Maundy Thursday .06                                       April 13, 2006

On Maundy Thursday, we remember Jesus giving us
       the sacrament of Holy Communion
       as the central act of Christian worship.
It is a prophetic act, signifying his giving himself
       to be broken for us,
       in order that we might be united in him.
It is the sign of his suffering and death for us,
       so that we could see the nature of sin,
               and the nature of God.

In the Holy Communion, Jesus showed us who God is.
The God he reveals isn’t a Super Being
        powerfully lording it over creation.

                – but one communion of love.
Benedictine Monk, Fr. Demetrius Dumm, says of Jesus:

        “(T)he very being of God . . . (the divine) nature it subsists
        as the communion of love between Father, Son, and Spirit.”

In the words of Orthodox theologian, Martin Zizioulas,
        and Roman Catholic Theologian, Patricia Fox,

                “God is Communion."

In giving us the sacrament of Holy Communion,
        Jesus revealed God,
        and in that revelation the Church was born.
Some people call Pentecost the birthday of the Church.
But you could just as well call Maundy Thursday
        the birthday of the Church,
        because the Church is a spiritual communion,
                a table fellowship.
The Church is not an institution of an organization
        but a relationship – a family –
        constituted as a family by this ritual action
        and its spiritual meaning.
And Maundy Thursday is when Communion began.

In this sacrament, Jesus invites us
        to participate in the divine nature,
                 to jump in, to swim in the Trinity.
We commune with God by opening our hearts

        – not to a religion, not to a doctrine, not to an image of God
                 that we keep in our heads

        – he commands us to open our hearts to each other

                 – to find things in each other to admire and enjoy,
        to serve each other instead of our own
                 ego-agendas,
        and to struggle through our differences
                 to hold each other in love.

This what Holy Communion means and it is what the Church is for.
We connect with God through each other,
        finding God mediated to us in the very muddle
                 of human relationship.

The depth of our communion is not proven
        when things are easy and we all agree.
The depth of our communion is proven
        when we hold together in hard times,
        when holding together takes humility,
                  forbearance, and even sacrifice.

In the first Century, people were not nearly so obsessed with sex
        as we are today.
They were obsessed with food.
So the controversies in the Early Church were mostly about food.
Heated controversies over what Christians could or could not eat,
        and with whom they could or could not eat it,
                  tore the Body of Christ apart.

But the challenge of that conflict produced Galatians and
        1st Corinthians – without which Christianity would
                  certainly be the poorer.

Today we are engaged in controversies about sexuality.
And we are blessed to have wise church leaders
        who remember what Communion means
        and what the Church really is,
        and who are giving us grace-filled teachings
        on how to be the Church
                  and how to celebrate Communion,
                  not just as a ritual but as a way of life.

When the Anglican Communion was divided
        by the consecration of Bishop Robinson of New Hampshire,
        the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a Commission
              to prepare a report on the state of the Anglican Communion.
That Commission, after much study and prayer,
        produced the Windsor Report,
              which called for tolerance and forbearance.
It virtually began, “This Report is not a judgment . . . .
        It is part of a process toward healing and reconciliation.”

The Windsor Report said preserving Communion is paramount,
        because Communion is the nature of God,
        and we are here to show God to the world.
So it called on Provinces outside the United States
        to refrain from interfering with our church,
        as the Churches of Bolivia, Rwanda, and Uganda have done.

But it called on us to apologize for our failure to consult
        with other provinces before taking action
                which would cause them distress.
It also called on the American Church to explain
        the emerging theology of sexuality
                which led to our action.

In response, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church
        has already passed a resolution of apology for our process.
However, a Special Commission also presented to the Anglican Communion
        a theological statement on new truths that Christ is revealing
                 in the life of the Church here.

In this statement titled “To Set Our Hope On Christ,”
        the American Church describes our experience
                of the Holy Spirit acting in ways we had not considered,
        ways that call us to re-think some of our long-held assumptions
                about sexuality and human relationships.

The point of this story is that the American Church
        is forthrightly, honestly, perhaps prophetically
             speaking to our brothers and sisters in other provinces
             about the need to recognize grace in the lives of gay people,
             and about the need to minister to and with gay people
                     with compassion and justice.

But at the same time, we are exercising the humility
        to repent (that is the word we have used “repent”)
        of having acted precipitously and unilaterally.

Another Special Commission has just released a report
        which asks the upcoming General Convention
                to join in that apology and to take steps
                to strengthen and preserve the Anglican Communion.

Life in the Church is not easy at the national or international level.
It is not always easy at the local level.
But that is precisely why the Church is a crucible for spiritual growth.
It is in struggling together in relationship
         that we grow in Christ.

How easy it would be, in this situation,
         to insist we are completely right
         and therefore have nothing to apologize for.
It would be almost as easy to say we are completely wrong,
         and swallow our convictions unspoken.

But instead, the Windsor Report called on us
         to repent of our lack of consideration of others,
         but also to share with them the grace and wisdom
                 in our actions.

Think of how that way of relating would look
         in family life, in the workplace, and among friends.
That’s what Communion means,
         struggling honestly with issues,
         while being considerate and respectful of people.

Communion is the very nature of God.
That means sin is in its very essence the breaking of Communion.
Original sin is our powerful impulse to break Communion.

There is a story of man stranded alone on a desert island.
When his rescuers came they found two little structures
         he had erected.

They asked him what they structures were and he said,

         “This one near the beach is my church.
The one back a-ways from the beach is where I used to go to church
         but I got mad and left.”

Breaking Communion:
This isn’t just a Christian issue.
When Sunnis bomb Shiite mosques,
         that’s breaking Communion.
When Hindus slaughter Moslems in riots in India,
         that is breaking Communion.
When Moslem and Christians burn each others
         places of worship in Nigeria
                 that is breaking Communion.

When we divide our society into warring camps
         based on race and class,
         as the movie Crash so powerfully portrays,
                 that is breaking Communion.

Communion is more absent in the world than it is present.
But our mission is to keep Communion alive,
        to eat from one loaf and drink from one cup,
        to wash each others feet, to pool our money for a common good.
We do this as a church with each other,
        so we can practice being in Communion
        with everyone in our lives.

We celebrate Communion by struggling for relationship
        with all the wisdom, the compassion,
                 the patience, and humility we have,
        all the while asking God to give us more
                 of those virtues,
        because God knows we need them.
In celebrating Communion, in good times and in bad,
        in caring for each other not just when we agree,
                 but when we disagree,
therein lies Communion,
        and that is our witness to the World.

                                                     Amen.