The Cup of Salvation

A Sermon for Maundy Thursday (RCL A) 4-21-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:         Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1,10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17,31b-35

Themes:     the Passover lamb, the last supper, the washing of feet, servant leadership, love
Title:           The cup of salvation

My dear friends in the Lord: It is a joy and privilege to be here once again on this Maundy Thursday as we re-member together the last evening that our Lord Jesus spent with his friends, his students, his disciples as we know them, just before his passion was to begin.

In just a few days, on Sunday morning, we will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We still have a ways to go before we get to that time of celebration. But Sunday is coming, and when it comes, we will all celebrate and remember our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ.

One of the promises of the baptismal covenant that we will make and re-make throughout the Great Fifty Days is this: “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” And we will all answer together: “I will, with God’s help.” Matthew will be making this promise for the first time on Sunday as part of the body of Christ.

With God’s help, we will seek after Christ and serve Christ in all persons. With God’s help, we will love our neighbors as ourselves. Why will we do this? Not because we earn anything by doing this. In fact, we may lose much by serving people in this way. Folks like Donald Trump (for instance!) only become that rich because they stomp on many people along the way. “It’s the way business works”, so they will say in order to justify their brutality and thievery.

No, to serve Christ in others in this way means that we may lose much, because we make the choice never to take advantage of others at any time for the sake of our own selfish gain.

So why do we promise to serve in this way? We could love much in the way of earthly treasures, and we also know that there is no brownie point system in the kingdom of God. You gain no special bonus points with God by loving others, or by serving on the Vestry or the altar guild, by helping and serving the poor.

So, why do it? Why bother with loving others, with serving others?

We do this only because of what Christ has already done for us. When we truly grasp the greatness of the grace and mercy of God poured out upon us through Christ, what else can we do but to show our gratitude in this way? We love because Christ first loved us.

What did the Gospel say? “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”  

For we are what Christ has made us: a community, a fellowship, a nation of servants who act on the basis of love alone. On Sunday morning, at Church of the Ascension, after Matthew is baptized, we will welcome him into the body of Christ by saying:

“We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.”

Tonight, Matthew serves with me in the washing of feet in order to introduce him to this priesthood-life of servant leadership to which we have all been called.

For each and every one of us, our baptism is our ordination – our first and primary ordination into the royal priesthood of the body of Christ. Do you see our bulletin covers? On this cover and on all the bulletins that we use, it says on the front: “Ministers, All Baptized Members.” That is the truth. By our baptism, we are all ordained to be ministers of Christ. What we do and experience tonight is meant to be a call back to the servanthood basis of our ordination, our baptism into life in Christ.

 May God grant us all the grace to grow in our understanding of this life of service and love into which Christ has so graciously brought us. Amen.