Selected Sermons by The Rev Anne O. Weatherholt

Maundy Thursday 2004

Propers: Exodus 12:1-14a, Psalm 78:14-20, 23-25, I Corinthians 11:23-32, Luke 22:14-30

The Stones Cry Out

There is no sermon on Palm Sunday, so I don’t have a chance to reflect on the Passion Gospel that is read that day.But as we gather this evening, we are beginning an extended time of worship that is not over until the end of the Easter Vigil on Saturday night.As you read in the latest Church newsletter, the services in the next three days are not considered to be separate from one another but form a whole, leading us through Jesus’ last few days.

Since that is the case, I wanted to take us back one chapter in the story—to Palm Sunday and the days immediately following—which lead up to the last meal Jesus ate with his disciples on what we now call Maundy Thursday. In this way we can perhaps better understand the situation in which the disciples found themselves and the mind-set they had on the night Jesus began what we now call Holy Communion. In so doing, we may be able to gain some new insight into our own devotion this evening.

There is a wonderful Christmas Carol in our Hymnal which we used a few weeks ago at the 11 o’clock service which has a recurring phrase:“…and every stone shall cry.”This comes from Luke’s account of Palm Sunday. You may remember from last week when the account reads, “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”The verse to the carol continues, “This child through David’s city shall ride in triumph by: the palm shall strew its branches and every stone shall cry; and every stone shall cry though heavy, dull and dumb, and lie within the roadway to pave his kingdom come.”(Words by Richard Wilbur, Hymn #104, The Episcopal Hymnal 1982)

What an extraordinary image—stones shouting!These are Jesus’ own words to describe the events of the day.A day of rejoicing, a day of triumph!It may be that the disciples saw this as the advent of Jesus’ kingdom—that everyone would join in and Jesus would be acknowledged as the new leader of Israel.The disciples must have felt wonderful and hopeful at this point, but according to Luke, Jesus was weeping!He knew that the people could not see the meaning in his teaching or his life. He knew that his time of suffering was near.

But Jesus was also fully aware that he was about to take upon himself the sins of the whole world.As he traveled on the earth, he saw first-hand the suffering that people bear in this life—illness, domestic violence, prejudice, injustice, hatred, family strife.These are the same sins we know only too well today—sins that we participate in, sins that weigh us down and hinder our personal life and our and society.Perhaps Jesus knew that the whole creation cries out for God’s love and peace. Even if those who shouted in support of him were silent, the cries of the poor and dispossessed, the cries of the ill, the lonely and the hopeless would not be silent. He heard those cries.He knew the sin that infects the world would soon be laid across his shoulders.

From Palm Sunday onward, events seem to progress rapidly down hill.Jesus entered the temple on Palm Sunday and drove out the money changers.He taught in the temple every day while authorities around him were seeking ways to kill him.The people were spellbound by his teaching, but he was a threat to others.At night, he would go out to the Mount of Olives to spend the night, then return to teach more on the next day.This went on for three days and tensions rose.

