Maundy Thursday. Southport 2021
Passover meal: protection from the angel of death passing through the land. Egyptians were focused on their afterlife. Their whole economy was pushed into that. One of the things they needed to get to their afterlife was to not lose their name. So they would carve their names into the stone doorways of their mud brick houses. The Jewish people would have built exactly the same way.
So on that Passover night, their names were covered in the blood of a lamb, and the angel of death passed over. With us, as Christians, it’s not just our names covered over. Our whole being is covered over, from the inside out, by the blood of our lamb, Jesus Christ. We receive that in the Lord’s Supper.
Roast lamb. Middle Eastern peasant food is vegetarian. Think hummus. Along with everything else that was going on, packing up, getting ready to leave, they got to eat a feast – special food, roast lamb. A wonderful meal, a treat, giving them strength for the long journey from slavery in Egypt to the promised land and strength tricky in-between time of the wilderness. Strength for the journey of our lives–that is what we receive each time in the Lord’s Supper.
Do this in remembrance of me. That remembering the Passover is a reconnecting for Jewish people even today and has strengthened them in some very hard times. The remembering is a re-experiencing, reconnecting, re-living what happened in the past, and making it their s today. This is what happened when we left Egypt. For us, Christ, joins us to what has happened, to what is, and to what will be. We are safely held in Christ’s love.
Then, on this night, Jesus takes it and changes the traditional ‘liturgy’ of the Passover. When it is time for the bread to be passed around he does the unbelievable and says: This is my body. Take it and eat it. When the wine is passed around: This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.
I like our simple Lutheran approach, where we take those words, and don’t try to explain them. The Catholics have used Greek philosophical concepts to try and protect the idea of the real presence of Christ. Others said ‘How can something finite (a piece of bread) contain the infinite. How can the body of Christ, now in heaven, be down on earth in this bread?” And so they rejected the real presence, and just said that it was a memorial meal. Again, not recognising when to use human reasoning, and when not to. Lutherans just said, this is a mystery. We simply take the words as they are, and don’t try to explain them. Christ’s body, given for you. Christ’s blood. Shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. Real, true, and it does not depend on your faith to make it work for good in you. Come as you are.
Corinth was a major multicultural city, with many temples to all sorts of different gods, and also a huge slave population. The early Christians reflected that population, and they all brought in their own ideas and practices. They met in some rich person’s house, maybe on a Saturday night or a Sunday, maybe on a week night. They would have a ‘love feast’ a shared meal during which they would share the Lord’s Supper. But they weren’t doing it as one. Paul tells them, because there is one loaf of bread, we, who share in Christ’s body, are one. But they had rich people bringing a big hamper of food, and getting drunk. Slaves were only able to come and join in after they had done all their jobs, and they missed out. Paul writes: Do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? Remember, for Paul, church is not a building, but people joined together in Christ. Paul tells them, that they weren’t seeing the body. I don’t think he meant just the bread: this is my body given for you. I think he also meant, you are not seeing that we all together are part of the body. The Lord’s Supper joins us together to Christ, and to each other.
So, remember, re-experience being joined together to Christ: this is my body, given for you, this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. There is the individual joined: you are covered over by the blood of Christ. The angel of death has to pass over you. When it does come time to die, it is only a sleep. We open our eyes, and there is Jesus, welcoming us home for ever.
You are set free from slavery – not a physical slavery in Egypt, but free from slavery in your heart and mind. Free from not being enough, having to constantly worry if you are beautiful enough, good enough, strong enough. You are, in Christ. Forgiven and dearly loved. The real presence of Christ, making you more real, and more connected.
So step out in faith. You are part of God’s team. There is support, trust it.
