Maundy Thursday: In the midst of Covid-19
We are Ready for
Communion:
But are we ready to
face our NEED?
To partake of the gifts of God of the bread and cup, the
very taking in of the presence of Jesus, we say we are ready. But are we ready to face our need? Before communion, can we take a moment and
take a look at our need for the washing waters of heaven to cleanse us? Not so
much from the Virus that rages and ravages the globe this day, but from the
infections that are already within us? Can I face my own need?
As a Woman Pastor, I sit quietly these days, not because of
Covid, but because in so many places the church, like the American people at
large, remain unable to see the feminine presence as fully Imago Dei. Am I
ready to let Jesus wash my feet of the anger that clings around my ankles splashing
towards my knees as I walk this road?
I am a woman therapist who specializes in caring for teens,
adults, communities and people groups who suffer the impact of long- term
trauma, generational trauma and systemic trauma, and now Covid-19. The borders,
the boundaries, the crushing genocides ongoing in this day, in the US, in
Israel, In India and… even as those who Love and look to God stand silently
by. Am I willing for Jesus to wash away
the burning desire for those who perpetrate such suffering to suffer enough
that they might change?
I am a woman with an overdeveloped sense of justice, so I’ve
been told. I ache with the plight of the
fish and the birds, the creatures, the seas the sky and the trees. Am I willing
to let Jesus wash from my feet the thick, heavy muck of frustration with God’s
long determination to bring the Peaceable Kingdom through humanity rather than
too humanity?
I don’t know, I just don’t know and so much more I just
don’t know.
Am I willing to just sit in the weeping? For when my feet are washed isn’t that all I
am left with; the anguish, the sorrow, the weeping? The recognition that even after the cup and
bread, All will Not be Finished yet?
My tears with God’s once again filling the water pitcher that
the next set of feet may suffer my fate.
Yes Maundy Thursday for me stands for “into the weeping.”
For once the feet are washed, I can see my own need.
My need to receive the living Christ not in triumph, but in
humility, knowing I too forsake the path of the Peaceable Kingdom.
Maundy Thursday Service in times of Covid-19:
Preparation:
A clay pitcher full of warm water, a bar of soothing
lavender soap, 1 clay bowl to catch the water from my feet, a simple chair and
a candle or two.
As the sun goes down and evening comes upon the house, it will
be good to sit in the quiet, to breathe in, to pause, to breathe out and pause
again, repeating until my need rises like water coming in at high tide.
And breathing in I will pray “wait on the Lord, whose days
is near”
And I will pause and exhale praying “wait on the Lord be
strong take heart”
And I will pause and begin again breathing in “wait on the
Lord whose day is near”
And I will pause and exhale again praying ”Wait on the Lord,
be strong take heart”
And I will continue until all is quiet within and around me.
I will play the songs of the people’s who teach me,
I will listen to
“Wade in The Water”(Sweet Honey and The Rock),
“Wash Your Spirit Clean”(Walela)
When its time the washing may begin
.
My feet shall receive the wetness, tears of heaven already
rained down to the well from which my water is drawn. Then gentle hands and the
smell of lavender soap, comfort softening the walls of my heart. More tears,
more water, my tears, more water. Sadness is all that is left and so much
harder to bear than all that was washed away.
And then I will sit once again in the quiet and return to
the breath singing on the inhale “Wait on the Lord, whose day is near” and I
will pause
and I will exhale singing “wait on the Lord, be strong take
heart.”
And I will repeat until in the sadness I become ready for
supper, for my greatest need now, in sorrow is HOPE!
Isn’t this the blessing of Easter to come? That in humanities greatest failures, God’s
grace abounding in the ways of Christ is where we find Living HOPE for the days
to come?
Perhaps if first we witness our own need, we will be ready
to engage the Lord’s supper.
Maundy Thursday: “into the weeping, into our need”.
Amen amen.
Rev. M
