[opening
remarks as Campus Missioner to those gathered at St. James, Wichita - E.g., thanks for support, thank leadership, solicit interest for new campus peer ministers, etc.]
Now let us
turn to this pivotal Wednesday in Holy Week.
Here we are gathered in an intimate scene with Jesus as he enjoys final
Passover meal with his closest friends.
Those
gathered have been with him for years.
Their journeys have been difficult, and we know will become even more
challenging in ways they have yet to imagine.
Tonight they’re hungry. They’re
hungry for the liberation and redemption that Jesus will bring. Their hopes were amplified just days ago when
they entered Jerusalem with him to cheers and the waving of palm branches. Through him must come what their ancestors
and prophets have longed for – kingdom restoration. This is their new Lord, teacher, and messianic
savior. And, we can imagine that each of
them is harboring a very personal hope and expectation about the benefits that
are to come when their vision of kingdom is come. At this last supper, consistent with what he’s
been showing them all along, Jesus challenges them to see the kingdom anew,
through God’s eyes, not their own.
At this
Passover Seder, they are celebrating a great return from exile with God’s
help... and they are looking toward
their future with equally hopeful expectations about a new kingdom to
come. Jesus has been trying for years,
and will continue tonight, to provocatively shape their expectations about the
kingdom of God and their roles in helping everyone reunite there.
What is each
of us carrying in our hearts and minds tonight as we gather with Christ for
this intimate meal? The story we share
during this supper is about God’s promises for our return, with God’s help, from
exile. What are we privately hoping will be the benefits of following our Lord
into the promised place? When we look
around and consider who is gathered with us, don’t we want to believe we’re all
kinda aiming for the same sort of kingdom life together? Isn’t it a little hard to believe that any of
one of us would intentionally plot to betray the other? Isn’t it a little hard to accept that
following our Lord may well lead us through additional earthly hardship and
suffering?
And, yet,
here we are hearing about Satan entering one of the Jesus’ closest partners in
ministry, Judas, the one so trusted that he kept the group’s collective
financial resources. We watch, confused,
as this trusted disciple departs our common table to betray our leader and to
betray us. “It was night” says verse
30. Even as they (we!) gather for this
sacred meal with friends and our heavenly Lord, there is darkness all around
them (all around us).
If we’re
honest tonight at this meal with Jesus, we each stand convicted of having
chosen to betray Christ and each other, sometimes in smaller ways of neglect or
denial and sometimes in more intentionally mean-spirited or selfish ways.
Jesus doesn’t
draw attention to the darkness, though.
He doesn’t seem to admonish the one who he knows will betray him. In fact, as we’ll consider in more depth
tomorrow night, while gathered as the common table, their teacher and leader
lowers himself to serve each of them, washing each of their feet, including the
feet of the very person he knows will soon walk away to betray him and the
entire ministry they have shared the past several years. Despite any of our shortcomings, Jesus wants
us all to be fed and to be reconciled in the heavenly family... and he’s
willing to go to extraordinary lengths for this glorification.
How great is
God’s mercy and compassion? How
extraordinarily gracious is Christ’s love for us, even when we’re possessed of
evil desires and selfish intentions?
The days to
come will be some of the most horrific and discouraging for those who love
Jesus. In the days, weeks, months, and
years that follow, each person here gathered will be challenged to come to new
terms with what Jesus has been teaching, demonstrating for us, and calling us
to do in his Spirit. Our expectations of
God will likely be challenged just as our acceptance of God’s expectations of
us will be challenging. Jesus the
messiah came to make things right, not to establish a kingdom in which any of
us gain at anyone else’s expense.
Following the
examples and commandments of our Lord will not be easy. Though he tells us that
his yoke is light for those who follow
him, he also asks us to take up the cross as we follow him – calling us to
realize that the world around us is not as ready to accept the good news that
we’re all family and should care for each other as Jesus cares for us, with a
particular preference for lifting up the lowly and the least among us.
The author of
Hebrews says we are to run this race of life – this marathon that we’re in
together – with faithful perseverance, looking ahead realizing that Jesus has
already gone before us to courageously pave the way, enduring the worst
hardships on our behalf to cut this path home to our reunion with God’s
family. “Consider him who endured such
hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose
heart.” (Hebrews 12:3)
Through the
prophet Isaiah, we are told that we are not to turn backward, even when moving
forward in faithful perseverance and fidelity to God results in us being insulted,
spit upon, and even struck. Each day we
are to let go of the guilt or fear that might weigh us down and to rise morning
after morning remembering that we are teachers of God’s promises as we face the
struggles ahead with faces like flint –strong and incisive. Shame and disgrace from the powers that
oppose us all sharing equally in the kingdom of God’s love shall not win the
day. God has the final say and will
vindicate his servants who have suffered for the sake of justice, compassion,
and mercy. On Easter morning we will
celebrate this good news – are we deeply convicted of that this really means in
our globally interdependent lives today?
This journey,
this race, if we’re following the examples of Jesus, will come with heartache
and suffering – that’s guaranteed if we’re living and loving as Christ has
shown us how to. And, our Lord, who
endured trials at least as great as any we face, has already won this race for
us all. We’re not having to compete to
win – we’re being call to cooperate and support each other on this journey to a
home already prepared for us.
As we enter
the darkness tonight after departing from this meal, remember “we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” (Hebrews 12:1)
Those
faithful who have gone before us, include Jesus himself as well as all those who
were gathered at the last supper, pack the home stadium and cheer us on. When the going gets tough – and it will – and
the dark clouds of adversity surround you, remember that you are loved and
supported not only by a great heavenly family, but also by sisters and brothers
here and now who gather at this common table with you in Christ’s name.
Each time we
gather for this meal, particularly in the next three days ahead when we’ll come
face to face with some of the darkest realities of human nature, remember that
we’re to stay the course, focused on God through Christ, and that we’re in this
together. Whether sprinting or walking,
we are to be side by side on our journey home and God is with us, Creator,
Sustainer, and Redeemer.
AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment