Texts:
Morning
Psalm 102
Mark 14:12-25
Evening
Psalm 142/143
Mark 14:12-25
Hymn
Christ the Lord is Risen Today, in anticipation of Easter
Prayer
Our Gracious God and Heavenly Father, You have loved us, even when we were dead in our sins. Your grace made us alive together with Christ. You have called us out of darkness and into your light. We confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive us, O God, and bless us by your Spirit, that we might have the courage to walk in the good works to which you have called us, to the praise of your glorious name, Amen.
Devotional: Mark 14:12-25
When I was 6 or 7 my family went to a ropes course in Western North Carolina. At the end of the course, I jumped off of the ropes and put my hands on the ground to steady myself. I remember the feeling of the leaves on my hands as I touched them- wet and soft. I remember the fear as the first yellow jacket flew out of the ground, followed by many. I remember the stinging pain as they swarmed me. And I remember the relief as my Father jumped down into the ditch and pulled me up. And I remember the welcome slap on my flesh, again and again, as he swatted the yellow jackets off. My deliverance was sensory. My Father's presence with me was sensory.
Its that sensual presence with us that we remember on Maundy Thursday. "Maundy," derived from the Latin "mandatum," means "mandate or commandment." In the passion week narrative, Jesus gives the disciples a new commandment: that they love one another. And he expresses and models that love in very sensible, tangible ways: washing his disciples feet- can you feel the cool water?- and feeding them his body- taste the bread?- and his blood- has the wine gotten buzzy in your head? Jesus' love is sensual, tangible, embodied. Our God is not a God of abstraction, far off and removed from daily life. He doesn't call us into secret mysteries. The knowledge of him isn't in the first place mystical; unless by mystical we mean the glory and mystery of simple things, alive. The glory of smell and taste and touch.
To keep the mandate ourselves is as tangible as it was on that first Thursday. We experience the presence of God when we get clean, when we eat together. And we mediate that presence to God, not just in formal religious worship (although that presence is most explicit and clear in those moments), but when we clean one another, feed one another, forgive one another, sustain one another. This presence is rarely spectacular in the way that we think of it: big and flashy. But it is spectacular in its quiet consistency, in its settled determination to bless one another and the world in tangible ways. To love God and to serve him, especially during this quarantine, is as Pope John Paul II said: "The heroic must become daily, and the daily must become heroic."
Reflections
1. Today: take a bath. A long one. Thank God for the water.
2. Today: eat a meal. Taste it. Have a glass of wine. Enjoy it. Praise God for it.
3. What are some small, daily, physical ways you can bless one another today?