Maundy Thursday

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today's Reading: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Welcome to Maundy Thursday, or in other words – commandment Thursday. There are three major themes of tonight’s worship: Jesus invites the disciples to dinner, Jesus washes the disciples feet, and Jesus offers a new commandment. However, perhaps tonight is really just about that new commandment, and the washing and the feeding are just examples of what that commandment might look like.

In tonight’s gospel we heard Jesus say, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). Just as I have loved you.. this is a call to remembrance. Do you remember how Jesus loved during his lifetime? What did Jesus do that revealed the characteristics and the depth of God’s love for us? Well, Jesus: fed people, ate with people that hurt his reputation, healed the sick, blessed the poor, spoke truth to power, offered forgiveness, entered into people’s pain rather than ignoring it.. washed peoples feet, as a servant. Tonight we remember that we were made in love, for love/we were made BY love TO love. We were made for relationship.

Jesus not only commands us to love, but shows us how. Jesus invites us to dinner. All of us, our whole motley crew, have received invitations to be honored and beloved guests at our Lord’s dinner table! What!? God wants to have ME over for dinner?! Yes. And before your brain begins to spiral, No, you don’t have to worry about bringing anything with you. No, there is no dress code; wear what makes you feel the most comfortable in your own skin. No, the menu is not full of mystery items and fancy words you can’t pronounce. But yes – there will be endless amounts of wine.

What I mean is, it doesn’t matter what you look like or how much you have to offer. Beloved Christ invites you to the table just as you are; just as God made you. It doesn’t even matter how worthy you feel to be in the presence of the Holy. Look to your right, who do you see but Judas; the one who betrayed Jesus still had a seat at the table. Look to your left, who do you see but Peter; the one who went from the table and denied THREE times ever even knowing the Lord Jesus still had a seat at the table.

This is the kind of love to which we are called. To love ourselves and to love one another as God loves us IS to keep on loving through the broken and messiness of life. God’s love is perfect. It is not a mistake, not an overlook, not a weakness that Jesus still loved Judas, Peter, and all who had forsaken him. God created us and knows our imperfections more deeply than we even do. Yet, imperfections and all, God kneels before us and washes our feet! Jesus knows that, just like human life, his time on earth is short. Therefore Jesus does these things to reveal how God loves us and to leave us an example for how to share that love one to one another.

At the Lord’s table, we remember that love God shows to us in Christ Jesus. But at the Lord’s table, we are also re-membered. What I mean by this is that when we gather around the table for Christ’s meal, we not only remember what Christ did and said, we are not only reminded of our forgiveness from sin, we are RE-membered to God and one another (re-membered, like reassembled). To give this imagery, do you recall St. Paul’s description of the body of Christ? God is the head and we the people make up all the intricate parts of the human body; continuing on Christ’s physical presence in this world.

The Lord’s Table forms this certain type of community; this body of Christ. At THIS table, we are all equal, we are all filling our cups from the same jug of wine, we are all filling our plates from the same bowls of food; we are fully present in the full presence of our Creator, Savior, and life-giving Lord! At THIS table, we practice reconciliation, hospitality, equality, and radical love for God, self and neighbor. It is here that we learn how to take that love out into the world. It is here that we feast on the reality that we are WHOLE in Christ Jesus. It is here that we feast on the transforming body and blood of Christ himself. And no, I don’t mean that the bread and wine magically turn into literal flesh and blood, but I do mean that there is transformational power in feasting with God.

Science tells us that what we eat and drink, what we put into our bodies, has the power to alter our mood, energy, health, and body shape. So it’s truly not far fetched to believe that by ingesting Holy Communion we are changed from the inside out. Transformed as we remember how Christ’s body was broken for us; how Christ’s blood was shed for us; and how through that act we have the promise of salvation AND the promise that the Holy Spirit remains – residing within us! If we “are what we eat,” then let us be (what Martin Luther called us) ‘Little Christ’s’ in the world!

We are always transformed in our encounters with the divine. Come to the table. Come encounter Christ. Come encounter Christ with all five of your senses! Come remember your salvation and feast on God’s unconditional, never-ending love for you; yes, imperfectly perfect you! Come and be RE-membered to a community called to do a new thing: to love the world with the same unconditional, unbounded, unending love of God as revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Come. Take your seat at the table.