Whilst we continue to reflect on Holy Week and Easter, Revd Jackie Sellin has shared her sermon from Maundy Thursday below.
And here, He shows the full extent of love
https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/maundy-thursday/
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search the heavens high above,
The God of love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betray Him, though it is the night.
He meets us here and loves us into light.
I often wonder how the disciples experienced the Last Supper? The Passover meal is a celebration of freedom, of emancipation from oppression and the beginning of Israel’s road of discovery of what being God’s Chosen People meant. So what did the disciples make of the events on that evening? Did they see in Jesus his fears, his insights into what the night would bring; what he following day would mean to him? In Jesus Christ Superstar, at the Last Supper the disciples are eating and drinking, having fun. But. Gradually, their mood changes from celebration to confusion, to growing uncertainty as Jesus actions filter through as something different, something important, something to concentrate on. The washing of the feet. The breaking of the bread and offering of the cup with those strange words: take eat, this is my body. Drink this all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant. And then the giving of the great commandment to love, each and everyone, as Christ has loved them. The disciples have also been told that they will be disloyal in the face of danger. That they will fail when put to the test. This celebration of freedom was not turning out to be quite what they expected, not quite what they thought they were coming to.
And yet, this meal, this event in the life of Christ brings together everything that Jesus has meant: his life, his words, his actions are all here. Because it is here that “He shows the full extent of love”. It is here, at that meal, that night that Jesus shows what he is, why he is. Here the incarnation is fully revealed and the reason why the incarnation had to happen becomes clear: that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to save us and bring us eternal life. God so loved the world. The simple-sounding phrase that is given such emphasis in the music of Stainer: repeated, twice at the beginning: God so loved the world. God so loved the world. And three times at the end, drifting away into contemplation. God so loved the world.
Holy Week is the coming together of God’s love. God is with us, has been walking and revealing God’s plans, God’s vision for the world, and now, in Holy Week, humanity gets to have its say. And so the events play out. And still God can love us. And does love us, transforming our unbelief, transforming the seeming failure of God’s plan into glorious victory. But that is yet to come. Here we enter the darkness of betrayal, of rejection, of denial, of fear. And yet, here also the hope glimmers, reflected in the loving actions of Jesus who, as Nicholas Holtam says: at Maundy Thursday “gives us a lesson in loving service” by washing his disciples’ feet. (1) Our Lord and Master kneels at our feet, dirty with the toil of the day, and washes them, lovingly, carefully, humbly, then drying them with his towel. He enacts in that scene his whole message: of Servant Leadership. Of selfless service of others. This is the enactment of his commandment – and I think it is no coincidence that the demonstration of its meaning comes before that commandment. The giving of the bread and wine – to be shared in remembrance of his final sacrifice on the cross – also enacts that love of each other, of all others as he loves us. We are to wash each others feet. To serve Christ in one another and love and he loves us. To take the gift of the bread and wine and share it, remembering that Christ died for us and through that death brought us home, revealed God’s deep, unconditional love for us.
And so tonight we join the disciples in watching Jesus’ actions, listening to his words. We know that, like the disciples, sometimes we betray our faith, deny it, run from it, but we also know that, like them, we are met in Jesus and brought home again, forgiven, loved and free. Because of tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. The three go together, and we need the time of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to watch and wait with Christ for dawning of Easter, the breaking through of the light of Christ stronger, more powerfully into the world and into our hearts, souls, minds and strength and lives. Knowing that within our darkest nights, God kindles a fire that never dies away, never dies away, and this fire, this love commands us to share it, spread it, through our own loving acts of service and sacrifice. Because the God of love kneels at our feet, though we betray him, and he meets us here and loves us into light. Because God so loved the world. God so loved the world. God so loved the world. I finish with the whole of Malcolm Guite’s poem:
Maundy Thursday.
Here is the source of every sacrament,
The all-transforming presence of the Lord,
Replenishing our every element
Remaking us in his creative Word.
For here the earth herself gives bread and wine,
The air delights to bear his Spirit’s speech,
The fire dances where the candles shine,
The waters cleanse us with His gentle touch.
And here He shows the full extent of love
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search the heavens high above,
The God of love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betray Him, though it is the night.
He meets us here and loves us into light. (2)
Amen.
1: Holtam N (2008) A Room With a View – Ministry with the world at your door” SPCK London p.107
2: https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/maundy-thursday/