Maundy Thursday and Other Reflections

4-9-20

Maundy Thursday and Other Reflections

By Rev. Shirley Porter

 Well…here we are,

sheltering-in-place as the Governor and the Bishop have asked during this critical time of the corona virus Covid-19 pandemic. Usually there would be a frantic flurry of activity as we, the church, would prepare for the theological, religious and personal moments of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.

Yes, here we are. For several days many of us have been sitting in our homes, with more time on our hands than we have had in years, maybe decades! What to do? We can’t go out to visit friends or go Easter basket shopping. Many of us won’t be able to see the children or grand-children we love because we have been asked to stay at home to stay safe. Wow! What an historical moment in time this has become.

Us priestly people are going bonkers! The stuff we usually do, we can’t do. So…what to do? Some are doing pod casts on zoom. Some are sharing pre-recorded Holy Week Services on Face Book. How can we make this week meaningful to our beloved flock if we can’t see them or offer reserved sacrament to them? Most priests have not really been here before.

Fortunately, in some ways, I feel I have been in something similar as this situation before. When I lived in southern China for two years, I couldn’t go to church because there wasn’t a church to go to. I wasn’t brave enough to chance mine or others lives by attending an underground church.

This meant I had to do “church” on my own. It was difficult and frustrating. I didn’t have the usual verbal or musical cues I was accustomed to in worship. I felt odd standing up and sitting down on my own in my dorm room of Hua Chiao University. Most of the other teachers were not very religious, definitely not Episcopalian. I felt isolated and alone. Still, God helped me make it work.

On what we call Maundy Thursday, Jesus was with all twelve of his disciples and yet he was alone. He was aware of what was coming and he had tried to prepare the twelve by telling them of his inevitable abuse and death. They don’t believe him. They are family. They are close. They are blind. They are listening with their eyes, not with their hearts and ears.

Jesus tells them they will betray him---all of them, each of them. One will begin the decline and then things become unreal and they fall apart. Eventually, each disciple self isolates himself so as not to be accused of being with the Son of Man or King of the Jews, the Messiah.

So, here we are in the 21st Century. How have we abandoned the Jesus we love and cherish? We have heard through the readings during lent as well as the Passion Story what his inevitable fate would be as well as its purpose. No, we did not tell soldiers to come and take the one we kiss on the cheek. But have we invited those sheltering with us to join in prayer? Morning Prayer, Noon Day Prayer, Evening Prayer or Compline? Maybe not, we say we don’t have a Book of Common Prayer. Have we asked Rev. Shirley to offer some? No, we say, we didn’t look up on line how we might buy one for ourselves. Maybe we say to ourselves and others, we don’t do that in our house (Morning Prayer etc.). And yet…. we say, Lord here my/our prayer during this time of crisis.

This year for Holy Week, I have chosen to dig out a book that I first looked at in a book study a few years ago, in another church. It is called The Last Week, by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan. Subtitle is: What the Gospels really teach About Jesus’ Final Days in Jerusalem.

They look at biblical accounts of each day of Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday and arriving at Easter Sunday. They base their thoughts on the gospel of Mark, mainly because it was the earliest gospel written, about 40 years after Jesus died. They also chose Mark because “Mark alone went out of his way to chronicle Jesus’ last week on a day-by-day basis, while others [gospels] kept some but not all of those indications of time.” (p.ix) The book offers the authors’ point of view, often comparing Mark with the other Gospels. Then at the back of the book, there are questions to ponder.

During my various prayer times today, I have read and reflected on the Palm Sunday offering. Mark 14:17-25 is the core or their discussion as regards several aspects of the last moments Jesus has with the disciples. For this homily of sorts, I have landed on their take of the Passover Meal and the Body and Blood as it relates to the death of Jesus.

Passover or the Last Supper is a look back to the day before the people of God exit Egypt. Passover is the primal Jewish celebrations that represents God’s greatest act of deliverance in human history. Christians give it a nod because this too is part of our roots as well. Some Episcopal churches actually do a seder-like meal on Maundy Thursday before the evening service begins.

The Passover meal in Egypt had two purposes. First, to feed them for that last meal and secondly, to provide food for the journey to come the next day. As we sit in our homes, are we also planning our meals for today as well as a few days from now, not knowing as the Egyptians, how and where food will be provided? But we too, as they, believe if God sets us out on this journey, he will provide. For our ancestors it was manna from heaven, for us now it may be many days of beans and bananas from a food bank.  Are we prepared for the journey?

Maundy is from the Latin meaning mandate. God mandated the Hebrews to eat the Passover Lamb and mark their thresholds with its blood to protect children as the Lord went through the city to destroy the Egyptians. We are asked to eat of the Paschal Lamb and mark our hearts with the healing blood of that Lamb.

How does the threshold of your heart look this Maundy Thursday? Is the blood still there? Has it faded away? Does it need to be refreshed? Does it need to be applied the first time to keep Satan away? Does it really matter in 2020?

It is suggested by the authors of The Last Week, that the Passover Meal and the Last Supper, imply each other. One is the last meal of the beloved before they march into the desert. The other is the last meal with the Beloved before he marches to his death. Both meals are for sustenance, both provide life. One provides life for our daily bread. The other provides life for our eternal life. Both are needed and significant in our lives this night in self-quarantine. This is where I will end for now.

You are invited to respond, to share, to write your own take on the passage. Thank you for reading my ramblings. Stay safe, eat bread and be fed.