A Day of Remembrance
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 9, 2009—Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-14; 1Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31-35

Exodus 12:1-14 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the LORD. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

1Corinthians 11:23-26 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

John 13:1-17, 31-35 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. 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. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

I. Beginning--Passover

Tonight is the second night of Passover, the great Feast of Unleavened bread that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. On this night, Jews around the world are celebrating with a second night of the seder meal--the ancient liturgical supper in which the story of the Passover is recounted and celebrated.

According to three of the Gospels, this is the meal that Jesus was celebrating with his disciples on the night before he was arrested and crucified. The Passover meal is a fascinating meal. During it the story of the Passover is recounted, but with a number of interesting vignettes in the middle. There is one point in the seder when the leader instructs others how to respond to one who inquires as to the purpose of the meal. The answer to be given is "This is what the Lord did for me, when I came out of Egypt." Now, generally speaking, unless there are some folks who are over 3,200 years old, there would be no one at the seder table who could say that in any literal sense. And yet, that first person identification takes place throughout the meal. "This is what the Lord did for me, when I was brought out of the land of Egypt..." "For once we were slaves in Egypt..." "With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, the Almighty, blessed be he, brought us forth out of Egypt." Lots of first person language.

It is the result of what it means when the Exodus text says, "This shall be a day of remembrance for you." Because in the Jewish tradition, "remembrance" is not an intellectual process, the ability to recall facts or to reflect on a past experience-- remembrance means to relive something. In the Passover liturgy, the participants 'remember' the Passover by re-living it. And acting upon it.

II. In Remembrance oF Me

Indeed, the meal that we celebrate tonight--the Lord's Supper, the Holy Eucharist--is the Church's version of the Passover seder. In it, we recount the saving deeds of God. In it we talk about the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the salvation of God's people. In it we are told to observe this meal "In remembrance of me."

We, too, like our Jewish brothers and sisters, are called to remember the story of God's salvation. And the way we do it is the same way that it is done in the Jewish tradition. We remember by reliving.

In the same way, Jesus is not asking us to remember him in an intellectual way. He was not speaking merely to his disciples who could actually remember him in that way. He was speaking to all the disciples who would follow. Indeed, even were he speaking to his disciples, they, as Jews, would have understood the implications of remembrance clearly, and what that would mean to us today.

For it is no more probable that anyone here "remembers" the Last Supper in the sense that they were there and remembers where the sons of Zebedee sat at the table. No, we are called to "remember" Christ by celebrating this meal, by sharing the bread and the wine, by celebrating the story of God's salvation, by re-living the Last Supper together as a community.

But as my seminary professors were fond of pointing out, when we celebrate the Eucharist together, we do not remember the past alone. We do not simply remember and relive the events of that Last Supper meal in the Upper Room. When we celebrate this meal, we remember the future as well. We remember not only what Christ has done, but what Christ will do --ushering in the Kingdom of peace and righteousness, establishing justice, instituting the era of God's reign on Earth.

III. Remembrance in Love

Now, we all can understand what it might mean to remember the past through reliving. We can re-enact the rituals and words of that last meal together. But what does it mean to relive the future ?

In John's Gospel do we find the clearest instructions for what remembrance of the future would look like. John's Gospel does not have the traditional Eucharistic imagery, none of the rituals of breaking bread and drinking the cup. But what John's gospel does have is Jesus demonstrating service of others by washing the feet of his disciples. What John's gospel does have is Jesus giving the clearest instruction on what it means to be a disciple : to love one another as he has loved us.

And it is in living out this love that we not only are known as Christ's disciples, but that we remember him.

For if we believe in a Christ who will usher in an era of peace, then we live out lives as peacemakers, remembering both the Christ of the past who preached peace and the Christ of our future who will bring perfect peace.

If we believe in a Christ who called for justice for the oppressed, then we lend our voices to that call, remembering both the Christ of the past who spoke out for justice and the Christ of the future who will bring perfect justice at his coming.

If we believe in a Christ of reconciliation, then we live out our lives as those who offer reconciliation to all, remembering the past when Christ reconciled us to God and the future when Christ will reconcile us all to each other.

If we believe in a Christ who accepted the marginalized, then we live out our lives accepting all, regardless of race, nationality, sexual orientation, age, ability, class, status, or any other separating factor. And in so doing, we remember the Christ of the past who ate with sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes, and the Christ of the future who will bring together the whole human family.

And if we believe in a Christ of Love, then we live out lives of love to all whom we meet, not lives of anger, fear, or judgment. And in so doing we remember our past and our future.

IV. END

Tonight is the Passover of the Lord. Christ our Passover Lamb is offered for us. The Body of Christ is broken for us, the Blood of Christ poured out for us. Today is for us a Day of Remembrance.