Maundy Thursday

On September 11, 2001, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was in New York City to give a presentation to a group of clergy and spiritual directors at Trinity Church on Wall Street. What he hadn’t planned on was being an eyewitness to an epic act of terrorism on American soil. He reflected on his experiences…

Peter got it wrong. We shouldn’t be surprised in the least. The gospels have taught us to expect Peter to be the eager disciple who energetically jumps to the wrong answer and is ready to act when listening and learning is called for. Peter sees Jesus get up from the table, take off his outer…

Today is Maundy Thursday, the last Thursday of our annual Lenten observance. The word “Maundy” does not have any meaning in and of itself. It is one of those exotic Episcopal or Anglican terms we sooner or later all become familiar with in our church. Scholars are not even sure of the word’s origin, though…

This is a day focused on liturgy: very basic and profound liturgical actions are recalled and acted out. Any liturgy has at its heart a sacrificial action. We offer something, and God takes that offering and does something wonderful with it, something we cannot do for ourselves. In the Exodus reading for today, the focus…

“And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.” Have you ever heard a verse of scripture as if for the…

Reading deathbed quotations can provide information and amusement, bewilderment, and boredom. Seldom, though, do famous last words produce meaning and inspiration. Such is not the case with Jesus, however. Commonly, Good Friday sermons reflect on Christ’s last words from the cross. But his truer deathbed quotations come in the lessons for today’s worship. Okay. What…

Together with the sense of the Holy, the experience of Maundy Thursday affords us the most profound awareness of the role of change in our lives as well as the meaning of remembrance. Both are interwoven with the events of the saddest day of the church year. The arrest, stealthy court proceedings and torture of…

Take off your shoes! Take—off—your—shoes. No, not literally—figuratively. But think about what that would look like in this place—in this holy space we worship in. All those feet—our feet. Many of us would feel odd—all dressed up, but without shoes. Others might feel freed. Little children, for example, love to take off their shoes and…

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” In Jewish culture, a child asks this question to begin the celebration of the Feast of the Passover, as Jews throughout the world retell the story of the Exodus and celebrate the escape of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. It is a time when the…

Imagine a scene in an old black-and-white movie. At first, all you see on the screen are feet — old feet, middle-aged feet, children’s feet — caked with mud and marked by oozing sores from a long forced march, from slipping and staggering in the ankle-deep muck because these feet seem to be carrying more…

Let me tell you about something that happened recently in an affluent community in North Carolina. The story comes originally from Irving R. Stubbs, a consultant in organizational leadership. There’s a big congregation in this community, the sort that’s called a “high steeple” church. The lay leaders of that church are also the power brokers…

In churches throughout the world people will gather today to remember. Memory is something we seldom invoke in our culture. We are occupied with the now and the not yet, but we are viewed with suspicion if we recall the past. Yet, the lesson from Exodus recalls the foundation of our Eucharistic life, the Passover…