On Thursday, there was a bit of a break.Jesus tells Peter and John to go into the city and prepare for the Passover meal.Once it is ready they all assemble in an upper room, on the second floor of a house in Jerusalem.It is likely that others besides the twelve were there—the women who had followed him, possibly even Mary, his mother.Jesus tells his disciples that he has been eager to eat this meal with them, he has in a sense, been looking forward to it.Then comes the moment when Jesus changes the familiar script of the Passover meal.Instead of saying the traditional blessing over the bread and wine, he tells those gathered that the bread and wine are to be his body and blood and that they are to “do this in remembrance” of him.This is almost as extraordinary as stones in the street crying out.Jesus is claiming the place of the new mediator, the new sacrifice, the one who would serve as the bridge between a Holy God who knows no sin and a broken world full of sin, sin that cried out for justice, and people that cried out for a savior.Remember, we have been tracking the events that were witnessed by the disciples in the previous few days—a triumphal entry, then growing controversy, even death threats against their master.They watched when Jesus wept upon entering Jerusalem.They heard his masterful replies to the verbal and intellectual traps being set by those against him in the temple.They went with him every night back to the Mount of Olives, just outside the city walls.They obeyed his directions to prepare the Passover meal and probably thought he would follow through the Jewish Holy day as most of them had, year after year.This was the meal when they remembered that God had freed them from slavery in Egypt.They remembered the wanderings for forty years in the wilderness.They gave thanks that God had intervened in human history to lead them back to the land on which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had lived.It was largely a celebration looking to the past, yet affirming God’s goodness in the present.But here was a new twist—Jesus told them that this would be the last meal he ate with them until the coming of his new kingdom in the future.Not only was he identifying himself with the elements of bread and wine, but he was linking them to the events of the present and the future.This IS my body; this IS my blood—DO this.In this offering of himself, Jesus was taking on the sins of the world; he was already beginning his walk to the cross. Jesus is identifying himself with the blood of the lambs smeared on the doorposts that protected the people from the angel of death, with the cloud of fire that led them in the wilderness, with the loving parent who makes sacrifices for the good of the children, with the creator of the universe who makes not just bread and wine, but makes them become food of grace and redemption.

We can be fairly certain that almost immediately after the resurrection, the followers of Jesus began celebrating the Holy Communion—the Last Supper.They didn’t wait for a year, and it didn’t become just another holy day in the seasons of holy days.Even the day of the resurrection was not celebrated as one day—frozen in the stone of the calendar—but was celebrated every week!Even in the following years, the day of the Resurrection was still tied to the Jewish calendar—a movable feast of freedom from the bondage of sin.Almost immediately, new patterns were set in place and those in leadership began breaking bread and drinking from a cup in Jesus’ name with Jesus’ authority.We have a record in the book of Acts concerning a weekly gathering where the breaking of the bread was named as an act of worship.When you think about it, this is almost as astounding as stones shouting out!

For you see, WE are these stones.We were not there to cry hosanna on Palm Sunday, but we are here in a world that still needs to hear that the Savior has come!If we in our daily lives do NOT cry “Hosanna!” and point to Jesus, you can be sure that God will raise up other stones to do it in spite of us!We are the paving stones that lie down so that Jesus may use us to make a road for his message of forgiveness of sins, his message of service, and his message of redeeming love.Through the gift of his body and blood, we are transformed to be the agents of his love, the ambassadors of the message of forgiveness, a new chance, and a way out of sin.

Good Friday 2004

Propers:Genesis 22:1-18, Psalm 22:1-11; Hebrews 10:1-25, John 19:1-37

:The Two Basins:
The water of suffering and the water of service

In the past few months I have had many people ask my opinion about the Mel Gibson film, “The Passion of the Christ.”I am not going into detail about the entire film tonight, but I do want to focus on one feature that I felt was done well.Throughout the film, which only depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus life on earth, not his ministry or his teaching, there were several flash-backs.While some were more effective than others, one in particular caught my eye, and I thought to myself:“There is a sermon in here!”You are getting that sermon this evening.

As I said last night, we need to remember that the worship services which begin on Maundy Thursday and end at the Easter Vigil are really one long service.Last evening, I began the story by recalling Palm Sunday and spoke about the events of the Last Supper.This evening, I am once again returning to the last Supper but also considering the events which occurred the morning after—the morning of the day we have come to call “Good Friday.”

The scene in the movie that caught my eye involved two basins:one elaborate and one simple, one held by a servant of Pontius Pilate and one held by Jesus himself.It is in the account from the Gospel of Matthew that Pontius Pilate literally washes his hands of Jesus.This verse is in fact the origin of that phrase we use in daily life:“I wash my hands of this.”It is in the account written by John that we have the tender scene where Jesus takes a basin on water and a towel to wash the feet of the disciples, prior to giving them a new commandment to love one another.

