Sermon Archive
Readings for 5 April 2007
Maundy Thursday
Year C
Exodus 12:1-14a
The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 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 judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
John 13:1-15
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
Luke 22:14-30
When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!" Then they began to ask one another, which one of them it could be who would do this.
A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But he said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
"You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Sermon
The Rev. Susan B. P. Norris
"Do this in remembrance of me."
What does it mean to remember? One thing it means, of course, is that we have a picture in our minds of something that happened "once upon a time." So that when we recall that picture, when we bring it again to the front of our minds, we see it again, and sometimes feel, hear or even taste and smell it as well. When we say that events and people live on in our memories that's what we mean. Is that what is happening tonight?
Yes, that is one thing that is happening, Tonight certainly is for remembering, in that sense of recalling. We recall the story of Jesus' last meal with his disciples. We recall the borrowed room, the Passover lamb with its bitter herbs, the washed feet, the bread and wine, the garden at night, and hanging over all our memories we sense again the threatening black and blood red shadows of betrayal and impending sacrifice.
Yet, when we have remembered all those things, and told once again the story of the upper room and the Mount of Olives we have only scratched the service of tonight's command "Do this in remembrance of me." Do this, in remembrance of me. Use these things, say these words. Tell this story, sing these songs, feel and smell water, incense, bread, and wine, candle wax, and fresh linen. Do this to remember me. Recall what I have done with you and for you. Do this to re-member me. Do this to put yourselves back together with each other during any controversy or pain or sorrow. “Do this.” Help me to bring back into one family all the estranged peoples of the earth. Do this to remember that I have marked you as my own forever, and that I will never forget that you are mine. “Do this to Remember Me. . . . . ..” How many times in your Christian lives, have you seen that phrase - Carved, embroidered, written in stone on a communion table, an altar or on its covering?
Do this to remember me. “Do this,” for when we do, we, by our remembering, call Jesus alive and into our midst. Do this to re-member me, to put us back together with each other after the chances and currants of our lives have torn us apart. Do this because by “remembering Jesus,” we become instruments of Jesus’ presence within this broken world. By "doing this,” we invite Jesus, into our presence Just as Jesus' remembering us, keeps us alive and in God's presence For as we are remembering Jesus, God is remembering us.
Praying that God will "remember us." is one of humankind's oldest prayers. The thief on the cross will pray tomorrow, "Remember me Lord, when you come into your kingdom."- In the Ash Wednesday litany, we pleaded, "Remember not, oh Lord, our sins and offenses" “ Remember O Lord, your servant Mary, - - or James, or Nana – or Pop-Pop, or Paul” we pray at funerals.
Remember us, O God, Remember us, for if you were ever to forget us, we would vanish like a dream and we would exist no more. We are human beings are literally alive because God remembers us. God is thinking of each and everyone of us right now. If She were not, we would vanish away like a morning fog, never to be recalled again by anyone, anywhere. What vanishes from God's memory, like the sins we beg God to forget, simply does not exist anywhere When we pray, "Remember us God," we are really praying, "keep us in existence." How strange, then, and how incredibly wonderful, that Jesus asks us to remember him hat Jesus trust us to remember and to tell, the stories and actions which keep him alive and among us.
"For I received of the Lord that which I passed on to you,” says St. Paul, That the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, Took bread, and when he had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you, Do this in remembrance of me.’ "
Jesus tells us, “Eat this bread, Drink this wine These are my body and blood, Eternally given for you Do this to keep me alive and present in your midst. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Tonight as we eat and drink, We do indeed proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. But we also proclaim the Lord's physical presence among us. In the church about her altar as we "remember" Jesus into our presence, In wine and bread blessed, broken and shared, and in the sacrament enshrined on the altar in flowers and candlelight. We also proclaim Christ’s presence within all creation, as we go out of this holy place to love, and to give all that we have and all that we are, in service to others and to all creation. That Christ’s presence may be remembered throughout the world as we, God’s people, become temples of Jesus’ dwelling among us.
This evening, as we celebrate this Eucharist, we are declaring that Jesus is here among us, present in bread and wine as our food, our hope, our life and our strength. Where is Jesus? Here is Jesus, Risen and present among us, marking us as Christ’s own forever as we do this, to re-member Him.
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