“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.” The liturgy of Maundy Thursday is one of my favorite liturgies of the church year. It is, besides the Easter Vigil, and perhaps surpassing the Vigil, incredibly dramatic.
It’s a liturgy that, at the beginning of the culmination of Lent, starts off in an exciting celebratory way. Usually with incense, and strong hymns, it all seems so good, it feels victorious. By the end of our liturgy, however, as we leave the church in darkness, what felt like a victory, suddenly feels frightening, and empty.
The liturgy for Maundy Thursday is built this way, to put us in the sandals of the disciples. Imagine yourself invited to the wedding feast of the lamb, and when you arrive, the man you know to be the messiah gets on his hands and knees and washes your feet. We usually have a ceremonial foot washing at this service. Because of the current times, we are unable to do that tonight. Those of you who had your feet washed over the years, recall your memories, remember how you felt. For the countless young people who have been on mission trips with me, harken back to the times I washed your feet at the end of those trips. Remember the emotion, remember the prayers that were said, remember the love you felt.
If something so simple as washing someone’s feet can produce such a strong feeling of love, how many other ways can we follow the command of Christ we began with tonight, to love one another as Jesus has loved us. The Last Supper is a critical point in history. It is the action of God, enabling us to offer to God bread, wine, and ourselves, our souls, and our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. God, in turn, offers himself to us in transforming that very bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Which we are to receive, so that we may live unto God, live for God, and be in communion with the Triune God.
Can you imagine Jesus returning in glory to this world? When we imagine that what it is that we think about. Is it the apocalyptic visions we read about in The Revelation to Saint John? Is it a giant-sized Jesus appearing in the skies speaking to the whole world? Is it an army of angels and archangels descending upon the earth reaping the good, and burning the bad? What do you envision Christ’s return to look like? I imagine Christ’s return to look a lot like the Last Supper. I envision Jesus, with rags in his hands, bringing all people to himself, so that he can wash their feet, so that he can once again show us love.
Jesus is not only the author of our salvation; he is the author of love itself. He leaves us with an incredibly important message that was broadcast loud and clear in the early church, and it was responsible for the growth of the early Church. Love each other as he loves us. That is so much more than loving someone as you want to be loved. It means AGAPE love, it means self-giving love, sacrificially giving of self for the sake of others.
Tonight, we remember the last supper, the first Eucharist, the everlasting connection God creates to the Church. The Church is God’s saving grace for a broken and disordered world. As this season of Lent comes to a close, as we anticipate the resurrection of Jesus, Easter, I ask you all, are you ready for a revival?
So many times, we do not know what we have until we lose it. Because of COVID 19, we have lost our ability to come together in worship. We have lost our ability to physically receive the very thing Jesus left for us to be in communion with God, the Eucharist. So, think long and hard about all the times each of us has taken being in church for granted. Think about all those times, we did not want to get up on Sunday morning. Think about all those times we believed ourselves to be in control, and we left God out of our decisions.
We never know what we have until we lose it. Thank God we have not lost it entirely, thank God for the faithfulness of our community. Thank God that His Grace is sufficient to get us through times just like these. Thank God, when this time in the wilderness has passed, the people of God will experience a revival of faithfulness, a revival of reliance on God for their needs, and a revival of love. The Church was born at the Last Supper; today, in a real way, she is beginning to rise out of the ashes like a phoenix. It is time to double down on Jesus and to double down on faith, it is time to reform this Church into an image of Christ, by loving each other, and our community as he loves us.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Christian M. Wood
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
Maundy Thursday
9 April 2020