Living in cornavirusworld 260: Holy Thursday

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Better Together

 Holy Thursday. Opening Day for baseball. April Fools’ Day. And the 26th anniversary of my first day of work in New York City. An interesting convergence of events. Strange and perhaps portentous that I began my lat two jobs on April 1st 10 years apart.

I watch my hometown Pirates play at a chilly Wrigley Field and win the game while rehearsing for Mike Geffner’s (Virtual) Inspired Word show. For Opening Day, I’m working on Dylan’s “Catfish,” a classic blues about the great Catfish Hunter of years gone by. 

And reflect on Holy Thursday.  As a  child, it was the beginning of my least favorite part of the church year. A Maundy Thursday night communion. Endless Good Friday “Seven Last Words” service. By the time we get to Easter, so weighed down with church, hard to feel joy. There was of course the year when I joined the  church. Maundy was always the first communion of that year’s Communicants Class. Later theological refinement in our tradition now allows communion for children, thus  ending that rite of passage. 

In New York City, there was a quiet, simple meal and candlelit communion at Good Shepherd Faith. When that ended, we began holding our own services at West Park. Which introduced foot washing to the community.

Those services were remembered when we discussed the Last Supper at our Monday night Bible Study focusing on the story in the 13th chapter of John. 

That act stands out to people. Jesus’ humbling himself and washing others’ feet not as a host,  but as a servant. Peter’s impulsive promise which he of course will break. The intimacy of that act. I remember the first time I did that, with a student of mine at the University of Bridgeport. At his Seventh Day Adventist church service. Which precedes communion every Saturday. Men and women in two separate rooms. Washing each other’s feet. It was hard for me to do. So intimate.  And so it was at West Park. 

At Good Shepherd Faith, they did hands. Because in this culture, our feet are covered but our hands touch subway poles, bus straps, all kinds of public places. But there is just something about feet. 

It is a demonstration. Jesus wants us to do as he has done. What is that relevance in 2021? In the last year we have had an ever heightened awareness of dominance and privilege and oppression in this country. Genocide of the native population. The control and destruction of Black lives through the institution  of chattel slavery. Exclusion of Chinese (after they built the transcontinental  railroad), detention of Japanese Americans and on and on. Georgia passes a voter suppression act seemingly aimed at African-Ameircans. A born again Christian guns down Asian women as symbols of temptation he can’t resist.  It goes on and on.  And we can only respond with humility.    

As I look at my task of heading a New York City Presbytery working group on dismantling systemic racism, the image of Last Supper Jesus tells me the only way we of privilege can move forward is with utmost humility. And that as Jesus gave up privilege, so must we. Concretely up to and including reparations. Our Holy Thursday can only be meaningful if we can see ourselves in that servant role in real terms in the world around us. That’s the only way to make the Lenten repentance emphasis that draws to conclusion in these days meaningful and real. 

Jesus said,  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  Let it be so….

true repentance