Lenten Journey- Maundy Thursday- Obedience

One act of obedience is worth a hundred sermons.
 -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Do this!
Wash each others’ feet.

Do this!
Break the bread and share it.

Do this!
Drink from the same cup as Jesus.

Do this!
Remember Jesus.

Just do it!
It makes quite a witness.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or
take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and
grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Maundy Thursday

Toward Pentecost (21): Breaking Bread

Maundy Thursday

The Last Supper

Maundy Thursday 2014

Three pictures to consider for today:

As I have done for you,
now do for each other.

Serve.

The Bread of Heaven

The Cup of Salvation

Do this in remembrance of Me.

And when they had sung a hymn,

 

they went into the garden.

For a Germ-Free Communion...

A friend posted this on his Facebook page. The You Tube page this goes to has a number of comments that are pretty much along the same lines as I had.

It appears to be the real deal. It says it was uploaded two years ago and has this comment:

This is necessary in order to prevent transmission of disease and the like. Some fear contagion through the handling involved in distributing the hosts. Hope this answers your question.

So just to be safe, invent a Jesus Pez dispenser!

I fear that the more "antiseptic" we attempt to be, the more susceptible we will be to germs. The more mechanical we become about communion and church, the less Jesus' body will mean in any sense.

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But on the lighter side, swallow anything you are drinking, then press play....

Different And Connected

from Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC by Frederick Buechner:

Sacrament:A sacrament is when something holy happens. It is transparent time, time which you can see through to something deep inside time. If we weren't blind as bats, we might see that life itself is sacramental.

Ritual:A ritual is the performance of an intuition, the rehearsal of a dream, the playing of a game.

A sacrament is the breaking through of the sacred into the profane; a ritual is the ceremonial acting out of the profane in order to show forth its sacredness.A sacrament is God offering his holiness to [humanity]; a ritual is humans raising up the holiness of their humanity to God.

Very few can bring theology down to earth like Buechner can. How simple, yet profoundly sensitive can you get?

It bears repeating, here, and everyday we roll out of our beds into the world...

If we weren't blind as bats, we might see that life itself is sacramental.

Holy Week 2011 - Wednesday

I have put together a series of music video meditations for this week. Here is the fourth as he shares his Last Supper with his disciples. Meditate on his words and his life in preparation for tomorrow evening- in remembrance of him.

Bread and More Bread

--Maria d.c. Zamora, Claretian Resources, Philippines

John 6: 33 - 35 -- "For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

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Up and down the line
From heaven to earth and back
From birth to death and life infinite
Comes bread.

Yet we do not live by bread alone,
So said the Rabbi at the Bar Mitzvah,
But by every word that proceeds from
The Mouth of God.

How unknowingly wise and even prophetic
That such words themselves were a source
Of Bread that came down
And became a starting point for a different
Life in the Spirit.

Up and down the line of life
When you least expect it
And perhaps when you need it most
From heaven to earth and back
From birth to death and life infinite
Comes Bread.

Fra Angelico, 1451-53.

Maundy Thursday, 2009

One of my tasks this Lenten season has been to assist my pastor wife in baking bread. Actually, I have been the bread baker and she has done the planning. She was doing a Sunday series for Lent called Bread for the Journey using different types of bread each week. Until this week we used the breadmaker pre-mixes that you dump into the bread machine, press start and let them go. That also allowed her the ability to set up the bread machine at church on Saturday evening, use the delayed setting and then have the wonderful smell of fresh baked bread make everybody hungry on Sunday morning.

That was good for me to work with when I was recuperating from Surgery but this past week we wanted to do something more original for tonight and this weekend. I made a free-form round loaf of pumpernickel for tonight- the theme being "Body Bread." I don't know what her lead-in will be or how she will explain that, but for me it was a really neat experience.

I have enjoyed baking bread for years. My favorite is always a good sourdough made from one of those starters you keep renewing in the refrigerator. The taste and texture of one of those is out of this world. I have never made a good dark loaf like the pumpernickel. Rye, whole wheat, white flours with added dark molasses and a bit of instant coffee turns out this beautiful loaf with a great looking crust.

I always make a cross-shaped cut in the top just before I put it in the oven when baking a round loaf. Especially for communion. This one is no exception. I actually get excited by doing this. It is a physical way I can participate in the preparation for communion. It is a physical way that I can prepare myself to come to the table. Not because I made it myself, but that I was able to give from what I have been given. It is a gift.

But this pumpernickel seems special. It is different. It is not what we normally think about when we think of communion bread. For many of us we envision the little wafers that one of my confirmands years ago called "styrofoam." There is no taste, no substance. Yes, I know that it would be difficult to use real bread. No one in this day and age has the time to do that.

But a real bread has taste, substance. Body. There is a weight and a presence to even a tiny piece given by the pastor in the service. It is more than some ephemeral something or other. It is There. It is Real. It has Strength.

Tonight that will help me remember Jesus. Earthy and alive. Even all these years later. His Body. Broken.

Quite a Difference

Torture is the imagination of the state.

Eucharist is the imagination of the church.

--William Kavanagh, Torture and Eucharist
via Len Sweet on Twitter

ht to The Corner

Gifts of God and People of God

By Jean Vanier. Found on Inward/Outward

We are a eucharistic people which means that we are a people of thanksgiving, people who realize that we are prodigal sons and daughters. We are not called to judge or to condemn but to be instruments of life, to give life and to receive life.

Source: From Brokenness to Community

All About Food
A wonderful and mission-challenging book has captured me. Sara Miles has given an unusual and powerful conversion story in Take This Bread. Sara is an unlikely convert to Christianity. For lots of reasons you would not expect someone like her to do so. Let's see- she's a lesbian living in a committed relationship with her daughter. She is liberal. She is feisty. She is challenging. And she was hooked by the bread.

Yes, the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion. Who says there isn't a "real presence" of Jesus at that Table? Who says it isn't an act of grace- in action? Sara was captured against her will- but not against her spirit into a community of Christians who did things differently but effectively. When she got there she found that the Bread is more than bread. It is life. And then it became Jesus' life to the surrounding community in mission. It is a story that will hook you and at the end you will be convinced you smell the aroma of fresh bread reminding you that Jesus has NOT left the room.