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What
does Communion require of us? This
is the night that Jesus gave the Holy Communion, reinterpreted and
extended the meaning of the Passover, God's standing with us and
protecting us, and setting us free from oppression. And this is the night
that we remember him, near Passover, telling them how to keep it in a new
way, a radical new way. He declared to his closest friends, his disciples,
his intention to continue being exactly what he had been all along, even
though it was going to get him killed. Everyone must have been
waiting for the magic moment when he was going to pull a rabbit out of his
hat: either surprise them and call in the angels to overthrow the Romans,
or go underground and stay there until he was safe to surface again.
Maybe teach in another country, or start a community like the Essenes,
hidden in the mountains.
Jesus,
on this fearsome night, at the momentus dinner-party that will be known
from then on as the Last Supper, says he isn't going to save himself.
This is to be a new Covenant between heaven and earth all right; but it is
going to be a covenant made with the breaking of his body and the spilling
of his blood - for them. . . for all who will accept forgiveness. He
is going to die just as he has lived, risking everything all the time in
the effort to begin a new community of forgiveness, acceptance, where the
only thing that separates those inside from those outside is whether they
will receive forgiveness and share it with others.
So
I asked you, what does Holy Communion require of us? What Jesus did
in his passion is the most non-coercive thing a leader has ever done.
He didn't use guilt to motivate them, he didn't offer to do something for
them if they would stand by him or work for him in a certain way. He
just told them what life is really about, from the Creator's point of
view, and then said he was going to stand by it, at the ultimate cost, and
that God would sort it all out - and make good come of it - beyond Jesus'
own death.
He
didn't demand anything of them. They were free to stand by him or to
run away. He was going to do this for them anyway. They were
free to succeed as disciples and they were free to fail. He was
going to do this for them anyway. They could become revolutionaries
and hate the Romans, or they could carry the pack the extra mile, give the
extra coat or shirt, turn the other cheek, and love their enemies.
He was going to do this for them, and do it for their enemies, and his
enemies, either way.
He
didn't put any conditions on his gift at all. He said it was
momentus, that it would bring about a New Covenant, extending and
deepening what Abraham and Moses had received from God. But he did
tell them how they could stand with him of they wanted to, how they could
put his gift to best use if they wanted to, how they could begin to be
what he was to the world, if they wanted to. The phrase, "if
you wish to be my disciples"
gives me chills of anticipation. He
said, John 13:34
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so
you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are
my disciples, if you love one another."
I
have wanted to be his disciple since I was eighteen years old. I
have wanted nothing more. But I should have wanted more.
Listen to this phrase, "I call you no more servants, but
friends". Jesus invites that we participate only if our hearts
and minds and soul and strength feel and believe that this is where they
will make the difference the world needs. John
15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I
no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's
business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I
learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not
choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit
that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
17 This is my command: Love each other.
Is
this the best way to spend our lives? Washing the feet of others?
Is this leadership, washing the feet of others? Dying for them? Is this
joy and fulfillment, giving of ourselves that others might find wholeness?
Jesus said, "you are my friends if you . . . love one another."
So go and learn what this means: "you are Jesus' friends if you love
one another."
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