Sermons for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-35

March 24, 2016

Jesus knows what is going to happen to him.
he’s been telling everyone about this for weeks.
he knew what coming into Jerusalem would mean

for him, he knows the authorities are after him.

He knows what they do to people that cause a stir like him

and he knows that it’s not pleasant.

He prays to God to take his fate from him.

He knows that he will suffer.

When people feel threatened, they act in predictable ways:

It’s called flight or fight.

We normally run away or we lash out.

This goes when we’re in immediate danger or

ones that we just perceive.

We either quickly remove ourselves from the situation

or we lash out at things, often indiscriminately

at this point, even a minor offense can cause us

to overreact badly.

This is a primitive, automatic, inborn, chemical response

and it’s led to escalations of violence and hate.

It’s gotten a lot of people in trouble.

At these times, it’s almost impossible to think creatively,

and love takes a back seat to fear.

We’ve all been on the giving and receiving end of this.

But on this night, the last night of Jesus life

just minutes before he will be arrested

and the whole evening will unfold in

the worst kind of nightmare for everyone,

What does Jesus do?

Neither flight nor fight.

Jesus plans a dinner party with his friends.

He prepares a table in front of his enemies too.

He eats supper with those who will

carry his ministry into the world the same people

and with those who would betray and deny him.

And what he tells them is that

This is my body, this is my blood, take it.

The message he gives to everyone in this time of

great stress and threat is welcome, openness,

vulnerability, open your heart and your table to others.

And the most important message of Jesus table: forgive.

And after the meal he moves even beyond

openness, and forgiveness,

to serve those that are with him.

Even the much maligned Judas doesn’t leave

until after he’s had his feet washed by Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but at times I have found

it hard to even talk to people who I’ve got a beef with,

But Jesus lowers his defenses opens himself up

and washes the feet of those who that very night

will forget who had found them

and called them and set them free.

Foot washing and communion,

these things that we do here in churches

and in Christian meeting places,

the sacraments and rituals are not just

religious ceremonies that we do to fulfill

some obligation to God.

I venture to think if they if that’s all they would ever be,

that Jesus might suggest we don’t waste our time

doing them any more.

But these rituals are a practice.

And I mean practice in the rigorous

practice-makes-perfect

repeat and repeat and repeat until

it gets burned into your mind and your

body kind of way of practice.

We are practicing way that is different from the world

and different from our natural instincts.

We are practicing Jesus’ way.

As we say every time we do it together,

“in the night in which he was betrayed”…

this is what Jesus did this is how Jesus reacted,

this is what Jesus did in the face of his own death

with and to and for the ones who fell asleep,

the ones who ran away, the ones who

to the ones who tried to act like they didn’t know him,

to the one who would take 30 pieces of silver

in exchange for his life.

And we are told, “do this in remembrance of Jesus”

when you are betrayed, when you are faced with

fear or terror, disappointment, disrespect,

It is not being a doormat as some might say,

it is acting with the power of God.

And so we practice today what Jesus would have us do.

So we can do in times of peace and in times of war

and stress and death and

This is not just a religious action, this is a life plan.

We share with one another, we

humble ourselves and serve each other.

This is how we remember Jesus.

Good Friday

March 25, 2016

John 18-19

This is good Friday.

But this day seems like anything but Good.

Jesus died, and it was a very unpleasant death too.

We could certainly call this “terrible Friday”

Just like every day that there is tragic death and suffering.

Just like those days of terrorist attacks that area burned in our brains

just from the news and definitely

in the minds of people who were actually there forever.

Whether it’s a Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

What a terrible day that was.

Just like those days when our loved ones breathed their last.

Just like the day that everything changed from the way it was to the way it is.

What a terrible day that was.

But we are calling this Good Friday.

Not because the bad day didn’t happen.

not because it didn’t hurt,

not because Jesus didn’t suffer terribly, because he did.

But this day is Good Friday because

God, in the end, will have a hold of this day.

God has taken this terrible day today

and will give us something wonderful.

God won’t take away that bad day

that day still stinks, but God will  

make something good out of it.

Where something dies,

something beautiful will grow again.

That is God’s way.

And that is the story of this day.

God has taken the wilderness of the cross on Golgatha

and transformed it into something alive and life giving.

Something hopeful. A cross to a resurrection.

And that is not just a one-time deal.

The real Good of this day is that it is a promise

that God will take our very terrible days

And use them for something good, something better.

Our pain will not be wasted by God.

Today we hear Jesus last word on the cross,

he says, “It is finished” and that terrible Friday was.
But that was when God’s work was just beginning.