March 24, 2016 - Holy Week - Maundy Thursday

Today, once again, is the time we acknowledge the beginning of the final journey of our Lord and Maundy Thursday begins our three day, three part service of Holy Week. This day commemorates the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and established the Eucharist. “Mandatum novum do vobis” (“a new commandment I give to you”) is the command given by Christ at the Last Supper, that we should love one another.

On Maundy Thursday, we gathered for foot washing and communion. This is, of course, how the Passover Meal began for the disciples according to John 13:1-17. As they entered the upper room and sat at the table for the meal, Jesus stood up and went to each disciple with a basin and towel. He symbolically and literally took on the role of a servant as he washed the disciples feet.

Having your feet washed can be a humbling and awe-inspiring experience. Each time I have chosen to participate the experience that was hard to label.  Honoring a holiness within each of us as individuals might be one way to put the experience at least partly into words.  I believe I saw it in Debi's face, for one, this evening.

Loving  & Serving Others

To expose your feet in all their “glory” and actually have someone wash and dry them is pretty amazing. Many of us can be embarrassed by the state of their feet. I can’t imagine that our feet are any worse than the state the disciples feet were in!  I know it was a blessing for those who were willing to be humble and wash and perform what some may consider a sacrament (although, as a church, Lutherans do not).

In past years there has been one thing in the Maundy Thursday service that has brought me close to tears.  One year it was a very personal confession of our Pastor.  As I heard her confess, I saw all the opportunities that slip away from all of us and how often I personally miss the mark. It is so easy to simply crowd the mind and spirit away from others and focus on something else.

Another year, in 2008, Creator's communion on Holy Thursday was particularly amazing.  I reflected on the small group gathered to share the meal that commemorated that supper in the upper room so long ago.

In this evening's worship, there were emotional and devotional moments throughout the service starting with the sermon.  Pastor Michelle preached about two stories about breaking down barriers.

One was a story told by Francois Clemmons about his experiences on the children’s TV program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and how meaningful it was to have his feet in the water with Fred Rogers who also helped him dry his feet.  A very powerful story and the link is offered for you to follow it.

The other story related to this Thursday as an anniversary.  On March 24 1980, a car stopped outside the Church of the Divine Providence. A lone gunman stepped out and, resting his rifle on the car door, he aimed carefully down the long aisle to where El Salvador's archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was saying mass. A single shot rang out. Romero staggered and fell. The blood pumped from his heart.  Pastor Michelle talked about how Romero was inspired by, and in turn inspired, those who worked to help the poor in El Salvador.

Katie gave the readings from Exodus and Corinthians,  The Gospel, of course, was John 13:1-17, 34-36 ending with the new commandment.

The commandment is global but even applying this locally is challenging. For me church is the foundation of where this kind of love begins. I think about how close so many people in our congregation are to each other and yet it is challenging to be truly loving and a part of one another's lives.

The repetition of My God, my God, O why have you abandoned me? in Marty Haugen's My God, My God triggered a deep contemplation for me and tonight lyrics repeated over and over in my head again as I left worship.  My mind was on where our nation and modern culture appears to be at this moment, spiritually and politically.

The lyrics are from the Joni Mitchell song, The Three Great Stimulants:

I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence  

It is said that the apostle John, at the end of his life- frail, blind, nearly deaf, and senile- would be lovingly carried on a bed into the meetings of the Christian community.  All he would say was ‘Love one another… Love one another…’ Over, and over, and over.  Jesus had taught and given the commandment  John was the last person alive who had been at that last supper.  He had heard it said;.  He saw it lived.  He stood at the cross, watched Jesus die, for years had taken care of Jesus’ mother and, at the end of his life, he wanted us to remember that one thing.

Dante Alighieri begins his epic poem the Commedia Divina--Divine Comedy on Maundy Thursday and today I think about this in relationship with the command to love one another.

Most of us, when we read Dante, focus on the Inferno. There is a palpable feel to the images we encounter in this first part of the Divine Comedy. However a few lines from the Paradiso captures a perspective and depth to Jesus’ commandment that I continually find difficult to completely apprehend and live in my heart.  I first blogged about on Maundy Thursday, April, 2006 after just reading Dante in the first part of that year. The lines that struck me as commenting on the commandment Jesus gives us were:

O grace abundant, by which I presumed
To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal,
So that the seeing I consumed therein! 

I saw that in its depth far down is lying
Bound up with love together in one volume,
What through the universe in leaves is scattered;

Substance, and accident, and their operations,
All interfused together in such wise
That what I speak of is one simple light.

The universal fashion of this knot
Methinks I saw, since more abundantly
In saying this I feel that I rejoice.


With these lines in mind Jesus' commandment to love one another illuminates my thoughts and how I view the world and the people around me.

We act from an assumption of a constant scarcity of resources. This is how life appears, particularly when the theory of evolution with the root's of Thomas Malthus and his "Principle of Population".where we all compete for life and resources. What we are given is divided between us.  The constant questions are the justice and fairness of the division.

Jesus, in this one commandment, shatters this assumption. As Dante writes, what through the universe in leaves is scattered will be “bound up with love together in one volume”. Loving one another as unique pages, each necessary for the whole volume, is now at the heart of the commandment for me. To lose one page is to diminish the relationship of our universe with God. There is a new meaning and urgency to this commandment today that challenges me to put into practice what goes against what might be the 'common sense' of scarcity.

Love one another… Love one another..