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Video: https://youtu.be/21_rYhys5s4
Audio: /documents/Maundy_Thursday__April_1
Sermon April 1, 2021
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Maundy Thursday
http://lectionarypage.net/YearABC_RCL/HolyWk/MaundyTh_RCL.html
This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. Exodus 12:11-12
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.’ John 13:34-35
It's been nearly ten years since I visited the Holy Land. That trip will always stay with me, I think. One of the places we visited was Mt. Gerazim. It is in Samaria. One of the interesting things about this place is that they still observe the Passover following every instruction just as we heard in our reading from Exodus this evening.
This is an observance they have been following for thousands of years.
For the Israelites at that time, this was to be their last night in bondage. God, through Moses, had brought plagues and frogs and various disasters upon their oppressors, the Egyptians. God kept encouraging the oppressors to free the people; to stop the enslavement and brutality they were inflicting upon their fellow human beings. At one time, they had been friends and equals; during the time of Joseph. Yet, over the years, I guess the human propensity for greed or exploitation of people for your own wishes and desires had set in. Now the first born of the Israelites were being killed. The people were worked to death and their life was miserable. They cried out to God. God heard their cries.
God worked through Moses and Aaron, bringing progressively worse consequences upon the Egyptians. But nothing worked. Now was the time when the next most precious thing would be taken from the Egyptians, while sparing the Israelites and freeing them.
In many ways, it is a gruesome story. We think, well, we live in different times…more civilized times. These tragedies would not need to happen.
Yet, all of these millennia later, we human beings continue to oppress and exploit each other all around the world. Remembering this last meal at the Passover is a reminder that God frees people from oppression. It is a reminder that those who oppress others are given many chances to change their ways. It is a reminder that our God is a God of freedom and liberation for all people. It is a reminder that God ALWAYS frees those in bondage.
Yet even after this event observed throughout the ages, we humans needed another teacher to teach us the lesson of deep love. Often we think of vocation or calling as what we do for our work or our career. Yet, when it comes right down to it, we as Christians are only called to one thing – to love one another.
No matter how we live our lives day-to-day or hour-to-hour, we can love one another. It is the hardest and most challenging thing to do. Loving one another means being patient, forgiving, merciful and humble. It means thinking of others and acting in ways that build up our whole community.
We love one another in so many ways. Sometimes it is in sharing whatever we have so all can live well. Sometimes it is organizing or being part of a protest so all can be liberated. Sometimes it is working for justice. Sometimes is it being present to another person who is going through a difficult time. Sometimes it is in the way we greet another person whether we know them or not.
God continues to call us to the liberating and life-giving way of life that happens when we truly love one another. Let us remember and act.
Amen
