Thursday, April 9, 2020

DAY 44

Image by Giuseppe Milo


Maundy Thursday




A Greeting
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;
do not hold your peace at my tears.
(Psalm 39:12)

A Reading
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.’
(John 13:3-10)

Music


Meditative Verses
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’
(Matthew 26:36-38)

A Poem
Before we get to Easter, we need to linger:
in the vulnerability of the basin and the towel
at the remembrance and promise of the table
in the struggle and betrayal of the garden
in the shadows and shouts of injustice
at the bloody brutal beautiful cross
in the silence of linen and spices and death

For without these, the empty tomb is empty
- "We Need to Linger" by Rev. Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
found on her website revlisad.com


Verse for the Day
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
(Psalm 27:14)



Image Source



The word ‘Maundy’ comes from the latin word ‘mandatum’ or ‘command’, and derives from Jesus’ command to us to love one another. This first day of the “Great Three Days” is packed with meaning, from the foot washing and passover supper to the Garden of Gethsemane and the arrest of Jesus. Each of these would normally be a part of our focus at different moments of a traditional Maundy Thursday worship service and indeed may be still, within the live-streamed and pre-recorded services on offer from parishes across the country. (Go here to find a list of these on the ELCIC.ca website.) In some ways, the moment of Jesus praying in the garden while his friends sleep, unable to stay awake and keep watch with him, expresses the dramatic heart of Holy Week. Throughout his Galilean ministry we hear that Jesus has gone up a mountain to pray by himself, usually after he has been surrounded by crowds or in long periods of conversation and travel with the disciples. Now he is actually deeply craving company in his hour of need and is desperate for his friends to keep watch with him, to stay awake and help him. In his anguish, and in contrast to all the other times he has gone away to pray, his loneliness is crushing. This aspect of Jesus’ experience may especially resonate with us this year, on this day when in normal times we would be meeting up in our church buildings. We too crave company. We may be starting to weary of skype calls with family as it only increases our longing to be in the physical presence of them. It’s hard not to mark the days of the week for which we had plans: “by now I would have arrived to stay with her”; “by now he would be here to help me manage.” While we await a time in hope of reunion, we can remember the meal in the Upper Room during which Jesus prepares his friends for his absence. One of the ways that he demonstrates his love for them is by washing their feet. It is an action of servant leadership, an expression of humility that subverts what is expected and establishes new rules. Peter challenges him in a way that allows Jesus to distinguish between the symbolic act of washing feet and the activity of bathing. We bathe ourselves to be clean, Jesus says, but he washes the feet of others to express his love and commitment to serving their needs in the world. As we ourselves cope with ‘new rules’, we too find ourselves constantly washing — our hands. We always did wash our hands but now we do so more often and with greater attention, not just to protect ourselves but as an act of caring for others. In this way, our hand washing blends the 'bathing' of cleanliness and the desire to serve the wellbeing of others. Although we cannot gather in community to wash each other's feet, as a gesture of servanthood and discipleship how might we be challenged today to think of someone else’s hands every time we wash our own? How might we bless them with this simple act of faith?





LC† Reimagining Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,

supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Join us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and on Twitter.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

DAY 43

Image by Alcidesota

Holy Week Wednesday




A Greeting
I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
(Psalm 52:8)

A Reading
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’
(John 12:1-6;8)

Music


Meditative Verse
They laid him on a bier that had been filled with various
kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art.
(2 Chronicles 16:14)

A Reflection
No gentle friend would be allowed to tend him when he was pinned to the cross; no loving hand would be able to soothe him when he was close to the end. But tender forethought had led Mary to prepare for the approach of that day, and to provide for its bitter trial by this ministry of love. Are we willing to offer him the outpoured love of our inmost soul?
- from Mary of Bethany by Marcus L. Loane

Verse for the Day
‘As spices were burned for your ancestors,
the earlier kings who preceded you,
so they shall burn spices for you and lament for you,
saying, "Alas, lord!”’
(Jeremiah 34:5)



Image by Alcidesota



During the past three days, we have seen how Jesus, in the last days of his life, is encouraging those around him to turn their thoughts from material ways of experiencing faith, to focus on Jesus himself. First we hear that he will replace the temple, then he says that he replaces the living water of the pools. Now with Mary’s anointing, he draws focus to his coming death and what it will mean. The dinner offered by the family at Bethany likely unfolded either just before Palm Sunday or during the week of events that led to Jesus’ arrest. What does Mary know? In a few days, her friends, some of the other women disciples, will anxiously bring spices to anoint Jesus’ body when he is laid out in the tomb. They will do so only a day after he has washed their feet and the feet of all the disciples. Mary’s spontaneous action at the dinner is a gift of gratitude that as Marcus Loane suggests, challenges us all to consider how much we are willing to give our faith and love to him. Having seen the complex reaction of the mobs surrounding Jesus in Jerusalem, perhaps she has a foreknowledge of how this all is going to end. Jesus tells us that she has anointed him as one does in a burial. She has taken what has been saved for such a blessing and washed Jesus’ feet while he is with her, instead of after he is gone. “What wondrous love is this?” refers to Jesus’ great sacrifice for us. But it can also describe the deepest love of one who has faith. Right now all of us are being called to demonstrate wondrous love for each other by sacrificing our normal lives for the sake of the safety of people we dont know. Maimonides, a twelfth-century Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar, once categorized the kinds of ‘alms giving’ in a hierarchical list of eight. At the very bottom, is when one feels burdened to do any kind of giving at all and gives only grudgingly. It moves up through steps of knowing the one being given to or not knowing them, to arrive at number one, the utmost form of ‘tzedekah’, which is doing whatever is necessary for the wellbeing of those we don’t know. Right now, all of us by staying home from our Holy Week activities are actually demonstrating the highest form of giving alms, by making sacrifices to ensure the health of those we don’t know. As we continue into the remaining days of Holy Week, how can we redirect our increasing sorrow at the loss of our traditional ways of expressing our faith to focus entirely on Jesus? How can we can lavish our love on him by helping to ensure that those we don't know, indeed everyone, has a better chance to thrive and be well?





LC† Reimagining Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,

supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Join us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and on Twitter.