+ This week is, of course, an
emotional week. In addition the two Funerals we had this week, saying goodbye
to two people who were friends to many of us, we also have the memory of what
we are commemorating this week.
For me anyway my emotions are right
on the surface, as they often are during Holy Week. I think they are because I
realize that this week is more than what it appears on the surface. Yes, we are
commemorating Jesus’s last days. But, as I said on Sunday, following Jesus
means making his story our story as well. That’s not an easy thing.
I find myself thinking of my last
days as well. In walking with Jesus, in following him, we are reminded, in no
uncertain terms, that there will be a time when we too will be going through
our own last hours, when we too will be eating our last meal, when we too will
be turning away from this world and looking toward the next.
In my emotional state this week, I
for some reason, was thinking about my father. And I was thinking about his
last days and his last meal. I remember in the days after his death and
funeral, I had to clean out his pickup. As I did so, I found on the front seat,
an empty bag from Hardee’s. It hit me hard for some reason. I know he ate too much
fast food, but it was easy food for him with his busy schedule. I shared my
finding of the Hardee’s bag a day or two later with a friend of his, and this friend
said, “Yeah! You know I saw him driving out of the drive-in at Hardee’s on Main
Avenue that day before he died!”
That stayed with me all these years.
For some reason, I cannot pass that
Hardee’s to this day without thinking that is where my dad got his
second-to-last meal (he ate is supper that night at home, of course). There was
something about that physical Hardee’s bag that struck me and had such meaning
to me. And it reminds me of what we are
commemorating this evening.
This evening of Maundy Thursday is
all about remembering and it is about the physical. Tonight, we are experiencing physical signs of
God’s presence. We are being anointed in
absolution for our sins. We are coming forward to be fed with Body and Blood of
Christ. In fact, these next few days are also about that merging between the
physical and spiritual—about, truly, Incarnation. This physical body of Jesus
will tomorrow be tortured and then will be nailed to the Cross. It will die and be laid in a dark tomb. On Saturday, it will be there, laid out,
broken and destroyed. But on Sunday,
that physical body will be raised out of that darkness. It will rise out of that destroyed state. It will come forth from that broken disgrace
and will be fully and completely alive and present.
But, we’re getting ahead of
ourselves. For now, we are here, in this
moment. We are here on Maundy Thursday,
experiencing the physical and spiritual life that we have been given. We are preparing ourselves to remember that
Last Supper, as we do every Sunday.
I think we often take for granted
what we do at this altar each Sunday and every time we gather to celebrate the
Eucharist. I know I do occasionally. But
what we celebrate together here is not something we should take for granted. What we celebrate here is truly an incredible
and beautiful thing. It is more than
just some memorial Jesus left us. It is
more than just nice, quaint practice of the Church. It is a prescursor.
This meal is really our last meal as
well. This is the last real meal that will ultimately sustain us.
But it’s even more than just that too.
It also lifts the veil that exists right
now, right here between each of us. And
we do live in a veiled world. We live in
a world in which we ignore each other, in which we really and truly don’t SEE
each other. Here, at the Eucharist, that
veil too is lifted.
Tonight, we, the followers of Jesus,
are witnessing Jesus truly humble himself, even in the face of his impeding
death. He humbles himself in the washing
of feet. And he humbles himself in his giving us these basic element of bread
and wine. And he invites us, as well, to
enter into this humbling experience—this experience in which we need to
encounter each other in this most basic of acts. He essentially invites us to enter into what Nora
Gallagher calls “the kingdom of the living bread.”
What we experience here with each
other at this altar in Holy Communion is truly a bridge of sorts. We find that the divine—God—is present to us
in some thing we can touch and taste and in those gathered with us here. And more than just some spiritual practice we
do, we do this not just with our spirits, but with our very bodies as well. We
do it with our very physical presence. And, in doing so, we realize that we are
catching a glimpse of the resurrected state that we will so glorious celebrate
in just a few days time on Sunday morning.
What comes to us at this altar, is
truly the manna come down from heaven. It
is a reminder to us of the sacrifice of that Lamb of God, which we found
prefigured in our reading from Exodus.
Whenever I raise the bread at
Communion, you hear me say, “This is the Lamb of God. This is the one who takes
away the sins of the world. Happy are we are invited to this supper.”
This not just quaint language we use
in the church. This is truth. Yes, this communion is not going to quench our
physical thirst or cure our growling stomachs. By outward standards what we do at this altar might
seem frivolous.
But, as Nora Gallagher writes:
“Taking Communion…is a creative acts, and it makes no more ‘sense than writing
a poem, or for that matter, reading one. It isn’t going to get you anywhere in
the world; it’s not networking; it has no practical worth.” And she is right.
Simone Weil once said, every
creative act is a “folly of love.”
Still, for us, who celebrate this
mystery together, we do leave here filled. We do leave here spiritually fed. We do come away with a sense that God is
present and that God goes with us—each of us—all of us—from this altar and from
this church, into the world.
So, let us come forward to this
altar tonight, with each other. Let us
come forward to this kingdom of the living bread. Let us also come forward on this night in
which Jesus instituted this incredible sacrament in which he reminds us that
God is with us, on this night in which he humbled himself and invites us, as
well, to humble ourselves. Let us humble
ourselves and be fed on what is essentially our own last meal. And let us go from here, humbled and fed, to feed
others and to be the Presence of Christ to others.
No comments:
Post a Comment