Maundy Thursday
As you go home after tonight’s service, if you happen to pass
by a fast-food restaurant (especially Chick-fil-a), check out the line of cars
in the drive-thru. It will be long and
littered with SUV’s – a sure sign many American families are not gathering
around a dinner table this evening for a meal.
I read recently fast-food establishments are transforming their
in-person dining facilities. Many are
cutting down dramatically the size of their seating areas in favor of expanding
curbside and drive-thru capacity. What
does this tell you about the current status of the American dinner
experience? I noted – with some
amusement – KFC is a part of this trend.
My two reactions to this news were these: 1) I don’t eat ‘food’ from
KFC, and 2) if I did, I certainly wouldn’t sit in their lobby to do it!
At the center of tonight’s service is a meal; a meal which
has been given a memorable moniker – “the Last Supper” – and has been depicted
by artists thousands of times over, perhaps most famously by da Vinci. The customs and practices around meals will
tell you a lot about the culture of time.
Just as the drive-thru reveals much about our day, meals in Jesus’ day
expressed the social, symbolic, and spiritual values of its time.
Think about the meals mentioned in the gospels and the
stories Jesus tells centered around the sharing of food. They are (or should be) expressions of
hospitality, affirmations of kinship, friendship, and status, and settings for
peaceful interactions. Meals fell into
one of three categories: ordinary, festive, and sacred and all three were
understood to be spiritual occasions.
Ordinary meals might include bread, grains, olives and olive oil, and bean
stews, as well various fruits, cheeses, and fish. Festive and sacred meals added different
kinds of meat to the menu.
Meals were served indoors or in places shaded from the
sun. Typically, food was served on a low
table or on mat or simply in bowls passed around among the diners. Those eating either knelt on the floor or sat
cross-legged. Reclining by resting your
head close to the chest of the person next to you was a common practice at
festive and sacred meals, leading to the expression ‘bosom buddies.’ Tables with chairs, as we think of them, were
reserved for royalty and the well-to-do.
Because bread was an indispensable staple at most meals it
became synonymous with the meal itself.
We still hold on to the expression “breaking bread” because bread was torn
off from the loaf by hand, not cut.
Most food was passed among guests and eaten by hand directly from
the dish, bowl or plate on which was served.
This led to some elaborate pre-meal practices around personal hygiene,
which included washing of hands and feet as well as the use of perfume or
oil. Over time, what once served as a
practical consideration (cleaning up before eating) evolved into religious
obligation concerned with ritual purity.
It was customary to recite short prayers at the beginning of a meal and
longer prayers of thanksgiving after the conclusion.
Various specific directions set forth etiquette for Hebrew
meals; all practical, some humorous:
·
You should not talk with
food in your mouth, for it can prove dangerous should it go down the windpipe. Even saying “bless you” to person who has
sneezed should be avoided. However, if you
push the food to the side of his mouth, there is no concern about talking.
·
When you distribute pieces of bread to
those eating with you, you should not throw the bread to the recipient nor hand
it to him directly. Rather, it should be
placed before the person on a plate or in a bowl.
·
It is improper to eat or drink while
standing.
·
It is not proper to wipe your plate
clean while eating so that nothing is left on it. Some food, even a small amount, should remain.
·
It is also improper to lick your
fingers.
·
If you are a guest in
a home, do not demand food to eat, rather, wait until food is offered.
·
If two people are
eating together from the same plate (say, sharing olives from a common bowl)
and one person stops eating in order to drink or to do another minor act, the other
person needs to stop eating from the bowl and wait until his friend is ready to
resume. If, however, three people are
eating from the same plate or bowl and one person interrupts his eating, it is
not necessary for the other two to pause.
All of these cultural expectations serve to
highlight a distinctive aspect of the first Passover meal described in
tonight’s reading from the Book of Exodus:
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 modern day equivalent of having
your child in her soccer uniform and cleats as you hit the drive thru on the
way to practice. The Passover is
anything but a leisurely meal typical of the culture at the time. It is eating on the run. It stands out because it is the exception,
not the rule. In our time, dining is the
exception. Rushing is the norm.
The early Church soon discovered when they
gathered for a communal meal – observing all the norms and customs of the day,
but also remembering the last meal they shared with Jesus – the Risen Lord
became known to them. Early on, there
was a physical presence. After the
Ascension, the presence was spiritual.
We experience this in our day when we gather in this place around its
table and do what we do in remembrance of Christ.