The scene was dramatically set in the movie.Pilate, who had questioned Jesus several times, had ordered him to be beaten, and was now looking on a wreck of a man, bloody and mangled, was still trying to convince the crowd to let Jesus go.The shouts of “crucify, crucify” were coming from the crowd gathered in front of the place of judgment.Pilate, desperate to keep the peace, was relenting to their demand, but still wanted to distance himself from the final decision.So, he orders a servant to bring a basin of water and a towel, and, in front of the many witnesses, ceremoniously washes his hands of the whole matter.In the movie, the camera focused in on the basin then the scene dissolved and the camera shot moved away so that we could see a totally different scene:Jesus’ hands on the basin, a rough towel, not a fine cloth and Jesus on his knees, washing the feet of one of the disciples.

Two basins:one used as a ploy to escape, one used as a tool to serve—the water of suffering and the water of service.In pondering this image I realized that there is a sermon here, a sermon about life, about so many decisions we make, about our call to be disciples of Jesus.Think about it for a moment.When Jesus lays a claim on our lives, things change.I have been watching and listening the past weeks to those taking the Alpha Course.Again and again, the Rev. Nicky Gumble, the presenter, tells stories of transformation.He shares events of his own life and the lives of those he knows which illustrate the way Jesus’ love transforms and changes life.The illustration of the two basins seems to apply here.The basin of Pilate was a basin of escape—escape from responsibility, escape from blame and escape from the courage to act on what he seemed to know was right.He “washed his hands” of Jesus Christ.

What happens when we wash our hands of Jesus Christ?On the surface we may think we are getting rid of a annoying subject, a God who demands good behavior all the time, God who looks over our shoulder and sits in judgment of us.We will therefore sit in judgment on him, and like Pilate, although intrigued, will ultimately go on through life without him, thinking we are free of him.The great irony is, when the Church Fathers met to write the Creeds which still stand as a summary of our faith, they named Pontius Pilate in those Creeds.They had every chance to name others—even to blame the Jews or the temple leaders—but Pontius Pilate stands named as the one under whom Jesus suffered,“…he suffered under Pontius Pilate.”Instead of being free of Jesus, Pilate has come to be remembered as the one who could have made a difference but did not, as the leader who collapsed under pressure, as the schemer who was in collusion to keep the peace at all costs.His basin carried the water of suffering.

In contrast to Pilate is Jesus.At the last Supper, Jesus took a basin and washed the feet of his disciples.This was the job of a servant—the lowest of servants!This was the job no one wanted to do, the one that was assigned to the beginners, the first hired, the lowest paid, the ones with no benefits.One at a time, Jesus must have removed the sandals from the feet of his friends, washed them and dried them with a towel.His basin carried the water of service.Jesus words then explained his actions:“I am among you as one who serves.”His basin was one of service, of looking out for the other, of generosity of heart.He did not care that he was doing the job of a servant, one of the garbage haulers of the day.In his basin, we are all washed clean by the generous heart of God.The basin becomes a symbol for baptism, that ritual by which all may be welcomed into the life of grace.

Two basins:so similar and yet so different.One used as a tool to escape the inescapable, one used to serve, both linked in this one moment of memory, the water of suffering and the water of service.Yet there is a great irony present:Pilate’s basin is the point where Jesus is released to go to the cross and without that, there would have been no Easter.Pilate in trying to get rid of Jesus is linked to him forever in the memory of the Church.Jesus’ basin is the point where the disciples are united with Jesus in the new commandment, “love one another as I have loved you….this is my body, this is my blood poured out for you and for many.”Thus, we are linked to Jesus as well, through participation in the life he gives us when we give ourselves to him.In his risen life, Jesus is still taking the basin from our hands and washing our feet, then handing it back and asking us to wash each others feet—to serve in the way he served, to look out for one another, to care for those with no hope, to persist in the way of love.Jesus was willing to plunge into the water of suffering for us so that it might be transformed into the water of service.