Sermon
Maundy Thursday 9th April 2020
I wonder
how Jesus would have coped under today’s restrictions.
Washing his
disciples’ feet.
Gathered
together – 13 of them – sitting close together.
Passing
around a common cup for Holy Communion.
Breaking
bread and passing it on to one another.
They dipped
their hands together into a bowl.
Even Judas
would betray Jesus with a kiss.
No social
distancing – no hygiene practices – lots of physical contact.
There are
lots of people who are in crisis over the lockdowns that have occurred during
this pandemic.
Those who
have lost jobs.
Those who
have had weddings affected.
Those who
have had funerals affected.
And the
church has not been spared from those affects.
Our church
services have ceased – although we have found ways to still conduct worship
through technology.
I have
heard some people who enjoy this.
More than a
few have said how they enjoyed getting up on Sunday morning and “watching”
church in their pyjamas with a coffee.
But let us
never downgrade worship to an event that we “watch”.
While what
we are doing is patching a hole as we wait for the restrictions to ease –
worship is not “watching” it is participation.
Yes God is
everywhere – even in our loungerooms – but this is not the presence of God that
we pine for.
We pine for
the presence of God in his body and blood.
We pine for
the presence of God in the people of God who gather around Word and Sacrament.
And so we
won’t devise a situation where a Pastor will speak the Communion liturgy
through the webcam while you have a piece a bread and a cup of wine at the
other end.
That’s not
what Jesus instituted.
This
lockdown should be making us hunger and thirst for the time when we can again
gather together – when we can shake the hand of our neighbour and share the peace
of the Lord – when we can kneel together at the altar (or stand) and reach out
our hand and have the body and blood of our Lord placed into our hands and not
electronically transmitted.
Personal
touch and togetherness is at the heart of worship and that’s why we are
suffering.
I can’t help thinking of that passage in
Matthew when Jesus is pining over Jerusalem, wanting to gather them under his
arms like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings and he says:
Look, your
house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until
you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’.
And that is
what our churches look like at present – desolate.
And they
will remain desolate until that day when we gather and hear those words again
in the Communion liturgy - ‘Blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord.’
Until then
we have the assurance of God’s presence with us as he promised in our Baptism –
I am with you always until the end of the age.
And he will
continue to be with us until the end of this current pandemic.
Like you I
am pining for the day when we can gather together again and sing the liturgy
together – sing our songs and hymns together – gather around the Table of our
Lord together – to shake your hand in peace.
Until that
day, which we place into God’s hands and trust him we can continue to be the
body of Christ together as we fulfil the New Commandment that he has left us:
I give you
a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."
So until
that day when we meet again and sing “blessed is he who comes in the name of
the Lord” let us love one another as Christ loves us.
Let us call
one another – let us support one another in any way we can – and let us pray
for one another, for the world, for the church and for all people according to
their needs.
Come Lord
Jesus Come – come into our weary world.
Blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.
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