This Easter is so different

Welcome to this, a framework for a Reflective Zoom service, as we consider what Maundy Thursday might mean to us today.

We will hear some words, take time to ponder on our day. We will hear some Scripture, praise God in song, reflect upon a modern day perspective of the traditions of today, and then take time to hear how God is impacting upon our lives, in this unusual period of time, speaking to us afresh as we silently eat.

Take you time to wend your way through what interests you.

We pray:

Holy & Loving God, we thank you that you are with us, as part of a loving covenant. You love us, give of yourself so that we might have life in all its abundance. As we approach this Eastertide, may we experience the depths and heights of that love.

You call us to live your life, follow where you have trod,

be your presence in our communities, show compassion to the poor, support the weak, embrace the outcast, bring lives into your kingdom.

Yet our hearts are troubled, we are fearful of the task, probably anxious, possibly even scared of what is and is to come in the next weeks and months, we may be deafened to your promise to be with us wherever we might go.

Forgive our timidity, grant us peace for the journey, and strength for the days and nights, that we might demonstrate your love in the life we live and share. Amen

As we approach the place to eat with Jesus we ask, as we might do if we say Grace before meals, Be Thou my Vision

We sit in our own houses. I’m hoping you are comfortable in your seat. I would have preferred loungers, recliners, so we might even have experienced what it might have felt like in Christ’s day. To recline, with our head facing the table, our feet pointing away. 

I’m not sure what you have done today, but how are your feet. In Jesus’ day our feet may be caked in dust and even mud – whatever, they were unclean. 

Let’s look at our shoes/slippers today – where have we walked today?

We don’t often wash feet these days, it’s just not the done thing. It is too personal, in people’s personal space. 

I invite you to accompany me to a busy street on a Saturday night a few years ago. The noise from dance clubs greets you, deafens you, at every corner. Groups of people, dressed not for the cold night air but for the warmth of the club, boisterously move along the street. Queues snake from clubs, waiting in the cold night air. Many are enjoying the night out, aided by copious amounts of alcohol. Many are struggling to cope with life, attempting to banish those thoughts of inadequacy by drinking and otherwise: some drink to celebrate, others to commiserate. It is nigh on impossible to decide who is who, what are the circumstances. 

There is a man, open shirt revealing a muscular chest, who starts to cry. A hand is placed on his back, “we are here, can I help?” He looks up briefly and tries to understand who would want to help someone who is so upset. A wet wipe is used to wipe his nose – it reminds me of wiping my children’s noses on a walk on a cold winters day. The man says he is feeling better but needs to get back home. Unfortunately the taxi will not take him in such a state, the aftermath from being out ‘on the town’. More wet wipes are applied to the trousers and shoes. 

Odd to wipe down shoes, especially when it is so dark – but at least in the morning, they will not readily remind him of the night before. We sit and chat, not in judgement, but listening  to his story, allowing him to retell what he is feeling, allowing him to hear it for himself. 

We walk him to the taxi rank and persuade them to take him home. 

Others may have gone out with high heeled shoes – they looked so wonderful in the shop and walking about the bedroom, but at 3am and with a little bit of alcohol, walking now is difficult. They decide to take off those fashion icons but trouble beckons for broken glass litters the pavement. “We have flip flops” we say. “What!” they respond. We offer to help them put on the flip flop – even if they are wearing tights there is a way, I promise you. They walk off, as if on the beach, protected from the shards of glass, and of course anything else, on their journey home.

It isn’t strictly foot washing but to me it is the closest I have ever come to administering ‘foot washing’ in today’s context. It was in such an example where I heard God’s call to ministry, where I could serve others, encourage others, to minister to others following Christ’s example.  That call was strong, powerful. If people are not coming to church to hear of God’s love then we need to be prepared to show that love to all whom we meet, wherever we are.

Jesus refers to washing people’s feet after they have walked all day. The dust, muck and grime encrusted onto their feet which needed to be removed. We may still enact it to a degree by taking off our shoes by the front door. To help clean someone from the debris from the journey, can come in many various forms. To clean someone up after drinking too much; to sit with someone with a cuppa after they have broken down because of a life situation; to handing someone a hankie when all appears lost but there is someone still who will listen and care; to pick the phone and call them, even zoom them, so we can hear their woes may be today’s example. Where can we wash someone’s “feet” metaphorically in the weeks to come?

