April 17, 2025 – Maundy Thursday
Fr. Cal Calhoun
“Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ: who, this very night, bids us, to become part of his Body. Amen.
On the night before he died, Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Our Gospel tells us that, before the meal, Jesus got up from the table and washed the disciples’ feet. Peter resisted. It seemed he could not stand for his Lord to wash his feet. Jesus has to threaten him, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.”
In a little while we will have a foot washing. There is a Greek word anamnesis. It is used to identify part of the Eucharistic Prayer of consecration of the bread and wine. It is that part of the prayer where we offer the bread and wine in connection with the sacrifice of Christ, in obedience to Jesus’ command to do this in remembrance of him. The word anamnesis is really not translatable into English. We might be tempted to translate it: memorial, or commemoration, or remembrance. All these words suggest that the person or event commemorated is past or absent. Anamnesis intends just the opposite. It is an event in which the person or event commemorated is actually made present, brought into the realm of here and now. It is anamnesis that we are after tonight. Indeed, it is anamnesis that we are after every time we celebrate the Eucharist. It is a remembering that makes Christ present to us here and now. That is why we talk about the presence of Christ at communion, in the bread and in the wine. For most of us, this altar rail is where we come to meet God, and to be nourished by God.
Tonight, with the foot-washing we will seek to make Jesus present by following his example of serving. As he said, “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” This evening you will have the chance to participate in this ritual by having your feet washed and by washing the feet of another. Now I know that a number of you, like Peter, will resist. It is safe to say that very few of us think our feet are one of our best features. But this act really isn’t about the feet. In this act, we are remembering Jesus by serving one another. In this cleansing act, we remember what our Lord said to us and what our Lord did for us.
A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Or said another way, it is making real or tangible that which we know to be true. In communion, the outward and visible sign is the bread and the wine. The inward and spiritual grace is the presence of Jesus in the bread and wine and the presence of Jesus in us. It reminds us that Jesus is always present to us, and the bread and wine nourishes our soul and reminds us who we are and to whom we belong.
Washing the feet is a sacrament of sorts as well. Br. David Vryhoff [SSJE] describes it like this: Take up these symbols of the new life: towel and basin and water. Let them be for you a sign of your love for Jesus and your gratitude for all that he has done for you. Let them be for you a pledge of your commitment to serve – not out of duty, but out of love; not to obtain a reward, but to imitate the One who freely and willingly laid down his life for you. Let them be for you a reminder of your true calling and vocation.
Many have found this sacrament of washing feet and being washed, a very moving experience. In fact, Queen Elizabeth I, after the Protestant reforms of the Church removed the foot-washing as part of the Maundy Thursday service, she continued to wash the feet of poor women as part of her Maundy Thursday piety. Tonight, ask God to reveal something new to you, as we proceed with this Maundy Thursday service, with these two sacraments, one familiar, and one not so much.
Those of you who have ever participated in a Seder Supper may remember that the Passover is celebrated to remember at least two things. First, the Passover meal recalls the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt which is the beginning of the history of the Jewish people and nation, the beginning of the story of the People of God. And Second, it celebrates Springtime, the time of the barley season, new growth, a remembrance of the relationship of Israel with the land. The bread and the wine are part of the Passover meal. Remembering is part of the Passover meal. So bread and wine and remembrance are central to the Passover meal. And bread and wine and remembrance are central to the Eucharistic meal. Jesus, using bread and wine to connect his disciples to the remembrance of him, is right in line with the celebration of Passover. It was a ritual with which the disciples were familiar.
And so tonight we remember the Last Supper. We celebrate Jesus’ institution of the meal, the rite, that he left us to remember him. And tonight, we will remember how Jesus lived among us and what he taught us by washing the disciples’ feet. And we will remember. And we will pray. We will pray for anamnesis. We will pray that our remembering, in the not so familiar act of washing feet, and in the very familiar act of communion, we will pray that our remembering will make Jesus present among us. That our fellowship here in caring for one another and in sharing a meal will bring us closer together, and closer to the one who brought us here. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
At the end of the service we will kneel and say together the 22nd Psalm. And as we say those words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,” we will remember Jesus saying those words. When we have finished the Psalm, I will motion to you to come forward and help us strip the altar and the sanctuary, we will take smaller things to the Altar Guild who will receive them from us at the Sacristy door for them to put away. The larger items will go into the Vesting Room. We will take away, out of the church, all the crosses, the candles, the Eucharistic vessels, all the tools of our liturgy, we will take them away. And we will remember that they have come to take our Lord away. When that is finished, as you return to your places and kneel, I will cleanse the altar. And this space will no longer be the sanctuary of a church, but it will become a tomb. And we will remember that death and three dark days in the tomb await our Lord. When we are through, we will kneel and sing the hymn “Go to dark Gethsemane.” And some will stay and keep watch this night, like the disciples, they will try to watch and stay awake for one hour, and they will remember that there are those who are coming for our Lord, coming to take him away. And we will remember, we will remember his words: Do this in remembrance of me. Amen.
Year C – Maundy Thursday – April 17, 2025 – The Rev. Cal Calhoun
