day. What the disciples and we are called to imitate is not just the example of washing feet or other menial acts of servitude. The example or pattern we are called to imitate is Jesus’ whole life, way, and manner: Love one another as I have loved you. And show this love, for example in acts of hospitality like foot washing. Be focused on the other, not yourself.

For me ritual reenactments on days like today are like training sessions. When we act out the sign or symbol and reenact the event, we make the event and what it stands for real and present in our lives and we practice what that sign stands for. And Passover and the Last Supper stand for being ready and willing to dedicate our lives to God and to serving and loving all of God’s children, just as God did and does and always will do.

Amen.