Maundy Thursday
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The Unity Table
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6 min read
I never know how I’m supposed to feel today. We know how we’ll feel tomorrow and then the third day. We know how we will feel. How things will be tomorrow. We feel that confusion today. There’s an anticipation to this day we call Maundy Thursday. A day in which the big story’s climax is…
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Betrayal & Desertion
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4 min read
The writer of Mark doesn’t condemn Judas. Not like the others. They need Judas to kill himself or bear the brunt of a Godly vengeance: the scapegoat for his betrayal. Like a true villain, more heinous than Pilate (they can’t wait to get him off the hook), more vile than the leadership Jesus spent three…
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Keeping it 100
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8 min read
When Jesus gathers his disciples for the Passover, Jesus does this one most radical act. No, not the Last Supper or the footwashing. What he does is treat Judas like one of the team. Like he isn’t about the betray him. The message, if we can hear it, is not only get together and eat,…
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On the First Day: Thursday of Holy Week
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2 min read
They break bread. They eat. They drink. Then they leave for the Mount of Olives. And here Jesus declares: “You will all become deserters” Just like that. Deserters all. Peter’s protests mimic our own. Peter is always our stand-in. Surely I won’t desert Jesus, we say. Surely I would keep awake.
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a Sermon for Maundy Thursday Text: John 13:1-17, 31b-35 The Cup This year, it was helpful for me to remember that we have developed a different way of marking days from Jesus’s time and place. Then, the day began at dusk. So this, Jesus’s final day, has begun. He gathers His friends for dinner, for…
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You Are the Servant Leader
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3 min read
“You’re the pastor” This is the gentle reminder many clergy receive: as if we’ve forgotten. It usually happens when we’ve invited our people into sharing leadership of a ministry. We say “you can do this” and they say “but you’re the pastor”. And for those of us that wear the dog collar, we get reminded…