Maundy Thursday

I read of a Diocese in the United States where the Bishop at the Annual Clergy Conference gave out towels to every member present. They were instructed to bring them back at a later date and to tell the story of how they had been used in service. Many joked that when the time came for the report, how many would actually know where their towels were? One Priest said that several years later he had to confess that, for a while, he ended up putting that towel away with other holy relics and never used it.

Maundy Thursday is the Day of the Last Supper, the day when we remember those final moments of peace as Jesus shared food with his friends in that Upper Room. At each Communion service we try to recreate some of the events of that evening as we try to come closer to Christ through the mystery of the Communion meal.

But there are two parts to that final evening – there was the meal, the bread and wine being shared, and Jesus telling his disciples to carry on that practice, remembering him every time they do it, and there was also the washing of the feet.

Jesus knew that his time was nearly up and he had some final lessons to share. The first and perhaps most easily memorable is the sharing of the bread and wine. The Communion mystery is just that – a mystery ! There are all kinds of interpretations of the importance of the bread and wine, but the most important thing of all is that we are receiving through that bread and wine a reminder of the sacrifice of Christ, and of the power of God.

We have Communion a lot in the Church in Wales, not as much as some Churches, but still a lot, and there is a danger as we do that that we will forget the real meaning and importance of each commemoration of the death of Jesus… In that commemoration we are amongst all those through the centuries who caused his death. We are the ones who even today continue to get things wrong, we are the ones for whom Jesus died !

That is why we begin our service by saying sorry for those things we do wrong, and we seek God’s help to move on. Those that don’t come to a Communion service with great remorse and deep sorrow, are forgetting the sacrifice of Jesus, forgetting the pain of being betrayed and ignored by friends, the beatings and torture of the authorities, the humiliation on the cross.

But as we approach the throne of grace humbly we do so with the knowledge that Christ died willingly because he wants to build the bridges, he wants to make our relationship with him better and he wants us to enjoy the fullness of life that he has planned for his people.

Communion is a celebration because it is a reminder of the grace and mercy, and most of all the love of God – the love that took Jesus willingly to the cross. And so as he prepared to share the Last Supper with his disciples he offered them the command to continue to meet sharing bread and wine as a reminder of the body and blood so willingly given up for each one of them… and for each one of us.

And then of course there was the washing of the feet. Immediately of course Peter protested – Jesus was a friend, but he was also the leader of the group. He was the one who received the good treatment, not the one who did the washing.

But in this action Jesus was taking on the role of the lowest servant. He was taking on the dirtiest job, and Peter, like the other disciples, I suspect, didn’t understand why. And the reason they didn’t understand was that even at that late stage of his earthly ministry, they had not recognised that Jesus had come to die. He wasn’t just offering this incredible example of servanthood – he would go further by giving his life.

That Bishop in the United States gave out the towels to his clergy as a reminder of their role as servants. I have said before that it’s very easy for clergy, and perhaps for all people in Church, to become caught up in the splendour of Church – to be caught up in all of the special liturgy, and impressive buildings and artefacts, the religious practices and of course to actually think that we are something special – something set apart from the rest of society.

But Maundy Thursday as we recall the Last Supper is a reminder that that is not the case and we often need to strip away all of the splendour, all of the majesty, all of the robes, all of the tradition and so on, and look only at that plain upper room. The room where our Lord offered us a meal to share as we remember him always, and seek his presence and strength, and the room where our Lord got down on his knees and washed the dirty feet, reminding his disciples that just as he had washed their feet, so they must go and do likewise for others. Jesus said, ‘Do as I have done to you.’

Ministry in the Church is not limited to those who wear collars, it is a job for every Christian, and that ministry cannot be confined to work with those we like, or those we find it easy to get on with – the ministry of Jesus was to all people. It was to the poor, the dirty, the dying, the sick, the outcasts of society, as well as to his neighbours and friends. Today our ministry is to our friends and families, and to those we like, but it must also be to those we find it difficult to like, and difficult to get on with.

Strengthened by the bread and wine, and that reminder of the love and power of God that we receive at the Communion Table, we are called to go out and live out his ministry in the world. It is no coincidence that the Communion service ends so quickly after the bread and wine has been given – it wasn’t that people couldn’t think of anything else to put in, but rather it was because no further time should be taken up inside – we have received the assurance of sins forgiven, we have received the promise of God’s help and support through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we are ready to Go out in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord. AMEN