Maundy Thursday 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13: 1-17, 31b-35A meal can be used in many different ways. From a quick meal at the nearest takeaway to a lavish feast in the most opulent of surroundings. The quick meal can be a means to an end, a brief diversion from what you are doing before continuing again. The lavish feast may be a celebration of an event or recognition of an achievement gained.In the epistle reading we are looking at a meal where Jesus is with his disciples. Is this going to be a quick snack or something more extensive? The answer is that there is no other meal that is so sacred, so fundamental, to the Church. These are the words that Jesus shared with those at table with him. They are the words of the most sacred act of worship in the Church, the words of the Sacrament of the Last Supper.The words, their understanding, may be hard for us to fully appreciate perhaps, but as we sit to eat our slice of bread at the table we do not need to understand its chemical makeup to gain from it nourishment. We can look at the bread and wine of the Eucharist with similar understanding. When Jesus broke the bread and handed it round he said, “This is my body”. However, when he said this he was still in his body. The bread and his body were very much different things. He also did not mean that this stands for my body. Partly true but very much more. As we take the bread and eat it we do so in faith and love. Not just faith and love of Jesus who died for us, but of a living contact with him. A non-believer would feel nothing but to a lover of Jesus it is our way into his presence. It is through our faith that we share in the Body and Blood of Christ.The past few homilies have been looking at promises, at covenants. Under the old promises humans were for ever at fault. They could not hope to keep to the law in a perfect way and so they were always in default. They were very much dependent upon the free grace of God’s love. But we now have a new promise. We can approach God as our Father. This is possible through the shedding of the blood of Christ. The wine of the sacrament stands for the life-blood of Jesus through which this new relationship is possible.The meal of the Last Supper is so full of emotion, of meaning, of teaching. Of all meals that we may share as individuals, grab at a drive-through, sit watching the television, or round the table at a silver service restaurant, none could possibly compare with the events at table with Jesus. Collect for Maundy ThursdayGod our Father,you have invited us to share in the supperwhich your Son gave to his Churchto proclaim his death until he comes:may he nourish us by his presence,and unite us in his love;who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.
Wednesday of Holy Week Hebrews 12: 1-3 John 13: 21-32I remember how, in the past, I would walk on Dartmoor. It can be quite an unforgiving place as well as being full of beauty. Only the unwary go unprepared, to remain near a car park and within sight of the road is not pushing the boundaries of danger too far. It is when one strides out into the wilds of the moor that care needs to be taken. Before setting off the rucksack is checked to cater for all eventualities. Then it is picked up and laid down quickly. Far too heavy for the planned walk. Out comes the excess placed in including the proverbial ‘kitchen sink’. Only then can the proposed venture be considered. The handicap which would have weighed us down has been removed.Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews, exhorts us to run the race that is set before us with perseverance. We are running on a track which does not just meander along its way as a visitor would wander when exploring a new location, but one which has a planned direction and route with a goal which is to be like Christ.In addition we are not travelling alone. Paul tells us that we are travelling in the company of a great cloud of witnesses. It would be like embarking on a perilous journey, with danger lurking on every side, with all sorts of hazards and traps ready to ensnare the unsuspected, and all of the time surrounded with a host of those who have gone before us, who have successfully completed the path and who are encouraging us on.This Holy Week Jesus is traveling along the path that will lead him to the Cross. He is doing is with a cloud of witnesses, except here the witnesses include all of those Christians throughout the centuries who, each year look back on those events with grateful hearts. Grateful that, even leading to his death, Jesus obeyed the word of his Father. In so doing he died crying out that our sins may be forgiven us.Those sins are like the contents of our kitbag weighing us down. Contents which we take out and put to one side no longer needed on our journey. Jesus is there forgiving us our sins as we cast them out. Then we can proceed with our own journey and with our own witnesses looking down on us as we go. Thanks be to God that the heavy burden that we would have travelled with has been removed. We now stand a better chance of reaching the goal set before us.Collect for the Wednesday of Holy WeekLord of all life and power,who through the mighty resurrection of your Sonovercame the old order of sin and deathto make all things new in him:grant that we, being dead to sinand alive to you in Jesus Christ,may reign with him in glory;to whom with you and the Holy Spiritbe praise and honour, glory and might,now and in all eternity.
