April 18, 2019

Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31-35

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who comes to us in bread and wine. Amen
 
Tonight is a night of memories.
 
memories help tell us who we are,
 both as individuals and as communities,
 they are the stories that tell us where we’ve come from
 and point us to where we are going
 
and yet the calling to mind of these stories
is as fragile
as the stories are important,
 
we’ve all experienced the sensation
of walking into a room and completely forgetting
 why we came into that room in the first place,
 
 we’ve debated with others
what exactly happened that one time,
we’ve experienced the devastation
of dementia and memory loss in loved ones.
 
 Yet some things remain clear in our minds,
 our home telephone number from elementary school
or the snappy jingle
 directing us to a particular brand of breakfast cereal,
 
part of the mystery of living
 is that we don’t always get to choose which memories
 naturally stay fresh and clear
and which fade away.
 
But we have found that there are things we can do
 to help us remember,
 intentionally hold on to,
 the important stories.
 
We do this by telling the stories over and over again,
we attach rituals to the stories
where we act them out,
 we tie the stories to our senses
the taste, touch, smell, sight and sounds
all helping us to remember.
 
Tonight is a night of remembering,
calling to mind the stories that define us,
 stories so important
 that God has told us to remember them.
 
In our first lesson we heard God telling the people of Israel
how they are to remember the defining moment
 when God brought them out of slavery into freedom.
 
 Each year, God tells the people,
they are to reenact the exodus,
and in the eating of the roasted lamb
while dressed to travel at a moments notice
the story of what God had done
will come alive once more
and the people will remember
that they are people meant for freedom
 guided by a great and powerful God.
 
“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.” God tells the people
 
And that is what Jesus and the disciples are doing
 all those hundreds of years later
when they are gathered around the table
for what Jesus knows will be their last meal together.
 
And as they recall the foundation of their relationship with God,
 Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us,
who ate and drank with the disciples,
 healed and prayed, cried and celebrated
gives the disciples a way to remember this aspect of relationship with God
and the new freedom they are about to experience
through Jesus’ actions on the cross.
 
Gathered together at the table of remembering
Jesus takes bread,
the common everyday food
and he blesses it and then breaks the loaf
and gives it to the disciples saying this is my body,
do this to remember me.
 
And then Jesus takes the cup of wine,
 the drink of celebrations
blesses it and gives it to the disciples saying
 this is the new covenant, in my blood,
drink it to remember my promise to you.
 
In the future, Jesus tells the disciples,
whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup
you will remember what I have done for you.
 
On the cross in body broken and blood poured out
 Jesus frees us from sin and death.
 
At the table, in broken bread and wine poured out
Jesus forgives us,
 freeing us to move past our mistakes and our failures
 to the wholeness of new life in Christ.
 
 And what does that new life look like?
It looks like Jesus kneeling at the feet of his disciples
washing their feet,
 
an act of love and humility
that Jesus says they are to copy
 as they live out the new commandment of Jesus,
 to love one another just as Jesus has loved them.
 
This is the sign to others that you are my disciples
 Jesus tells them in the gospel of John,
the love that you have for one another.
 
Yes, we have two different stories of Jesus’ last night with the disciples,
 in Matthew, Mark and Luke we hear about the last supper,
in John we hear about the washing of feet and the new commandment,
 
 these were the stories, the memories
passed down in the communities where the gospels were first written
and while they are different,
and we might wonder at that
 
 both the stories are included in our holy scriptures
because ultimately we need both stories
 for our relationship with God.
 
we need the new commandment
that points us toward the future in Christ,
a future marked by love lived out in service to others,
and we need the forgiveness
 found when Jesus comes to us in bread and wine, body and blood,
after we have failed to love as Jesus loves
 
and we need to hear these stories again and again
as again and again we hear the command to love
and receive the forgiveness of God
living in the law of love and the grace of Jesus.
 
So we tell the stories when we gather,
we hand down memories in the telling, and acting,
 the taste and touch, the smells and the singing
 
these memories remind us of who we are,
people who live in freedom
because of the great acts of God,
 people who are to love and serve their neighbors,
people with a God who comes to us in bread and wine
to remind us that we are God’s children,
 fed and forgiven, freed to love. Amen