Preached on Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010 at Christ & Saint Stephen's Church. Lectionary readings this sermon is based on can be found by clicking here.
There are different traditions surrounding Maundy Thursday. A few different theological strains that are interwoven in this evening’s service. The name the English use for this day – and which we Episcopalians have adopted – is our first indication of one of these ideas. Maundy Thursday. The word Maundy is thought to derive from the Latin word mandatum or commandment. The commandment referred to is the one found in John’s gospel, chapter 13, verse 34. Jesus said to the disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
That verse of John’s gospel doesn’t appear in our gospel reading today. The ancient church included it in the Maundy Thursday liturgy as an antiphon. We’ll hear it this evening sung by the choir in a setting by Richard Shepherd as our Offertory Anthem.
Scholars see the mandatum, the new commandment, as Jesus explaining, giving voice to the action he has just undertaken in washing his disciples’ feet which we just read about in our gospel reading for Maundy Thursday. So, on this night we commemorate both the words and actions of Jesus in his humble service of love and comfort to his disciples.
And as Jesus does, so we are to do. We are called to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, we are to serve one another, we are to offer comfort and solace in whatever humble way we can to those who hunger for God’s love and God’s justice.
Another emphasis on Maundy Thursday is establishment of the Holy Eucharist. In the chronology of Holy Week, it is on this day that the Last Supper was held at which Jesus told us to take bread and wine, bless it and eat it in his memory. And in our readings tonight, we have one of the earliest accounts of that first Eucharist. As you know, the earliest Christian writings are the letters of Paul – they were written before the gospels and in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians which we just heard read, we hear the familiar words which we’ll hear again in a few moments as Mother Liles prays the Eucharistic prayer.
“This is my body, which is given for you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you; Take, eat; Drink this all of you; Do this for the remembrance of me.”
Our God gives us the food we need, the sustenance we require to carry out his mission to the world. We are fed by a holy food in order that we may do holy work in the world. We are fed upon the very body, the very blood of Jesus Christ, so that we can become that body in our own time, and in our own place.
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Earlier this week, Bishop Sisk gathered together all the bishops and priests of the diocese at a special celebration at the Cathedral. The Mass of Collegiality and the Renewal of Vows takes place on Holy Tuesday each year. At this service, all the priests and bishops present renew their ordination vows to love and serve God, and God’s people. The bishop consecrates the Oil of Chrism which we’ll use at baptism for the rest of the year beginning with a baptism Saturday night at the Great Vigil of Easter. A bit of the bread that the bishop consecrates at the Eucharist was given to each of the priests to bring home to their parishes. We’ll drop a small bit of this bread in the chalice tonight, and thereby we will celebrate our bishop’s unity with us and our fealty to him; our membership with him in the body of Christ.
The subject of the bishop's sermon was the shepherd ministry that those in holy orders are to carry out among the flock which God has called us to tend. In his sermon at the Mass of Collegiality, the bishop said, “The whole point of shepherding is not the shepherd; it is the flock… The point of keeping the flock is so that the sheep can produce that which they were intended to produce. That is to say, a life richly lived, a life lived and offered to the glory of God… the community of faith is called to work for that world of justice where the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginal can find a welcome, and a society that offers to them the dignity that all people are due.”
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In a moment you will be invited to come forward and have your feet washed, then you will be invited to the Lord’s table to be fed on his body and to drink of his blood. Once comforted and fed, you will be asked to go and do likewise, to comfort and feed those in need of comfort and food. As Christ’s body in this world, you are asked to work for justice, to welcome the disenfranchised and marginalized, to respect the dignity of every human being and to work for a world in which that dignity is never compromised, never dishonored.
It’s a tall order; it’s a lifetime’s work. And no one of us will complete the task – and we certainly won’t be much good at offering comfort if we are uncomforted, we won’t be able to feed anyone else if we ourselves are hungry. It’s like the flight attendants often remind us, secure your own oxygen mask before attempting to help any others.
Come, be comforted, be fed, and then go out to do the work God has given us to do. Go and be comfort and food for the world. Amen+
© The Rev. Mark R. Collins
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