Maundy Thursday: Is the Presence of God Enough?

Let's face a fact about something, people in this world are hungry.  People are hungry for power, wealth, fame.  During the health care reform debate we have seen the hunger of insurance companies trying to hold on to their million dollar profits while those who need health care are left without the means to get well.  In the Church we see those who feel that only heterosexuals should be allowed to be Bishops, Priests and/or allowed to be married.  They will stop at nothing, not even charity to keep marriage equality from becoming law.  All of these maneuvers are part of a hunger.  A hunger that cannot be satisfied simply by changing laws.  A hunger for power has to be changed by a changing of the hearts and minds of those who are unwilling to consider the needs of others.   What is also needed is a change of attitude.  The attitude that needs changing is those who have must be willing to sacrifice for the have not's.

Jesus Christ was willing to do so much more than change hearts and minds, he gave up his life for those who were the have not's of the world.  Jesus did not settle for simply telling others that they had to welcome the stranger, heal the sick, set the captives free.  Jesus did what he has been asking those who wish to follow him to do.  In Jesus, God gave up all glory, power, wealth and prestige.  God abandoned any sense of royalty and honor so that those who also had no royalty or honor, would know that God honors them within the royalty of God's only begotten Son.  In the sacrifice of Jesus, God claims all of us as God's own.  "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3: 23).  Only God can save us all from our own selfishness, greed and hunger for power and prestige.  God saves us not by demanding that we respect and honor God. God saves us by giving God's Self up completely and totally in the Person of Jesus Christ upon the Cross.

Before Christ offers himself on the Cross, Jesus gathers with his disciples as Jesus gathers with us at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  There in the Eucharist, Jesus offers us the very Presence of God through the Body and Blood of Christ. In the Eucharist, God knows about our hunger, because he experienced it in Christ.  In the Eucharist, God experiences our longing for God and gives us what we are looking for.  In the Eucharist, God comes to us in the Body and Blood of Christ and in so doing we become the Presence of God in the Church, the world to be shared with all of humanity.  The Presence of God becomes part of us and calls us to be that Presence in a hungry, hungry world.

For the longest time, I have struggled with the Gospel associated with this night.  The story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples always seemed to be so strange to me.  I guess I am like Peter.  I want Jesus in the way I want him, but I do not want  him to change me.  I am too comfortable with things being the way I have always known them.  This is why it took so many years for me to come out and say that I am gay.  As long as I remained in the closet or involved in the Courage group that was started by Cardinal Cook, I could keep Jesus at a distance.  I didn't have to serve others who are like myself longing to know the true essence of themselves in a loving, monogamous relationship.  But when I faced the reality that I am gay and that God loves me as I am, I could at last be free.  God would still feed me with the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  I could still experience the Presence of God in the Eucharist in the Episcopal Church, though I could no longer celebrate it in the Catholic church because they rejected me.  In the Episcopal Church I can still celebrate the Presence of God in the Eucharist, in the Church, in my partner Jason, in myself and in others.  I can serve others like myself who feel marginalized because of our being LGBT.  To let Christ or another wash my feet means I too am called to service of others.  Because for many like myself, the Presence of God is not enough.  We need to know and experience the Presence of God through being in service for others, but also allowing others to serve us.

In the Eucharist, God comes to us and asks that we all go to others.  God feeds us and calls us to feed others.  In the Eucharist, Jesus gives himself for all of the world and asks all of us to give ourselves for those who often wonder if God really gives a damn about them.  Sometimes the "them" is us.  Sometimes we wonder about God and God's care for us.  In the Eucharist not only does Christ give himself to and for us, he calls us to give up ourselves for others.  And others are called to give of themselves for us.  In the Eucharist is the call for service.  In the reception of Holy Communion is God giving God's Self to and for us, and all of us giving ourselves to God and to and for the Body of Christ.  It is a call for everyone, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered.  It is a call and a message that no Pope, Bishop, Priest, Deacon or lay person can take from us.  Our call to receive and be part of the Body of Christ in the world is given by Christ himself.  We respond to the call of God in Christ. We have God's very Presence in the Eucharist to give God's stamp of approval on that call, and acceptance of us who answer that call.

Tomorrow Jesus will answer the call by giving himself up on the Cross.  We will remember what Christ did in the Eucharist, he really did do when he gave up his life and chose to die for the sins of the world.  Though we recall that in the Eucharist, when we are met with Good Friday we realize that what Christ called us to does not stop at the Eucharistic Table.  It means being willing to actually give up ourselves, even if death is the result.  It's a risky prospect.  But one that comes with all of the best of rewards.  What is that reward? Life eternal. 

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we my receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Maundy Thursday, Book of Common Prayer, Page 221).