Exodus 12:1-14
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
In most of the religions of the world of which I have had experience, hospitality, understood as eating together, plays an important role. But in the Jewish and Christian faiths the common meal is not just an act of charitable hospitality: it is part of the theological structure of the faith. In the Jewish scripture tradition, many meals are mentioned. There is for instance the meal served by Sarah to Abraham and the messengers, which, much later, formed the subject of the Rublyev icon, a copy of which forms the cover to the aumbry, in our meditation chapel. But central to Jewish self identity and liturgy, right down to our day, is the meal described in our first reading, the Passover meal, today known as the Seder. The Passover meal brings together many themes, the release from slavery and oppression, the founding of nationhood and identity, and, by anticipation, the giving of the Law. The story told during the Seder celebration, is almost the equivalent of the Creed in our Christian tradition. (No formal creed exists in the Jewish tradition.) It is worth noting that this statement of faith remains in the form of a narrative, unlike the Creed of Nicea-Constantinople where the narrative is almost overtaken by explanation in terms of Greek philosophy. It is also worth noting that the Seder is normally a liturgy performed in the context of the family, rather than as a religious service.
For Christians, in a similar way, the scriptures tell of Jesus sharing many different meals, but the meal which bears the foundational nature of our faith is the meal whose origin we celebrate this evening, and which we perform weekly, and in some cases as here in the Cathedral, daily, as the central act of worship of the community.
Our second reading this evening gives us Paul's account of the origin of the meal, which was obviously well established by the second half of the first century when Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. We have in fact three accounts of the Last supper, this one by Paul, an account by Mark, copied by Matthew and Luke, and the story we read as our Gospel by John. The synoptic account (that given by Matthew Mark and Luke), clearly identifies the Last Supper as a Passover meal. Paul simply states that it happened on the night when Jesus was betrayed, but without linking it specifically to Passover[1]. In John's account this meal took place before the festival of the Passover[2]. Later John tells us that the crucifixion of Jesus took place on the day of preparation for the Passover[3]. Now this shift in date may because John wishes to present Jesus as the Passover lamb dying on the cross. On the other hand John's date could be correct, leaving us with Mark making the shift, because he and Matthew mention, and this contradicts their understanding of the Last supper as a Passover meal, that the chief priests had said that Jesus should not be arrested during the Passover[4]. Further on, Mark (and Luke copies him) tells us that the burial took place on the day of preparation, but then adds that is was preparation for Sabbath, as though he were correcting a tradition like that of John[5]. We also need to note that in John's account no mention is made of the blessing of bread and wine or of Jesus' words linking the meal to his crucifixion. The centre of the story in John is the account of the washing of the disciples' feet, of which he alone tells. However from the dialogue which follows, it is quite clear that John intends us to understand the story in relation to the Christian feast of bread and wine. From this very brief study of the history of the tradition we can conclude, I believe two important things: what we now call the Eucharist was firmly established as the central marker of the Christian communities from the mid first century. However, even by the end of the first century, it was not universal to link the Christian celebration with the Passover, as it later became. Were it not for the dating problem I mentioned in the synoptics, I might want to put the difference down both to John's specific understanding of the death of Jesus, and to his desire to clearly delineate the Christian community from the Jewish. But because of the synoptic text the dating discrepancy must, I think remain a puzzle.
On this night each year the western church brings together all these different elements of the story, despite their diverse and puzzling origins, and combines them into a dramatic and deeply meaningful liturgy which I have always found to be one of the most important, for my faith, of the Christian year. Let me make three comments on why I find this liturgy so replete with meaning.
We celebrate tonight the origin of the Eucharist as the central worshipping act of the Christian faith. If we look at the liturgy of the Eucharist, as we celebrate it week by week, it actually combines two elements. The pattern of the first part, the reading of scripture with hymns, psalms, interpretation in homily, and prayer, is identical to the pattern of the worship which has been central to the synagogue. The second part brings to that the re-enactment of the Last supper, the blessing and sharing of bread and wine. Have you noticed that in the prayer of consecration the entire story of scripture from creation to recreation is recapitulated? Each of our seven consecration prayers tells the story in a different way, placing emphasis on different parts of the story, but all of them tell the whole story. I believe this to be an important way of understanding our Eucharistic action as narrative and drama, replacing the now sterile arguments of recent centuries about the nature of the consecrated bread and wine. I also rejoice that since the mid twentieth century the Anglican Church has restored the Eucharist to its proper place as the central act of Sunday Worship, as was clearly intended by Cranmer and the English Reformers. To have Morning Prayer as the central act of worship slipped into our tradition from the Calvinist reform, and it is true neither to the Anglican not to the whole historical Christian tradition.
I also believe that the connection between the Eucharist and the Passover is important, not only to emphasize our family relationship with the Jewish tradition, but also because Passover is about history. It is about the experience of oppression and the hope for deliverance. It is about living real life in the world, and finding the presence of the Other in the middle of that real life. Without this constant reminder, Christianity easily slips into a purely internalized spiritual mode, in which deliverance is deliverance from personal sin, rather than a call to bring justice, mercy and freedom to a world at once suffering and oppressed, greedy and overfed.
This lesson is reinforced by the action which we shall begin in a few moments. We are about to wash real, smelly feet, as we reenact the story in John's Gospel. So please come forward and allow us to wash your feet as a sign and reminder to us and to you all that what we are about here is not religion, but a movement to bring joy, peace, love and justice to those around us and to the whole world and biosphere.
But before we do that, let me make one more comment. I have mentioned earlier the role of Passover and Eucharist in creating and sustaining community. In our Christian tradition we are not a community because we are like or like each other. Nothing, in my understanding, other than in exceptional circumstances, could be further from the Christian understanding of community than our being a group of friends, or a group of like-minded people, people of the same intellectual ability or people drawn from similar walks of life. The Christian community is not one which shares a common culture or class structure or even a common set of moral values. Christian community is built only around the risen Christ as he comes to us in the breaking of the bread, and calls us to follow him. A community which is inward looking, self serving, and with tight boundary conditions, either expressed or commonly shared by its members is not a Christian community and cannot live in God's Grace. Its future is only to wither and die. After washing the disciples' feet, John has Jesus say:
... if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.[6]
The role of the Christian community, created and ever recreated in the Eucharist, is not to exist for its own sake but only to be the risen Christ in the world.
[1] I Cor 11:23
[2] John 13:1
[3] John 19:14
[4] Mark 14:1-2
[5] Mark 15:42
[6] John 13:14-15