John 13 : 3-8, 34-35

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 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. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

34  Jesus then says… I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The night of Maundy Thursday is the night on which Jesus is portrayed as being betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane. Most scholars agree that the English word Maundy in that name for the day is derived through Middle English and Old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” (“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you”), which we have just heard in the Gospel of John by which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing their feet.

Jesus Christ is waiting, waiting in the Streets is quite poignant today, when we are to remain in our homes.

I invite you now to take the bowl of water and rinse your hands or even your feet. Today it is poignant sign that we desire to be clean but today, on this Maundy Thursday, of all days it is a symbol, saying that we desire to serve others. 

We are here, Holy God, to serve you in all that you call us to do and be.

Meals are key events recorded in the works of Jesus. People would invite Jesus following a healing or after meeting with a certain tax collector. This was a great opportunity to hear more of what Jesus thought, did, desired. So the meal didn’t just provide sustenance -though of course it did feed the throng who attended. No, this was also real food for real people. The Lord’s Prayer contains those lines about daily bread for the mission of God, the centrality of food was there, but there was so much more! . 

Meals in Jewish times were not exclusive – they were demonstrable signs of social inclusion. They would break social hierarchy, boundaries which exist within society were there to be broken. It was not limited to those we live with – as we currently are now. 

The Pharisees and Essenes saw the meal as a symbol of what God intended Israel to be. Leviticus 19 speaks of ‘You shall be holy’: they saw it in terms of purity. But Jesus ate with tax collectors, sinners: sinners being those who were insufficiently observant from the vantage point of those making the accusation, who didn’t follow the way reported by the Jewish authorities and leaders. It may not describe how we have grown accustomed to call sinners.
Jesus would eat with all. 

Now, I would invite you to imagine us at that meal, together with the disciples – for we are disciples, learning to follow God. We will not be celebrating Communion this evening but the poignancy of breaking bread amongst those at the table is still ever valid. 

I invite you to close your eyes if you would like. Try to imagine the room where we are eating with Jesus.

What do you see around the room? Who is also there? Who is serving, what do they look like?

You might not be sitting near to Jesus but from the other end of the table, looking to get a glimpse of Jesus. 

What can you smell? What is that which smells so strongly? the spices, what is it?

What food can you see on the table? 

Now, what is Jesus doing? He is moving nearer

So, I invite you to take a piece of bread, as small or large as you’d like, then pause, savouring the moment, of Christ giving you that bread. Let us eat the bread slowly. For we are as one. 

This is a time of confusion, of that journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, of the messages, those parables he spoke, the miracles he did, and why are we here?, in this room, kept away from others, isolated…

Who is this Jesus? What does he mean to me? As the music plays in a moment, speak to Jesus, as to a friend, ask what ever questions you may have. Let Jesus speak to you.

When we walk with you, in the light of your love,

it is your glory seen, not ours.

When we talk of you to those whom we meet,

It is your words that speak, not ours.

When we minister to people in need,

it is your hands that heal, not ours.

When we worship you and offer our lives,

your name is glorified always!

Amen

This Easter is like no other in recent memory. But it is a pivotal moment, where humanity met with the divine, where the resultant was greater than the individual parts. Where God’s Kingdom moves forward with us.

Let us leave this time reflecting on what is possible, yes we can wait tomorrow on Good Friday, noting the pain and the silence, but hold on to that hope of the Sunday that’s surely coming.

Blessing

Holy God
The blessed in your eyes are not those who have everything but those who have nothing.
Not the rich in earning but the rich in spending who give their all for you.
Your ordinary saints being your hands, feet and words in their ordinary lives, doing extraordinary things for you.
The blessed in your eyes are not those who desire honour, but those who merely seek to serve.
Thank you that we may be your servants in your kin_dom.
Bless us as we live in uncertain times, grant us your loving blessing so we may show that love within our community, as we continue on our journey with you.

Be your love by Christy Nockels