HELLO!

Welcome to Maundy Thursday. I know I will see many of you at 2 pm as we celebrate the wonderful life and ministry of Bob Watt. Later, we will gather downstairs in the Brick Hall for an intimate sharing of Jesus’ Last Supper, including a reflection from me, another from the Gunter and Torishnia families, and three selections of music by the Torishnia children.

For several decades after the Resurrection, Jesus’ followers were known as the People of the Way. Almost 2000 years separate the first followers of Jesus from 21^st century Christians. The People of the Way understood Jesus to be the embodiment of what can be seen of God. Jesus shows us who God is and Jesus shared with his followers his vision of God’s justice. We gather on Thursday at 7 pm to remember the night Jesus named deep community in a sacred meal and at the same time was betrayed, denied and abandoned. It all starts with the sacred meal, we call Communion. Most of us are so familiar with the words of institution:

“On the night he was betrayed, our Jesus had supper with his friends and at that meal Jesus took bread gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his followers saying take and eat this is my body, given for you do this for the remembrance of me. And when the supper was over, Jesus took a cup of wine, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Drink this all of you this cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Throughout history human beings have known two rather basic ways of creating, maintaining, or restoring good relations with one another—the gift and the meal. To the ancients what better gift for an ancient than to sacrifice the most precious of possessions, the very best of the livestock. One of the meanings of the word sacrifice is gift. Jesus gathers with his followers, the ones he’s been teaching for a long time. Although Jesus is their teacher, he humbles himself and performs the actions of a servant and washes his followers’ feet. Then Jesus and his followers sit down to eat the Passover meal, a meal that signifies an earlier attempt of God’s to free God’s chosen ones from the cycle of violence. As in so many other Gospel stories, like Luke 14, Jesus makes the mealtime, and who sits at the table, the lesson for how God’s love comes to life. Jesus is alive at the table, Jesus is alive in the beloved community, Jesus is alive in us.

Please keep the Watt family in your prayers and join us at 7 pm as we break bread together, sing hymns of love, and hear stories of solindarity.

Peace, Kevin

PS Here is the livestream link for the Ecumenical Good Friday service on April 3rd at 130 pm. https://youtube.com/live/lB6sl3MTnnw