The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN
Year A - Maundy Thursday - April 9, 2020
Today is Maundy Thursday… Maundy from the word “Mandate” - A name given to the night that we remember Jesus having his last meal with his friends. When Jesus said a prayer and took and broke the loaf of bread… and said, “this is my body,” then took the cup of wine and said, “this is my blood.”
He told his followers that night that when they gathered together they should do this (break the bread and share the cup) to remember him. And when they did that, he would be in the midst of them. They were to remember his teaching and his purpose… remember what his life among them meant. They were to remember Jesus in every way… remember the mission that he was on, to restore the people of God to the right relationship… A right relationship with God and with each other. To gather and to remember…
So we, as followers, continue to gather and remember… To gather and to remember the one who came among us, and continues to come among us when we gather together. We believe that the bread and wine that we share is a sacrament... Outward and visible signs of God’s abundant grace… the love and favor God has for us.
They are vehicles if you will... vehicles by which God bestows that grace to us as we take them, as we take Jesus himself into our bodies, and become part of him who loved us and died for us… When we do this, we not only become part of him… but he becomes part of us.
When we celebrate that thing every Sunday that we call Eucharist (which in Greek means “thanksgiving”), the ritual brings us around the table, gathered with Jesus there among us. Then we offer our simple gifts of bread and wine, and we ask God to make these common elements for us the body and blood of Jesus for us.
One bread is broken… One cup is shared… One God, the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all that is – and of all that ever was and ever will be is celebrated and feasted upon.
We understand that our participation, that our act of faith and thanksgiving in this celebration, depends on us being together – physically being gathered with each other. So, tonight we are stuck... We are stuck between our desire to gather and celebrate the mysteries of God in that sacred meal... and our desire to love our neighbor and keep ourselves and each other well and safe during these strange pandemic times.
Tonight, we are forced into exile by a deadly virus… Tonight, we gather and remember differently. The scriptures tell us that when Jesus gathered with his disciples in the upper room so long ago, they were there to celebrate the Passover meal (or Seder).
The Passover, a ritual feast consisting of matzo, bitter herbs, crushed fruit, wine, raw vegetables dipped in vinegar, lamb, and a hard-boiled egg. The Passover Seder (which means order or arrangement) is the meal that marks the beginning of the Jewish festival. The whole ritual was intended to be a way of remembering… Remembering how they were delivered by God from bondage in Egypt… Remembering God’s abundant grace shown as they were led through the desert. Remember God giving them the law (or Torah) on Mt. Sinai and remember them being delivered into the promised land. Gathered around the table, they wash their hands and say prayers and distribute the food in a specific order… All to remember those mighty acts done so long ago.
The Seder, for the Jewish people, is a carefully prescribed meal, very different from any other. For each participant, gathered there at the family table, the Seder is an occasion to relive the Exodus as a personal spiritual event. To help them remember…
To help them remember... to help them keep and perpetuate the faith, the youngest child asks four questions...
“Why does this night differ from all other nights? For on all other nights we eat either leavened or unleavened bread; why on this night only unleavened bread?”
“On all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs; why on this night only bitter herbs?”
“On all other nights we need not dip our herbs even once; why on this night must we dip them twice?”
and the last “On all other nights we eat either sitting up or reclining; why on this night do we all recline?”
The answers to these questions are recited in unison by everyone at the table – and the story starts to unfold… These customs keep alive the sacred story… It is an anamnesis – a calling forward and remembering a previous time… it is their way of participating in the story... and it is done in the home around the table.
Friends, this night that we celebrate Jesus’ mandate that we break the bread and share the cup… we are called to remember differently. We are unable to gather as in our custom, so we must resort to our connections with the living God be done through family… Through those with whom we are sequestered...
We are unable to gather together around the table. So, it’s not appropriate for us to have our Eucharistic feast without everyone being able to receive it. If we were to break bread here, we would not be able to share it with you there… If we were to drink from the cup here, we would not be able to offer it to you there…
I know that we have prevision to take the bread and wine from this table to those who are confined because of illness or infirmity. But we are even prevented from doing that. So, in these strange times, we need to understand and trust our theology of the Eucharist.
I know that I have clergy colleagues of other denominations that are offering a sort of “drive-through” communion having the faithful pray a prayer of "spiritual communion" while you watch the priest celebrate and receive.
While I love and respect what they are trying to do… at the same time, I want to say what that silly woman in the Facebook commercial says... When she literally has ALL the pictures of her friends all over her physical wall… “That’s not how it works, that’s not how any of this works.”
Their intentions are good, but that’s not our theology… We need to be strong, and we need to be strong and trust and know that our communion is so much more than receiving the bread and wine. It’s so much more than our individual selves “driving through” to get our spiritual fix. Our communion depends on our physical togetherness. The transformation of the bread and wine takes place when the community of the faithful is gathered together…
When I say the prayers on behalf of the community, at 2 times, the prayer book instructs me to touch the elements… so even bringing out your bread and wine at home is not how it works…
Tonight, we are gathered, but we have gathered apart through technology. So, it makes it difficult to do the things that help us receive the nourishment that we so desperately need.
But, we can take the lead from our Jewish brothers and sisters… at home, we can help the family do things to learn and engage the mysteries of God. As a gathered family, you can pray together and remember… you can be at the table together… you can share a meal and tell the story of Jesus together.
The story about how a man healed others, cast out demonic evil and brought the dead to life…About how he taught a way of love and forgiveness and connection to God that was different and challenging to the power and authority of the time.
You can tell the story about a man… who, on the night before he died washed the feet of his followers and modeled the humility in love and service that he expects us to have. About how he told them at that meal, that a loaf of ordinary bread and a cup of ordinary wine is to be received as his body and blood when they gather. About how this man, even though he was betrayed, condemned, and put to death rose from the grave on the third day… You can even let the youngest inquisitive child in the family, be the one who asks the questions and lets you tell the story.
In these strange times, we are not able to gather, but that doesn’t keep us from being Christian. it doesn’t keep us from telling the story of our salvation… The virus may keep us apart, but it doesn’t keep us from connecting to each other and to God.
This night… I commend to you the Holy Scriptures… With your family… read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. I commend to you the Book of Common Prayer… When you are struggling for form and order, there are simple prayers for use by families (pages 136-140). We need these strange times for us to consider what is important about our faith… that we love one another, as Jesus loved us, we also should love one another…
Brothers and sisters, Christianity is a communal religion. Jesus was not out there alone, he was often with big crowds and almost always with his 12 closest friends. So, tonight we will not be celebrating the mandate because we are not able to physically gather. But we are celebrating, nonetheless…
We are celebrating in the exile of our homes… We are celebrating the fact that we know God loves us and is holding us up through these strange times of fear and sickness. So, together with our families, we celebrate as we share and tell the story of Jesus in new and creative ways.
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