Tuesday of Holy Week 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31 John 12: 20-36We are walking with Jesus in his final few footsteps towards Jerusalem and his arrest leading to his crucifixion. The crucifixion was something of a stumbling-block to the Jews. Their own law tells them that those who are hanged are accursed by God. Therefore, how can someone who is hanged upon a cross possibly be God’s Chosen One. This very act, to the Jew, painted an impossible picture of the Chosen One of God.In God we find goodness and beauty, we find happiness and all that is best. In coming to us as his Son he immediately encounters the ugliness of humanity. To the Greek this just could not happen. How could one who had suffered as Jesus did be the Son of God.This is the atmosphere that surrounded Jesus. The questioning, the uncertainty. How could this happen?There is a well-known sentence in the Bible from the pen of Paul; "What looks like God's foolishness is wiser than men's wisdom; and what looks like God's weakness is stronger than men's strength." How can God allow himself to become involved in such an act? Was it disregard? Here is where some of the problem lay. The wisest of humanity pondered and pondered over this and could not arrive at a solution. But the answer, in its plain and simple truth, is that what might appear to us mere humans as foolishness on God’s part is in fact far wiser than any solution that we might ever possibly derive from all of our deliberations.There is a similar argument to the second part of Paul’s sentence. No matter how strong we might feel in displays of power, or in the volubility of our language. Or in displays of political manoeuvrability or of emotional prowess, all of these displays of strength may be quite formidable to those around us, but are as mere puffs of wind in the strength of God our Father.This was the background of the Christian message. Against the Jewish or Greek ideas it looked as if it would have little chance of success. It was a battle. Christianity won through. Comprising of people from all walks of life, from slave to members of the highest ranks of society, all are called. The reward waiting for them was of knowing that in Jesus they look upon the most uplifting thing in the universe. It told them, and us, in all of our humility, that in the eyes of God we are worth the death of his only Son.Collect for the Tuesday of Holy WeekLord of all life and power,who through the mighty resurrection of your Sonovercame the old order of sin and deathto make all things new in him:grant that we, being dead to sinand alive to you in Jesus Christ,may reign with him in glory;to whom with you and the Holy Spiritbe praise and honour, glory and might,now and in all eternity.
Monday of Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-9 Hebrews 9: 11-15 John 12: 1-11Our journey through Holy Week begins at looking at what it means to be near to God. In the days of Jesus religion was most important in access to God. The purpose of religion was to bring a person into God’s presence. It was also thought that there can be no religion without sacrifice. Purity was costly. To have access to God meant that you had to be pure, your sins must haver been atoned for. In the letter to the Hebrews, we learn that Jesus is the only High Priest who brings a sacrifice that can open the way to God. That sacrifice was himself. Unlike traditional sacrifices it was made voluntarily. Christ has offered himself, like the traditional sacrifices without blemish, to cleanse us from our sins.The gospel reading tells us, in a way, how Jesus was being prepared for his coming sacrifice. To be acceptable a sacrifice had to be without blemish. In the gospel Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with a most costly perfume. Its aroma will have filled the house. One of his disciples objected to the seemingly large waste of money. But here the feet of Jesus were being cleansed. Cleansed so that when he made his sacrifice he would figuratively be without blemish.In Church we have the opportunity to offer sacrifices to God. In one way we do this through the giving of the bread and wine used in the Eucharist. We do not offer just the scraps left over from breakfast, as it were, but bread of the finest quality such as we would lay before a guest at table. If we use wafers instead we make sure that they remain fresh and crisp.Our sacrifices are of the highest quality, fresh and without blemish, such as befits laying before God, for that is what we are doing. There are many other ways that we can lay a sacrifice before God. From placing and arranging flowers in pristine condition to cleaning with due care and respect, from ringing the church bells with precision and skill to handing out books at the start of the service with a genuine welcome, all of these are forms of sacrifice made from our heart. Behind all is the desire to make them out of love. Love lies behind all sacrifices and those that we make to God are made in the name of love through our faith.Collect for the Monday of Holy WeekLord of all life and power,who through the mighty resurrection of your Sonovercame the old order of sin and deathto make all things new in him:grant that we, being dead to sinand alive to you in Jesus Christ,may reign with him in glory;to whom with you and the Holy Spiritbe praise and honour, glory and might,now and in all eternity.