Maundy Thursday
April 14, 2022
Canterbury Campus Ministry (Texas Tech University), Lubbock, Texas
Readings: Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35; Psalm 116:1, 10-17
[Opening Prayer]
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, earth maker, pain bearer, and life giver. Amen.
[You may be seated]
I want to talk to all of you today about the concept of sacrament.
The passages that we have read tell us of the institution of various sacraments: Passover, foot washing, and – especially – the Eucharist. The primary Christian sacrament. But, what is a sacrament?
According to the Book of Common Prayer, a sacrament is “an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.”
I love definitions, but that one might need a little unpacking to be useful. The concept of a sacrament has a way of seeing the universe implicit behind it. Specifically, the concept of sacrament presupposes that there is more to reality than what we see with our own two eyes. Now, that “more” can be articulated in many ways – and has been articulated in many ways by various religions over the course of human history – the Book of Common Prayer likes to use the word grace to talk about that “more.” We could also talk about that “more” as the divine, the ultimate, the subtle, the energetic, the magic, and so on – but I like to talk about that “more” as the spiritual.
So, there is the physical, material universe [on the one hand] AND there is the spiritual [on the other hand].
Now, sacrament….
Sacrament is an in-between, an already and not yet, almost one thing and yet not quite, always in motion, a caress of the physical and the spiritual. Sacrament is one-part heaven, one-part earth — one-part angelic choirs, one-part mud.
There is a realization that there is something special here, in the ritual actions and past events, something more than what we can see with our own two eyes. Here the separation between the spiritual and material becomes “thin,” or rather, our understandings become “thinner” – if only for the briefest of moments – so that we see that what we call the material and spiritual, earth and heaven, human and divine are…just words – that maybe, just maybe, the only “separation” between the two is in our own minds.
In the Eucharist, we participate – in an unbroken link of time – in the ritual of the Last Supper – the sharing between God and God’s friends in a meal – an expectant meal because something amazing (and immense…and at least a little terrifying) is about to happen.
We participate in the link between past and future through the present of all Christians sharing in this meal – and sharing mystically, as Jesus said, in his body and blood – we also share in space – as across all the world, Christians celebrate this sacrament simultaneously or nearly so. This mystical food also makes us part of each other – we all eat the same food – we all convert the nutrients of that food into part of our body, as that bread was one, then broken so that we may all eat of it, we having eaten of it are part of the same bread, which we call a body – the body of Christ. We all become the body of Christ, if only for the briefest of moments.
Now, footwashing is a sacrament in the same way – we are participating in time through the repetition of the act each year, we are participating in the actions performed by Jesus – participating in his humility – because the humility of God “coming-down” is always a part of sacrament, even as the transformation of humanity “coming-up” to God is always a part of sacrament – we participate in space too with each other – through physical touch – we become one community serving each other, which is another way of looking at one body, we become an interconnected organism working toward the same purpose, if only for the briefest of moments.
Even looking back at Passover, and the Last Supper was a Passover celebration just as much as it was the first Eucharist – we share in a time and space connection of God’s actions with the Hebrew people – and this in particular can be a painful and uncomfortable connection – because the Church has often shamefully been the tool to inflict immense suffering and death on the Hebrew people – yet this is part of sacrament too, NOT to cause suffering and death, no, no, no, but to remember that in the worst that can happen and the worst that we can do to each other – to realize – if only for the briefest of moments – that God is present then too.
Stated theologically, sacrament is a tangible ritual to illustrate the belief that “God acts in history.” So, “God acts in history.” – Isn’t that such a nice, little sentence to impart a cute, little, tame, devotional idea?
But, sacrament is immense, wild, and untamed. And, it should be at least a little bit scary.
Because God is beyond us, beyond our understanding – and sacrament is always reminding us of that. Also, sacrament won’t let us forget the truth of our own nature. In Sacrament, a wondrous hope is present – but it’s an in-between hope – because death is always there too, and we don’t want to talk about that piece.
In Passover, what is passing over – none other than the Angel of Death. In the Eucharist, we are participating in the breaking of Christ’s body and spilling of his blood – remembering that we all will have our bodies broken and blood spilled, by the ravages of time, if nothing else. And, in footwashing, that deep sacrament that we do today, we are called to remember that Jesus was washing feet – the feet of one who would walk so soon to go and betray him to death, and the feet of all the others who would come to that time of great testing, and they would all — all those feet – would turn tail and run for fear and leave him to face death alone.
Sacrament is about helping us glimpse, if only for the briefest of moments, a deep mystical truth about the fabric of reality, we glimpse full and abundant life [on the one hand] AND [on the other hand] the inevitability of death.
So, Sacrament is about taking that tenet, “God acts in history,” not as an intellectual dogma, but making that belief into a tangible action that we do physically with our bodies, taste in our mouths and feel in our guts, experience sensually with water and dust and mud on our feet and hands – and participate with God and each other in a marvelous interweaving dance of spirit and matter as one interconnected whole – of realizing that is what reality really is – if only for the briefest of moments.
Amen.