Maundy Thursday
by The Reverend Martha Frances
Year C, Maundy Thursday
5 April 2007
Text: John 13: 1-17, 31b-35, Exodus 12:1-4[5-10]11-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
"Anamnesis" is a strange Greek word, but the concept of anamnesis ties the scriptures together on this night so holy in so many ways. Anamnesis is the act of remembering, but this is not the sort of passive memory trip we take with a high school buddy when we meet in the grocery store or a glimpse back at our grandmother's kitchen when at the bakery counter we smell the same kind of cookies she baked.
Anamnesis is the active re-membering/re-embodying which our Jewish brothers & sisters did this past Monday night around their family Seder tables as they re-created in story & action & breaking bread together the first Passover, the story we read from Exodus tonight. Anamnesis is a particularly important experience created anew in each generation as though it were happening in the present.
In the preparation for a Seder, the Jewish family cleans the house thoroughly, prepares the food to be Kosher with special dishes & tableware used only this week of the whole year, sets a special Seder plate with a shank bone, bitter herbs, salt water, a roasted egg, & parsley, & gathers the same Haggadah—the liturgical telling of the story of the first Passover, part of which we heard tonight. Although the original Egyptian slaves had to prepare & consume their Passover meal quickly in order to be on their journey, the Seder meal now takes a whole evening with the prepared liturgy of the story plus games & songs for the children. As Theresa Comstock & I participated in an interfaith Seder last week, we experienced "anamnesis"—the passage from death in Egypt to life as a pilgrim people began again vividly.
This story of God's presence & God's love for the people really defines what it is to be Jewish even today. Further, the Passover story identifies in part the God we worship today, the God whom we know most definitively through Jesus Christ.
Jesus was being a good Jew in celebrating Seder with his family of disciples during his Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Of course, we see the origins of our Eucharist in this familiar Jewish festival meal. Our reading from 1 Corinthians today includes the idea of anamnesis when Jesus mandates his disciples to eat the bread & drink the wine in remembrance of him & of their night together. "Maundy" in the name for this day is taking from Jesus' command or mandate to his disciples to keep the ceremony alive in remembrances—anamnesis.
We remember that Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins in our Eucharist, the sacrament we celebrate twice weekly here at Hope. Tonight we celebrate this meal, awed by the gift Jesus gives us in becoming the body broken & the blood poured out for us. In Holy Eucharist, we re-enact Jesus' actions in taking a loaf of bread, giving thanks & breaking it, & then sharing it with his disciples. Each time we gather for this sacrament, we are creating "anamnesis"—experiencing once again this intimate meal with Jesus & the first disciples. Anamnesis—remembrance.
Notice that the gospel of John has no description of the meal shared but rather a ritual strange to us today: footwashing. Jesus mandated we do this rite in remembrance of him, too, yet only this once a year do we fulfill his commandment.
Jesus washed the disciples' feet in a culture where footwashing was usual, performed by the servants for the guests who had been traveling by foot wearing sandals. Jesus modeled for us servant leadership & then told us that we are called to care for one another in much the same way. In a culture where bathing is a regular & private activity (unless you have preschoolers for whom privacy is severely compromised), we have little reason to perform this particular activity for anyone over the age of 2, yet it is Jesus' willingness to provide the most basic creature-comforts for those who have traveled with him which is most striking. Our footwashing ritual tonight is another instance of anamnesis—recreating Jesus' act of self-giving to his disciples.
Becoming community as Jesus' disciples were community is at the heart of Jesus' mandates on this last night with his disciples. Becoming community so that we may grow & be nourished to pass on God's love to others is what we've been about at Hope for the past 2 years, & our finding ways to strengthen our community so we can follow Jesus' mandate in our lives is how we develop our identity & service in our larger world.
Jesus leaves us with another mandate at the close of this passage, the new commandment to love one another just as Jesus has loved the original disciples and also loves us. Jesus actually says our love for others is what should give away our identity as his disciples. St. Augustine said that a community becomes a community when it is united in love. That love can be life-giving or death-dealing depending on what it is we really love. If we love our own group to the exclusion of others, we are not being Christ-like. What groups are we tempted to exclude in our world today? Jews? Muslims? Homeless people? Those with physical or mental challenges? Homosexuals? Those with a prison record? Folks from New Orleans? Those who hold different political or religious views? There are some folks it's just not comfortable or convenient to love, is it? The realization that Jesus loves that person we most fear or dislike as much as Jesus loves you or me is just plain frustrating. But it's the truth: we're all precious in God's eyes. Who are we called to treat as honored guests in our lives?
Tonight begins the 3-day ritual which we call the Triduum, for we cannot separate this unified set of commemorations beginning tonight & concluding on Sunday, the feast of the Resurrection. Tomorrow our service is ecumenical when we share the reenactment of Jesus' way to the cross, time on the cross, death & burial with other Christians in our own neighborhood. Be here at noon for that powerful service & at 1:00 or at 6:30 for the Stations of the Cross once more this year. Then on Saturday evening, the beginning of the First Day of the Week, we recall the story of our salvation beginning with creation—anamnesis. Then we welcome new Christians into our community as well as the worldwide fellowship of Christians with the sacrament of baptism. The community needs to be present at 6:30 in the evening to welcome new life into the community as the newly baptized. The vigil doesn't really end until sunrise on Easter morning when we complete the vigil with the sacrament of Holy Eucharist once again as Easter people. Our sunrise service on Sunday is at 7:00 a.m., & the complete Easter Eucharist occurs at 10:30. We are a family, a Christian community. Come celebrate as many of our worship opportunities as you can. Then, for 50 days, we will bask in the light of Christ risen & ask ourselves how we can reach out into the world as Easter people.
