Psalm42│Leviticus 16.2-24│Ephesians 2.11-18│Luke 23.1-25
Psaumes 42|Lévitique 16.2-24|Ephesiens 2.11-18|Luc 23.1-25
We were gentiles, you were Jews. God has
made us fellow-Christians
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bishop John washes the feet of Eleanor, who walked to St. Giles, Wrexham, in bare feet, on Maundy Thursday 2007.
By Peter Mackriell - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2986709
We are seated in the upstairs room, where we are about to take the Passover
meal with Jesus, knowing that we are all under threat. The city is seething,
the crowds who celebrated our Master only a few days ago, are now baying for
his blood. All along, many of the most important events which we have
experienced with Jesus, have involved festive meals. This too is a festival,
one of the highlights of the year, but the atmosphere is dark and foreboding.
Jesus is teaching us. He wants us to remember the time we spent with him, and
he wants us to be prepared for the future without his physical presence among
us. And as the centuries pass, we do remember, and we follow his teaching and
encouragement with the help of the Holy Spirit.
We were not physically in the Upper Room when the Last Supper took place. But
those who were, and St Paul who was called to join the apostles, went out and
told our ancestors, and they told their neighbours and their offspring, and
travelled ever farther out -- so here we are, in spirit joined with the
original group around Jesus, seated in the Upper Room, waiting anxiously for
what is to come.
Our ancestors were gentiles, were outsiders, were not present in Jerusalem,
that evening. They had never heard of Jesus, they were people whom St Paul
calls strangers. Had the early Christians decided that the church should grow
strictly within the Jewish faith, stay within the inheritance of thousands of
years under God, we might not be here now. The early Christians came to the
momentous decision that they would welcome total outsiders, people who had
never worshipped in a synagogue and knew nothing about its traditions, rules
and customs. We strangers would not be obliged to take on the laws of the past.
Christianity would be a new start, grown out of the past, but free to move
beyond, free to welcome outsiders, thanks to Jesus Christ and faith in him and
his good news for us all.
‘So he came and proclaimed the good news : peace to you who were far off, and
peace to those who were near; for through him we both alike have access to the
Father in the one Spirit.’ May this prayer for peace with all come from the
very depth of our hearts.
Isabelle
Prondzynski
No comments:
Post a Comment