A New Way

Sermon preached Thursday, April 1, 2021, Maundy Thursday, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA.

As I was preparing my sermon for tonight, I was really struck by the Gospel story in a new way.

I don’t say that lightly. The story of the Last Supper, Jesus’ last evening with his disciples, is incredibly well known. Not only do we hear it every Holy Week on Maundy Thursday, but we hear segments of this Farewell Discourse throughout the year, and we are reminded of it each time we partake in communion.

Even still, I heard it anew, especially the ending.

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

Even here, even at the end of it all, even though he’s about to be betrayed and denied and beaten and executed—he still has love on his mind.

That’s what this meal is about: love.

And this love is for everyone.

This love is for Judas, who we know is secretly plotting. He is going to tip off the chief priests and lead them to Jesus. And still, Jesus washes his feet. And still, Jesus offers him the same bread and wine.

And this love is for Peter, who we know will end up resorting to violence and denying him. Still, Jesus washes his feet. Still, Jesus offers him the same bread and wine.

And this love is for all those disciples in the upper room, the ones who will hid until Jesus appears to them and struggle to find their way forward.

Still, Jesus washes their feet. Still, Jesus offers them the same bread and wine.

And what’s more?

This love is even, miraculously, blessedly, thankfully, for us, too.

We, who will value power or money over God.

We, who will deny God when things get tough.

We, who will hide when we are afraid.

We, who will hurt our neighbor and be selfish and ignore the injustices around us.

Somehow, God’s abundant, unending love is for us—for us to receive and for us to share. To share freely—with no litmus test to judge another’s qualifications or divisions set up by our politics.

Love—God’s love—is above it all.

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

Let’s be sure that’s what others see.

Amen.

Embodied Faith

Sermon preached Thursday, April 18, 2019, Maundy Thursday, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA.

Welcome to the first of the Three Days, the holiest days of our faith year. Over the next few nights we’ll journey with Jesus from the Upper Room to the Garden to the Cross until, finally, we sit in vigil at the tomb proclaiming the resurrection.

You’ll notice that in these three days my sermons will also be shorter than normal—and there’s good reason for that. The liturgies of these days are so full of action and ritual and scripture that they really speak for themselves…or rather, they allow for each worshipper to have a conversation with them. Too many words on my part would be superfluous.

Out of every worship service we hold, tonight is perhaps the most tangible. It is all about our senses: the items in the sanctuary we see, the water we feel, the bread and wine we taste and smell, the words we hear and say. Every single one of our senses are engaged in some way.

It’s a reminder that our faith is a thing we live out in our bodies, our faith is not just in our minds or something we might feel abstractly—but it is something that is embodied, something we might even feel down in our bones.

Of course, that’s when our faith is strong, when it is so palpable, we can almost physically touch it…but maybe that’s not where you are right now. Maybe you’re struggling to even grasp your faith, let alone feel it in your whole being. Maybe you’ve been feeling disconnected from God…and maybe there’s no better time to let yourself be immersed in the things that can only be sensed. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even sense yourself being called back into that holy relationship.

After all, that’s what kind of what happened at the last supper—Jesus renewed and reinforced his relationships with his disciples even though he knew one was betraying him and another would shortly deny even knowing him. Even then, Jesus shared a meal and washed the feed of those he loved and was in relationship with…and then he told them to keep doing it for each other, knowing that each time they did, their relationship with each other and with God would be strengthened and renewed.

Sometimes, we take this part of the story for granted and we forget just how incredible it is. Even with all their failings, Jesus still welcomes the disciples and trusts them with is final commandment to love one another. He knows they’ll screw up, that they’ll fight amongst themselves and at first lack the courage to spread his word…but nonetheless he knows they can do it.

The same goes for us. We screw up in our faith all the time. We betray God by ignoring the people who are most in need and damaging the world God created for us. We deny knowing God every time we leave our faith at the door when we leave here and pretend the rest of the week like it doesn’t impact us. We hide in fear when God is calling us to public acts of discipleship. And yet…and yet God still meets us here, at this table, offering us grace and forgiveness and most of all love.

So tonight, participate in the washing. Taste the bread and wine. Sing the songs. Hear and speak the prayers. Sense Jesus’ deep care for you and feel Jesus’ presence in your body.

Feel your relationship with God in a new way.

Amen.

A New (Impossible) Commandment

Sermon preached Maundy Thursday, March 29, 2018, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA.

As most of you know, I grew up in the church. My dad is a pastor and my mom is a deacon. This means that there has never been a time in my thirty years of living when I have not participated in Holy Week Services. Not always all of them—I didn’t experience my first vigil until Seminary—but Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were always part of the mix. There were some years when we were a bit creative with our observance, like when my dad was serving a church in Anaheim and we were at Disneyland up until about an hour before worship started…and we went immediately back afterwards! But regardless, I always knew growing up that these days were important.

I knew they were important, but I didn’t always know why, especially when it came to Maundy Thursday. For all my years attending worship on this day, I was still at a loss for why it has this strange sounding name. I don’t blame the congregations I grew up in and I definitely don’t blame my dad who I am sure explained it many times…I just don’t think I was paying attention.

For awhile I thought it was “Monday Thursday.” I made sense of it in my head by thinking, “Well, Thursday is kind of like the ‘first day’ of this part of Holy Week, so it’s like the Monday Thursday.” Get it? Yeah, I was way off base.

By the time I got into high school, I knew it was “Maundy,” and not “Monday.” I think I got “maundy” confused with “maudlin” and was convinced that we called it “maundy” simply because it was a sad time. Jesus is having this last supper with his friends and then we all knew that the arrest and crucifixion were right around the corner. Sad. Emotional. Maundy?

Of course, that’s not correct either, is it? Anyone know why we call it “Maundy Thursday”? It’s from the Latin word mandatum, the same word we get “mandate” from. We call today Maundy Thursday because it is the day we are given a mandate from Jesus.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” (John 13:34a) This is our mandate. This is what God is calling us to: to love. And not only to love, but to love one another as God has first loved us.

Wow. That’s a tall order. I’m sure Jesus didn’t mean to scare off his disciples, but if I was in that upper room and I heard Jesus say this, I’d probably hold up my hand and say, “Jesus, you know we love you and we’ll try our best…but there is no way we can love other people the way you love us. Other people are jerks sometimes. We’re jerks sometimes. It’s impossible.”

When I picture this scene in my mind, Jesus always ends up looking at me with a wry smile on his face, as if he expected this response. Of course we won’t succeed in loving others the same way God does—we don’t even always love ourselves that much! But, nonetheless, this is what we’re called to: love with open arms.

We are loved so much that God willingly endured the arrest, humiliation, torture and execution we called for when we cried out, “Crucify him!” How can we show even a small sliver of that love to others?

Now might be the time for that cliché question: What Would Jesus Do? What did Jesus do?

Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus welcomed outsiders. Jesus forgave. Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of mercy and grace. Jesus was generous. Jesus was compassionate. Jesus didn’t exclude or give up on people. Jesus argued and fought for justice, an end to oppression, and for peace.

How can we love like God loves us? We’ve got our roadmap all laid out. What did Jesus do? We will stumble. We’ll take a wrong turn here and there. We’ll fail from time to time, but love will still happen because God is still working in us and through us.

God gives us a new commandment, that we love one another. Let’s get to it. Amen.