"Not Our Passover", Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2009

I Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13: 1-17, 31-35
One of my greatest joys is in making Connections, both resolving differences between people, and making connections between Biblical and Theological ideas, preserving the integrity of the Old Testament while seeing new dimensions in the Gospel: realizing Adam was formed by God, and Jesus is the Begotten Son of God, Adam sinned for humanity and Jesus redeemed the world,
Moses gave the people the Law and Jesus gave a new Covenant of Grace and Love
Elijah and Elisha each raised a child from death to life, and Jesus raises Jairus' daughter;
there is great controversy when King David's son Absalom is found guilty of dividing the nation, he becomes caught by his hair hanging above the people halfway between heaven and earth as the King's soldiers cast lots for who had Authority to kill the son of the King of Israel, and Jesus hangs on the cross above the soldiers as they cast lots for his clothes with a sign King of the Jews.
But this evening's Scriptures, both from the New Testament challenge us, that what we live is not what we have known and expect, Worship is not Tradition and Ritual with one right way. What the Post-Modern French Philosopher Jacques Derrida came to, is that there are no Absolutes, except UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

Years ago, trying to better understand this Church, I sat down and read both the Minutes of the Church from their very beginning, as well as the collection of Wills and Estates, realizing that this church is now almost 208 years of history. One of the intriguing elements was that in early Wills and Estates there was specificity that gifts would be used for a purchase, there was no sense of investment or savings, the only thing worth putting money into were things that were needed. Later, surrounding the 1920s and 30s there became a recurrent phrase “Invested as The Most Prudent Man would do”. Obviously coming from a less politically correct era of representing both men and women, but there was an assumption of an IDEAL Individual who was the Most Prudent and Cautious. During the 1980s and 90s this shifted again, recognizing that if one avoided risk and invested only according to the ideal of the MOST PRUDENT, nearly 50% of the time you would miss out on gain and growth on investments. Today, the only thing all investors can seem to agree upon is no one knows what to do except wait and hope. Old Paradigms no longer seem to apply, yet what has remained constant is the intent of believers to provide for future generations.

The disciples had accompanied Jesus for three years, listening as the Rabbi taught, eating the foods he gave them, doing everything he instructed. The twelve revered him, as being more than their teacher, they had seen him heal the blind and the deaf, curing leprosy and crippling diseases. They questioned in their minds, if it were possible, could this man, Jesus the Carpenter's son, the Rabbi they had accompanied for so long, could he be The Prophesied Son of David, the Messiah sent from God? Imagine our greatest celebrity, our most revered and respected leaders... Billy Graham? The Dali Lama? The Pope? President Obama? Perhaps even more earlier generations of Presidents: Lincoln or Washington, welcoming you as our host, then stripping before you, bowing down in humility so as to wash your feet. In ancient culture, only the lowest servant or slave would be called upon to care for the washing of another person, particularly their dirty feet. Yet, Jesus embodied that service. When my father was on Hospice care, he was itchy and uncomfortable from lying in bed. I helped him to roll over, and rubbed his back, remembering as a child learning how to rub his shoulders, and it gave him comfort.

Earlier this week, I met with a group of clergy discussing leadership in the church in these times, and we named that there are four things which never are spoken of in the Church: Money, Death, Sex and Politics.
They are spoken of everywhere else in our culture, but here at the institution of the Lord's Supper hours before the betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus risks an act of intimacy, of service and commitment, which claim all their expectations about Jesus as Son of God, as Son of King David, as Messiah, must all be challenged and understood differently.
Jesus presence in the institution of Communion, is that he is absolutely one with us, as we are to be one with one another, as he is also one with God. What I take from this is also that while the Church must be Open and Inclusive, extending the Sheep gate wider, the Church also need to be a place unafraid to listen and discuss the intimacy of Money and Death and Sex and Politics.

We know from historical analysis that the Gospel of John is far more involved and developed than Matthew, Mark and Luke, so probably that John was written later. An intriguing nuance is that John's Gospel treats the Last Supper differently. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, on Palm Sunday the Disciples had gone to prepare for where Jesus would celebrate the Passover, and quite clearly the elements of Communion are taken from the Passover. But in John's Gospel, as Jesus hangs on the cross to die we hear the bleating of the sacrificial lambs in the background, indicating that this could not be the Passover, if anything hanging on the cross he is the Passover Sacrificial Lamb. Historically the Passover spared the believers, and brought suffering upon all the rest, the Egyptians. But according to Christianity, we are not spared suffering, we are not Passed Over, Jesus does not avoid the Cross. Neither are we like the suicide bombers who seek death as if a glorious means to end this life. Instead, in Jesus Christ we find that DEATH cannot prevent God's Unconditional Love, death is not something to be feared, because Jesus in service to God and to us, in perfect communion, provided for Resurrection.

Tragically, Paul's words in First Corinthians have been taken out of context, to become the Words of Institution said at every Communion. “Taken out of Context”, because the whole of the Letter is addressed to a community of faith, much like the world today, fragmented into differing groups who each believe they are right, and each has to receive more than anyone else, ignoring that many are poor receiving nothing.

It was about this point in finishing the sermon this afternoon that someone called saying, “I have a friend who is Catholic, who has been attending a Lutheran Church, and my friend says there is a difference in what we believe, as whether the Bread and Wine “Are” Jesus Body and Blood, or whether they “Represent” His Body and Blood.” The Community of Faith fragmented into differing groups, Chloe's People, Cephas', and Apolos', Catholic, Lutheran and Presbyterian. All these many Churches describe the Sacrament as a “Mystery of God”, yet in trying to explain, we have separated ourselves. From John Calvin, what we believe as Presbyterians is that in offering this Sacrament, in giving his life for the world, God forgave us all/yet in participating communion we each forgive one another. Forgiving and being forgiven, in the same ways as Jesus serving and calling us to serve one another, we are brought closer to God.

In creating the Community of Faith at Corinth, Paul had not created a Sanctuary and separate worship services as we have today. Instead, in people's homes there would be spread elaborate banquets for the whole community. In the midst of these feasts, the elements of Bread and Wine were lifted up, that in the midst of the feast of life Communion with jesus would be a part. “Tragically”, both because in context Paul is railing at the Corinthians for many have come early to these Christian feasts to gorge themselves and become drunk, consuming the communion on their terms not as The Lord's Table. And Tragically because if we could have preserved Paul's full treatment, this would not be a separate worship, but this evening in our homes we would serve one another, we would break bread together and forgive one another, we would share a glass of wine and confess the hope of a future where we could trust and believe and serve one another without reservation.