Thursday, March 29, 2018

Maundy Thursday Sermon

God of love, help my love become more tangible, more luminous, more clear today – and every day. Amen.

Tonight we begin ACT I of a 3 ACT story – The Supper, Foot Washing, an agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (of which the Gospel gave us a taste of the foot washing)

Put Love First

It is what Jesus did around the table.
He served them by washing their feet.
He served them by offering the bread and wine.

All of them. All 12.

One would betray him.
One would deny him.
Others would vanish from the scene, when the going got tough.
3 of them could not stay awake and watch with him in the Garden.

And yet, Jesus gave that first communion, the bread and wine, as a way to remember, and he gave it to them all. Just as Passover was built as a reminder of what God had done for the Israelites back in Egypt. The Eucharist is built as a reminder of what God in Jesus has done for us. Not because we have earned it; but as grace. A gift.

For we still betray Jesus. We still deny him. We vanish from the scene when the going gets tough. And when he asks us to stay awake, we don’t.

But Jesus keeps at it. He offers. To all of us. His love.

Put love first – in how we serve others.
Put love first – in how we share communion with one another.
Put love first – just as Jesus has done for us – we are to offer one another & the world.

And he does this, knowing, that all will not be roses. All will not be right.

Not this night.

What started off with such hope. Such love.

Will end. In darkness. In violence.

In Gethsemane.

This is a poem from Mary Oliver.

(Gethsemane by Mary Oliver)

The grass never sleeps.
Or the roses.
Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.

The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,
and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,
and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.

Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did, maybe
the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn’t move,
maybe
the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement,
lay still and waited, wild awake.

Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be a part of the story.

It is part of the story. The disciples don’t get it right.

They could not keep vigil or put love first …They wept, so utterly human.

We all weep, for we are like those disciples, but God doesn’t forget or let us go. In the words of the poet Malcolm Guite

…Here God shows the full extent of love
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search the heavens high above,
The God of love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betray Him, though it is the night.
He meets us here and loves us into light.

Behold this family of God, gathered around these tables, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was
willing to be betrayed. Let our love become more tangible, like the Lord who kneels at our feet – may we put love first in our lives – for God loves us all into the light. Amen.

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