BITTER SWEET NIGHT

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MAUNDY THURSDAY, 2007

John 13:2 "Now He showed how perfect His love was."

St John's account of Maundy Thursday is a strange account, because there no actual institution of the Lord's Supper recorded by him. Instead we have the incredible ceremony of the washing of the feet. All the other gospels and St. Paul place great store on what Jesus did in the course of the Passover Meal, in taking the bread and the wine. But St. John is different. Some sources consider that by the time St. John wrote his gospel the Eucharist was so central to being a Christian - it was what Christians automatically do - that he felt no need to give yet another narrative about it.

Indeed St. John's gospel is full of teaching about the Eucharist, especially chapter 6 in which he makes Jesus’ great declaration: "I am the bread of life." Thus St. John emphasizes another theme during the supper - the washing of the feet. I wonder what would have happened if instead of the consecration of the bread and wine, that the washing of the feet would have been the central theme of what Christians do Sunday by Sunday, and day after day when they celebrate the Eucharist?

Imagine if that had happened 2,000 years ago as the basis for our regular worship. Throughout history there would have been a debate about how the water was to be used, and what sort of water it should be. There would be debate about what sort of containers should contain the water - and indeed what change happens to the water, and to the feet. Perhaps a great debate about who should be allowed to have their feet washed, and should it only be to males. And there would be a great trade in designing the bowls, jugs and towels - the latter, no doubt, in full liturgical colors! But we have been spared those debates, and those industries.

But on this night, of all the Eucharists that we celebrate in this church, we do have the washing of the feet. It is a reminder to us that there is another aspect to the Eucharist. An aspect St. John was keen to remind us of. In the foot washing we have an unlikely image of Jesus' love. And it is no less an image of Our Blessed Lord giving himself in love than as he does in the Sacrament, and as he does on the cross. All three are connected - the foot washing, the giving of the sacrament in the Eucharist, and the giving of Christ's life on the cross.

In the Eucharist Jesus says "this is my body, which will be given up for you." It is the same body tonight as on the cross tomorrow. The same body of Christ. In the middle of this great celebration of the Last Supper and the first Eucharist we are reminded in the foot-washing of the humble witness of Jesus on that night to the bonds of love - which are the sign forever of the members of his body, you and I.

This raw moment in which Jesus humbles himself ensures that tonight is a bitter sweet night. Just as last Sunday we began Holy Week with the joy and fun of the Palm Procession, and then were taken to the very passion of Jesus - so tonight we go from celebration to sadness, and everything in between those emotions.

We celebrate a glorious Mass in gold vestments with flowers and music, as befits a commemoration of the first Eucharist. There was joy as all the bells were rung during the Gloria - then the sober realization that they will not be rung again until that same moment on Saturday night in the Easter vigil. And oh how glorious that will be!

But even as we celebrate joyfully that first Eucharist, we see that the tabernacle is empty, the lamps are out, and there is no holy water to bless ourselves. Already we are in the passion of Jesus. It is a bitter sweet night indeed.

As the service moves along we are aware of the shadow of the cross falling deeper and deeper across it. Finally at the end - in the moving procession with candles and incense of the Blessed Sacrament - we proceed with Jesus to what is our Garden of Gethsemane here in the chapel.

That procession dissolves in that garden.

Gethsemane is our journey's end tonight - and it is a place of tears and silent prayers.

In the chapel some of us will share in Jesus' silent vigil on that first night Maundy Thursday. Doing so we are conscious that he said to the 12 all those years ago: "Could you not watch with me but one hour?"

Then leaving the garden, the procession - less solemn, almost chaotic - begins the stripping of the altar, to remind us of that Jesus was stripped before his crucifixion.

The church becomes dark. We have arrived at Good Friday.

We leave the darkened church after all this celebration knowing that this is the night in which he was betrayed.

And it all began with the foot washing - when Jesus in humility showed the depth of his love.