We also experience it in our homes and with
our friends as we sit down for a meal where we have time truly to be present to
one another. At occasions like these,
which are becoming rare in our society, God’s Spirit moves in and through the gathering
in ways that refresh and restore us while bonding and binding us to one another
in love.
I miss our Agape Meal tonight because of
the way it brings together the sacred and the social. It starts with the preparation – food and
decoration – continues through the meal, and lingers even into the
clean-up. It has a powerful way of
connecting us to one another and of connecting us to the One who is our
Host. God willing, next year we will
gather at table in the Parish Hall once again and dine with one another. Tonight we give thanks for the opportunity to
gather in this sacred meal and moment at the Lord’s Table.
Good Friday
Jesus said, “Woman, behold thy son.”
The Greek philosopher Herodotus is remembered for noting the
major difference between times of peace and times of war is during peace
children bury their parents and during war parents bury their children. Whatever the political climate is, every
parent carries a secret fear someday he or she will lose a child. Without question, the most grief-filled
memorial services are those where a parent has to bury a child, no matter if
the child is two or thirty-two.
What must be going through the mind of Mary, the holy mother,
as she watches her son die on the Cross?
As a young girl, perhaps no older than fourteen, she is
visited by an angel whose puzzling message proclaims she will conceive through
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and give birth to a son. We find the angel’s words in Luke 1:32:
“He will be great,
and will be called the Son of the Most High;
and the
Lord God will give to him
the
throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever;
and of
his kingdom there will be no end.”
The fear-filled little girl responds, “Let it be to me
according to your word.”
Surely this is one of the memories flooding Mary’s mind as
she watches her flesh and blood hang on the tree.
In the months following the angel’s visit, Mary must have
endured great shame being pregnant and unwed.
Yet she is still able to make this proclamation to her cousin Elizabeth:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for He
has regarded
the low
estate of his handmaiden.
For behold,
henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
for He
has done great things for me
and holy
is his Name…”
Does Mary remember these words as she grieves at
Calvary? Surely she does not perceive
herself as blessed among all people on that terrible Friday afternoon.
Think of all the unusual events associated with the birth of
Jesus. Luke records on the night of
Jesus’ birth shepherds come to the manger telling a story of angelic visions
and choruses. Matthew records the visit
of Magi who follow a star to the place where the child can be found. Luke also records the declarations of Simeon
and Anna at Jesus’ dedication in the Temple eight days after his birth. While these events leave others confused, the
Scriptures tells us Mary ponders them while keeping them in her heart.
Imagine how great her hopes and expectations for her son must
have been. How many days must she have
held her child to her breast dreaming of what he might become? How
many nights must she have put him to sleep with a prayer entrusting him into
God’s care? How many times does she
catch a glimmer of the Divine growing in her boy and how often does she wonder
what glorious things God will do through him, as she has been promised?
Can anyone at the foot of the Cross be more dissolutioned? Can anyone be more confused? Can anyone be more grieved than Mary?
In the midst of great physical and emotional agony Jesus is
aware of his mother and her anguish.
Scholars are somewhat puzzled by his words to her, “Woman, behold thy
son” and to the disciple, “Behold, thy mother.”
Mary has several other children by Joseph who are capable of caring for
her. In fact, one son – James – becomes
the leader of the church in Jerusalem, so it is not clear to experts why Jesus
has to entrust her to one outside the family.
But this much we do know, the disciple takes the mother of our Lord into
his care from this moment on.
From this I deduce even in the throes of his suffering Jesus
has compassion for us and for our needs.
He is ever-concerned for us as evidenced by his concern for his
mother. Given this, how much more is he
able to care for us now in his glory?
I also believe family lines are redrawn not as a way to deal
with loss and grief, but as a foreshadowing of what life in the resurrection will
be like. In a few short days Jesus will
rise from the dead and appear to his followers in triumph. When this happens realities such as
biological relations will seem trivial in light of the bonds created among
believers who experience the resurrection.
Just as those who wait at the foot of the Cross are bound
together by their common experience, we are united in this place at this time
because we come to observe Good Friday together. Come Sunday we will be related by more than
the fact we gather together in the same place.
We will be brothers and sisters in Christ based on the power of the resurrection
in our lives. For followers of Christ
there is no stronger tie than the faith uniting us in Christ. We rejoice together. We weep together. Let no one make a charge against one of the
elect for we are family in Christ. As it
was at the foot of the Cross between Mary and the disciple, let it be for us.
