Friday, April 21, 2017
Maundy Thursday - April 13, 2017
SERMON
FOR MAUNDY THURSDAY
April 13, 2017
HOLY TRINITY & ST. ANSKAR
+ In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity
Communion, service, betrayal, exposure — God-in-the-Flesh
says THIS IS MY BODY, referring to
the bread He is holding and also to the people who eat it together. [ Could it be that even expressed that in a gesture?]. A modern Greek theologian wrote
an influential book entitled Being as
Communion. Everything that is exists in relationship — from atoms to
galaxies to parallel universes (if there be any). To be is to be in communion.
The relationship between being and communion is especially apparent in
living things, and among them it is even more apparent in those capable of
reflective self-consciousness: human beings. We cannot live except in communion
with each other and the whole world. But we have a choice. One could say that
it is a choice is between HOSPITALITY and BETRAYAL.
Foot-washing was a sign of
hospitality. Guests reclined around the table, their bare feet at the other end
of their couch. Servants would come around and wash their feet. It was kind of
like the hot towel offered at a Japanese table. This is the third foot-washing
noted in the Gospels: the first two happened to Jesus: the Woman of Bad Reputation washed His feet
with her tears and dried them with her hair at the house of the Pharisee; then
Mary of Bethany anointed his feet with extremely costly perfume, causing Judas
to complain about the waste.
But this time Jesus Himself does
the washing. There are two meanings here: first, He is our Host and we are His
guests. But usually it was slaves who washed the feet of the guests, not the
host himself. So Peter objects: The
Messiah is the King, and Kings don’t wash anybody’s feet – slaves do that. And Peter gets the usual rebuke, Because the
second significance of the foot-washing is the Mystery of Divine Abasement: God Almighty has assumed the role of a slave.
In this form, He gives us what He
calls “a New Commandment,” that we love one another. (Maundy is an old word related to comMANDment). Love one another as I have loved you, meaning
that we are to make the welfare of the other our chief concern, whatever the
cost. This Maundy enacts the meaning
of the Mystery of the Bread and Wine:
Communion means that my neighbor IS myself, for we are all one Body, He
commands us to act out that unity as He showed us.
But something else happens tonight,
something terrible. The Kiss, the sign of welcome and hospitality, the kiss
expressing the mutual love and self-giving that He has commanded becomes the
sign of betrayal. Judas has exchanged New Life for money, and he seals the deal
with a kiss. As our Lord said, it would have been better for that man if he had
not been born. Like Esau, he has sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and
Judas becomes the type not only of betrayal but of avarice. Both are the
opposite of Communion, both the opposite of life, of being itself, and Judas went out and hanged himself. In this
life we choose every day between communion and avaricious betrayal.
And no one makes the right choice
every day. Let’s not forget the Judas wasn’t alone in his betrayal, his
abandonment of life. The apostles all went to sleep, and then — speaking for
all of them — Peter denied Jesus three times, as we will hear tomorrow.
Tonight we focus on the connection
between communion and exposure, communion and vulnerability. Those who would
live in communion will be exposed and vulnerable to each other. When we carry
the Body of Christ to the symbolic GETHSEMANE of our altar of repose, we refer
to it as the “Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.” Christ Himself is totally
exposed and vulnerable to us. The Great Mystery of the vulnerability of God is
part of the significance of this rite.
It is through divine exposure and vulnerability that our sin is overcome
we are reconciled to God.
Our sin is our separation from God
and from one another. Our sin is our abandonment of communion and mutual
service in favor of a miserable Thirty pieces of silver.