Year C, Maundy Thursday
5 April 2007
Text: John 13: 1-17, 31b-35, Exodus 12:1-4[5-10]11-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
"Anamnesis" is a strange Greek word, but the concept of anamnesis ties the scriptures together on this night so holy in so many ways. Anamnesis is the act of remembering, but this is not the sort of passive memory trip we take with a high school buddy when we meet in the grocery store or a glimpse back at our grandmother's kitchen when at the bakery counter we smell the same kind of cookies she baked.
Anamnesis is the active re-membering/re-embodying which our Jewish brothers & sisters did this past Monday night around their family Seder tables as they re-created in story & action & breaking bread together the first Passover, the story we read from Exodus tonight. Anamnesis is a particularly important experience created anew in each generation as though it were happening in the present.
In the preparation for a Seder, the Jewish family cleans the house thoroughly, prepares the food to be Kosher with special dishes & tableware used only this week of the whole year, sets a special Seder plate with a shank bone, bitter herbs, salt water, a roasted egg, & parsley, & gathers the same Haggadah—the liturgical telling of the story of the first Passover, part of which we heard tonight. Although the original Egyptian slaves had to prepare & consume their Passover meal quickly in order to be on their journey, the Seder meal now takes a whole evening with the prepared liturgy of the story plus games & songs for the children. As Theresa Comstock & I participated in an interfaith Seder last week, we experienced "anamnesis"—the passage from death in Egypt to life as a pilgrim people began again vividly.
This story of God's presence & God's love for the people really defines what it is to be Jewish even today. Further, the Passover story identifies in part the God we worship today, the God whom we know most definitively through Jesus Christ.
Jesus was being a good Jew in celebrating Seder with his family of disciples during his Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Of course, we see the origins of our Eucharist in this familiar Jewish festival meal. Our reading from 1 Corinthians today includes the idea of anamnesis when Jesus mandates his disciples to eat the bread & drink the wine in remembrance of him & of their night together. "Maundy" in the name for this day is taking from Jesus' command or mandate to his disciples to keep the ceremony alive in remembrances—anamnesis.
We remember that Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins in our Eucharist, the sacrament we celebrate twice weekly here at Hope. Tonight we celebrate this meal, awed by the gift Jesus gives us in becoming the body broken & the blood poured out for us. In Holy Eucharist, we re-enact Jesus' actions in taking a loaf of bread, giving thanks & breaking it, & then sharing it with his disciples. Each time we gather for this sacrament, we are creating "anamnesis"—experiencing once again this intimate meal with Jesus & the first disciples. Anamnesis—remembrance.
Notice that the gospel of John has no description of the meal shared but rather a ritual strange to us today: footwashing. Jesus mandated we do this rite in remembrance of him, too, yet only this once a year do we fulfill his commandment.
Jesus washed the disciples' feet in a culture where footwashing was usual, performed by the servants for the guests who had been traveling by foot wearing sandals. Jesus modeled for us servant leadership & then told us that we are called to care for one another in much the same way. In a culture where bathing is a regular & private activity (unless you have preschoolers for whom privacy is severely compromised), we have little reason to perform this particular activity for anyone over the age of 2, yet it is Jesus' willingness to provide the most basic creature-comforts for those who have traveled with him which is most striking. Our footwashing ritual tonight is another instance of anamnesis—recreating Jesus' act of self-giving to his disciples.
Becoming community as Jesus' disciples were community is at the heart of Jesus' mandates on this last night with his disciples. Becoming community so that we may grow & be nourished to pass on God's love to others is what we've been about at Hope for the past 2 years, & our finding ways to strengthen our community so we can follow Jesus' mandate in our lives is how we develop our identity & service in our larger world.
Jesus leaves us with another mandate at the close of this passage, the new commandment to love one another just as Jesus has loved the original disciples and also loves us. Jesus actually says our love for others is what should give away our identity as his disciples. St. Augustine said that a community becomes a community when it is united in love. That love can be life-giving or death-dealing depending on what it is we really love. If we love our own group to the exclusion of others, we are not being Christ-like. What groups are we tempted to exclude in our world today? Jews? Muslims? Homeless people? Those with physical or mental challenges? Homosexuals? Those with a prison record? Folks from New Orleans? Those who hold different political or religious views? There are some folks it's just not comfortable or convenient to love, is it? The realization that Jesus loves that person we most fear or dislike as much as Jesus loves you or me is just plain frustrating. But it's the truth: we're all precious in God's eyes. Who are we called to treat as honored guests in our lives?
Tonight begins the 3-day ritual which we call the Triduum, for we cannot separate this unified set of commemorations beginning tonight & concluding on Sunday, the feast of the Resurrection. Tomorrow our service is ecumenical when we share the reenactment of Jesus' way to the cross, time on the cross, death & burial with other Christians in our own neighborhood. Be here at noon for that powerful service & at 1:00 or at 6:30 for the Stations of the Cross once more this year. Then on Saturday evening, the beginning of the First Day of the Week, we recall the story of our salvation beginning with creation—anamnesis. Then we welcome new Christians into our community as well as the worldwide fellowship of Christians with the sacrament of baptism. The community needs to be present at 6:30 in the evening to welcome new life into the community as the newly baptized. The vigil doesn't really end until sunrise on Easter morning when we complete the vigil with the sacrament of Holy Eucharist once again as Easter people. Our sunrise service on Sunday is at 7:00 a.m., & the complete Easter Eucharist occurs at 10:30. We are a family, a Christian community. Come celebrate as many of our worship opportunities as you can. Then, for 50 days, we will bask in the light of Christ risen & ask ourselves how we can reach out into the world as Easter people.
posted by
Hope Episcopal Church
at 9:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home