University Presbyterian Church - Chapel Hill, NC

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Maundy Thursday ~ April 9, 2009

University Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill

Anna Pinckney Straight

Eat. Drink. Remember.[1]

Exodus 12: 1 – 14

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

John 13: 1 – 17, 31b - 35

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

On this day Christ the Lamb of God gave himself into the hands of those who would slay him.

On this day Christ gathered with his disciples in the upper room.

On this day Christ took a towel and washed the disciples' feet, giving us an example that we should do to others as he has done to us.

On this day Christ our God gave us this holy feast, that we who eat this bread and drink this cup may here proclaim his holy sacrifice and be partakers of his resurrection, and at the last day may reign with him in heaven.[2]

On this day.  This is what happened.  And on this day.  We remember.  We eat.  We drink.  We remember.

The journey made from Egypt to the promised land.  The journey from slavery to freedom.

The journey made by Jesus, openly and willingly, from life into imprisonment and death, that we might be free.

A journey which began on the day of his birth, but which was put into motion in a very particular way on this day, with the meal Jesus shared with his disciples.  At table, with clean feet, washed by Jesus himself, Lord and Servant, all at once.  On the night Jesus gave himself up for us.

They ate.  They drank.  And Jesus told them to remember.

Eat.  Drink.  Remember, he said.

And so we do.

We Eat.  We Drink.  We Remember. 

We gather around a table that is THE table.  The table to which we are invited by none other, no one other that Jesus Christ himself.

It is an invitation issued to us all.  An invitation to come as you are.  Not as you would like to be.  Not as you think you should be.  But as you are, all of you, the parts of which you are proud and those which you do your best to minimize or cover, all of you,  to come and be in communion with the One who created in his own image  and declared it “Good.”

It is an invitation issued not one-at-a-time but all-together.  We are invited as-we-are to be with others as-they-are and to commune with God together.  Communion is in community.  We do not celebrate this sacrament privately or individually, but together, sometimes serving one another, other times, like tonight, coming forward to receive the elements from brothers and sisters, fellow servants of Christ.   And to know.  Here is our fortune.

From the writing of Henri Nouwen[3]: 

There are many forms of poverty: economic poverty, physical poverty, emotional poverty, mental poverty, and spiritual poverty. As long as we relate primarily to each other's wealth, health, stability, intelligence, and soul strength, we cannot develop true community. Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts. Community is the place where our poverty is acknowledged and accepted, not as something we have to learn to cope with as best as we can but as a true source of new life.

Living community in whatever form … challenges us to come together at the place of our poverty, believing that there we can reveal our richness.”

On this night we gather, eat, and drink as Jesus directed us to do.  With our shortcomings.  With our blessings.  To have our feet washed and our lives made clean.  We gather.  With the desire for God’s will to be our will.   

Our theology instructs us, our experiences inform us.  This is a more than a memorial meal.  More that the piece of bread and drops of juice, it is a time.  A moment.  When God welcomes us into a sacred presence.  A time of communion.  The bread does not change its chemical composition.  The juice remains juice.  But when we are present and accepting of the invitation, we are inevitably and irreversibly changed by this communion, this time when we are united with God and the past, present, and future become one.  We in the middle of it.  Invited to see with God’s eyes and God’s heart what is possible and what is faithful.  In communion, we are welcomed into the presence of Christ.

We eat.  We drink.  We remember.  So that we might live and live faithfully.  It is nothing less than the Good News  in action.

Robert McAfee Brown writes, in communion, “Here the Christian gospel is transformed from word to deed, from promise to actuality, from hope to fulfillment…..  Once again we find that the reality is pure grace, ‘unmerited, but given anyhow….’ This is how God chose to act—through simple elements of bread and wine.  But this is also how we are to act.”[4]

As children of God.  Sisters and Brothers in Christ, we believe in the feast.  The abundance of God, and the amazing things that can happen when people gather together, eat bread, drink juice, and accept God’s invitation to a new life.    The call to love one another.  Not as we would like to be loved, but as Jesus Christ loves each one of us.   

With this bread and this cup, here we mark a new beginning. A new beginning of healing.  Of accepting the forgiveness that is offered by God, of release from the shackles- self imposed or forced upon us.  Here we mark a new beginning of justice continuing to roll down and righteousness heading toward becoming that mighty stream.

So let us eat.  Let us drink.  And let us remember and go with Christ.  To Gethsemane.  To Calvary.  To the tomb to wait.  Amen.

Holy Communion- by Ann Weems

Eat. Drink. Remember who I am.

Eat. Drink. Remember who I am

so you can remember who you are.

Eat. Drink. Remember who I am

so you can remember who you are

and tell others.

Eat. Drink. Remember who I am

so you can remember who you are

and tell others

so that all God’s people

can live in communion . . .

in holy communion.