Maundy Thursday: Fast Food Frenzy

A sermon written and preached by the Reverend Scott D. Nowack on April 5, 2012

at the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

Fast Food Frenzy

Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14

Once upon a time there was a family, torn apart by conflict, who sought out the services of a family therapist. Even in the therapist's office, they kept sniping at one another. The father was distant, the mother complained of how she got no respect, the teenage son slouched moodily in a chair and the young daughter dissolved into tears every time the others raised their voices.

Desperate to make headway with this dysfunctional bunch, the therapist decided on a simple intervention. "I have just one prescription for you," she said. "I want you all to sit down together every night and eat dinner together. Nobody rushes out. You all stay at the table until everyone is finished. And I want you to start the meal by holding hands around the table and saying grace."

"We're too busy," said the mother.
"I hate cooking dinner," complained the father.
"We're not even religious," sneered the son. "How phony would that be?"
"I'm afraid to," objected the daughter. "We'll just fight."

But the therapist held her ground. When the family objected that they didn't know any graces, she told them to just say, "God is great, God is good, and we thank God for this food."

The father spoke up next. "You mean to tell us that, for a hundred dollars an hour, that's the only advice you have for us?"

"That's it," said the therapist. "Trust me on this one."  Skeptical as they were, the family agreed to give it a try.

On the return visit, the therapist began by asking how things were going. To everyone's surprise, the sullen teenage son spoke up first. Still looking down at the carpet, but with an unfamiliar smile on his face, he replied: "This is the best thing we've ever done. Now, at least I know I can see my dad once a day."

The family had a lot of work ahead of them, but the shared meal was the first step. In every culture, it is a powerful symbol of unity, understanding and peace.

The Old Testament reading lays out the details of a special shared meal and in turn narrates the first fast food meal in the Bible: the Passover -- the last meal for the Israelites before their redemption. The people of Israel were told to be ready to run, to be prepared for whatever would happen.  They were taught to eat with their loins girded, their sandals on their feet and their staffs in their hands, for the Passover meal was not to be an occasion for mourning, but nourishment for a journey to their new lives. Their impending departure from slavery in Egypt was not some kind of general "liberation" that dumped them out on their own, but a release from the tyranny of Pharaoh to live under the life-giving reign of God.

This is not a one-time event.  The text today spells out clearly that the Passover ritual was not just for the first Passover in Egypt, but for the ongoing annual observance of it.  The reenactment of such an event is as salvific as the original enactment.  It is an entering into the reality of that event in such a way as to be reconstituted as the people of God.  There is a distinction that can be drawn here: between redemption as memory and redemption as hope.  It’s not between the past and the future, but between the past and the present. 

How does the salvific effect of a past event be made real in every new present, every time it is reconstituted?  The very liturgy used in reenacting the Passover is structured into the very story of the past redemptive Passover event.  It is in the context of worship that the power of the original event comes alive again in the present time through God’s redeeming activity.

Every time the Passover is celebrated, the actual participants are directly integrated into the celebration of the redemptive event: God brought us out of Egypt.  When we participate in the Passover or the Lord’s Supper, we are characters embedded in the fabric of the original event remembered and celebrated.  Understanding what the Passover is and its background is important for our understanding of the Jesus’ death and the Lord’s Supper. 

The Lord’s Supper was literally Jesus' final meal before dying. Jesus implied that very thing when, at the start of the meal, he said to his disciples, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:15-16, NIV). At the same time, the Last Supper had a lot more than a menu in common with the first Passover, where that meal was the prelude not to death for the Israelites, but to God's new redemptive work on their behalf.

The new meal, which we rightly call the Lord's supper, not the Last Supper, is a foretaste of the banquet of God's kingdom to come.

Thus the Lord's Supper "scans the whole story of redemption in Christ and rehearses for believers the true scope and setting of the life they are called to live together." That means that although Paul says the eating of the bread and the drinking from the cup "proclaim[s] the Lord's death until he comes," it's not just his death that's the center of the story, but also his message and the redemption he offers. Just as the Passover embraces redemption both as memory and hope, so does the Lord's supper.

It's inevitable, of course, as we receive communion on this eve before Good Friday, that we will remember Jesus' death, but it's not so we can mourn; it's so we can live with our eyes keenly focused on the full redemption that Jesus brings.

The Lord’s Supper: may our celebration of this holy meal serve as a powerful symbol of unity, understanding and peace.  The Lord’s Supper: it’s not a meal to die for, but one to live by.