In many ways, tonight is one of the most difficult for me because it is this night that we engage in rituals and traditions that are the exact opposite of the physical distance we need to keep at this time. Maundy Thursday is a very physical night. We gather together in person to wash feet and to take, and eat, and drink. But we cannot do these very activities in a way that can keep us safe, to keep that social distance that we need at this time. So logistically it has been really challenging to think how can we authentically commemorate this evening in a way that maintains that necessary distance. This is also a night which brings so acutely the pain of that physical distance when we cannot do these things that require us to be too close to one another so we can be safe at this time.
It is interesting, though, because tonight is not called foot-washing Thursday, nor is it called Last Supper Thursday. We call this night Maundy Thursday. What is Maundy? Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means commandment. At the core of this evening is not foot-washing, or communion, but rather the New Commandment we just heard in John’s Gospel. Those other activities are simply ways that we embody this New Commandment to love one another as Christ loved us.
What is so new about that? Didn’t Jesus already say, “Love your neighbor as yourself?” Of course, he did. But what is different about the New Commandment isn’t that you love your neighbors as yourself, but rather you love as Christ loved. There is a subtle but important difference. If we love our neighbors as ourselves there is a caveat there. What if I don’t love myself all that much? Maybe I don’t care for my neighbor all that much, either. But when Jesus tells us to love one another as Christ loved us there is no loophole. There is no way out of it. We are to love our neighbor as Jesus loved us. If we have questions about what that love means, we look to the life of Jesus, the life of service. And that is what the foot-washing is about. It is not about washing feet, it is a way to serve. So the way that we can serve in this moment is by keeping that social distance.
This year the way we embody the New Commandment is not to get together and wash feet, not to get together to break bread, and in doing that we love our neighbor as Jesus loved. A love that is painful at times because we give up the things that we want. I can’t tell you how much I long for and yearn to be back at St. Mary’s with you there, worshiping God, taking communion, going through our rituals together. And yet that is not what Jesus calls for us to do at this time. He calls us to love our neighbor as Christ loves, even if that causes personal pain for us. But in doing so we are helping to love our neighbor by saving lives.
So, my friends in Christ, even though we can’t remember this night in the traditional ways by gathering together and washing feet, and taking the Eucharist, we can embody that New Commandment by staying home, still worshiping and praying and remembering Christ in his last night. It just looks a little bit different for us this year.
AMEN
