Maundy Thursday (April 2, 2015) – I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Giving (Thanks) in the Heart of Darkest Experience
Maundy Thursday – April 2, 2015
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We have to imagine ourselves into this scene, right?
For those of us who have come to know and love the Maundy Thursday service,
it becomes so familiar that we can forget the poignancy of it.
Here is Jesus who knows it is his last night.
And he chooses to spend it with his closest friends with whom he has lived and
worked so closely for so long.
It’s his last night with them.
But there is more to the poignancy than that, right?
Because Jesus also knows that one among them will betray him.
He knows this.
But he knows more.
He knows these fellows well.
And he knows that Judas will not be the only one to disappoint him.
He knows that Peter will deny even knowing him three times before the next morning dawns.
And he even knows more.
He knows that they will all ultimately desert him and flee.
Every week when we share Holy Communion we recall the words that Paul first records
in First Corinthians this evening:
. . . the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread and gave thanks. . .
How often do we use the word “betrayed” and the words “give thanks” in the same sentence?
These words have become so familiar to us that sometimes we miss the shock of them.
Here is Jesus, about to be betrayed and abandoned not by his enemies but
by his closest friends – and yet he gives thanks.
Friends, that is an amazing thing.
Paul will tell us elsewhere that in all things, in all circumstances we are to give thanks.
And I, too, have said that if you have one spiritual discipline,
it should be to take a minute at the end of the day and think about the things there
are to be thankful for – no matter how hard and no matter how difficult the day.
Paul says it, I have said it, and countless Christians over the last 2000 years have said it.
And it occurs to me that it is rooted in this thing that Jesus did 2000 years ago this night,
this thing we recall every single Sunday, that
. . . the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread and gave thanks. . .
To notice how close in proximity those two words are in Jesus’ thinking –
the words ‘betrayed’ and the words ‘gave thanks’ – is to notice something
very profound about the God we worship,
something that is very close to the heart of the Gospel, the good news.
It is to notice that at that very moment when he is seeing his betrayal and death most clearly,
even before the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus gives thanks.
He gives thanks because Jesus recognizes that even then, even in that dark moment,
God continues to give – and so Jesus gives thanks.
It is to recognize God’s continuing generosity.
As Rowan Williams says in the wonderful little book called Being Christian that we read in
Adult Faith Study this Lent,
It is as if [Jesus] is saying [on this night] that even in these dark places God continues to give, and therefore we must continue to give thanks. And that is why the Greek word eucharistia, ‘thanksgiving,’ took root and became the earliest and most widespread name for what Christians do when they meet for Holy Communion: they meet to give thanks, even in the heart of the darkest experience.
John’s Gospel shows the way in which Jesus concretely gives thanks,
which is why we read it on this night.
Jesus gives thanks for God’s giving in the heart of darkest experience by giving
in the heart of darkest experience.
He serves those whom he knows will betray him –
as if our failures and our betraying cannot stop God’s giving – that surely is grace.
And on the other side of the cross – they will remember.
And 11 of them will seek forgiveness – and find a new day,
and a new resolve to love and give even in the heart of darkest experience.
For they themselves will have experienced that God continues to give
even in the heart of darkest experience – in the midst of their own failure,
God continues to give.
On this night Jesus bids us do as he does.
Our feet will be washed – even in the midst of our failures to be the people God calls us to be.
God will continue to give and to serve – God will continue to be gracious.
And so we will give thanks.
And we give thanks best when we give, when we wash feet even as our have been washed.
When we serve the hungry even as we have been served in our hunger at this table.
When we love concretely and simply even as we have been loved concretely and simply,
with bowl and water and bread and wine.
It’s true that Jesus gives us a new commandment on this day we know as
Maundy Thursday or “Commandment” Thursday:
love one another in the same way as I have loved you.
But surely it is not a command in the sense of being something we have to do.
Surely it is a friendly command, a command that is good for us,
to love one another as something we get to do – because we have been loved first,
because we have been washed first, because we have been fed first.
So in the heart of darkest experience, on the eve of a dark day,
together let us give thanks.
Let us receive the gift of God’s continuing giving even in the heart of darkest experience.
And let us give thanks best by simply giving – of our service, of our hospitality, of our love –
even in the heart of darkest experience.
And so together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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