Lent Day 38--April 5 Maundy Thursday

Lenten Reflection for Day 38—Maundy Thursday

Date: April 5, 2012

Author: Pastor Pat Harris

Bible Passage: Revelation 21:5 (NRSV)

⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Reflection:

On this Maundy Thursday, we think on Jesus’ new commandment from the Gospel of John: “Love one another as I have loved you.” These words, too, are trustworthy and true, but oh, so very hard to live up to. If we were able to come even close to the gold standard that Jesus sets for loving each other, the world would truly be made new.

We are certainly called upon to strive to love each other as Jesus loves us, but we are weak human beings. The neighbor who always criticizes us because our property maintenance does not meet his standards is really hard to love. The co-worker who doesn’t do his or her share of the work just makes us angry. The teenager down the street who dresses differently and plays loud music continually aggravates us. Try as we might, we just can seem to come up to Jesus’ standard for loving these “difficult” people.

When God fulfills God’s promise to make all things new, will our neighbors be changed so they don’t irritate us, or will we be the ones changed? Perhaps we will be transformed so that our love for other people is not dependent on their “lovability”?

Prayer: All loving God, may you make us new so that we may fulfill Jesus’ command to love one another as we have been loved. Amen

Lent Day 38: April 21--Maundy Thursday

For this Maundy Thursday devotion, we welcome guest blogger John Harris, who is also my husband! John reflects on what it means to" love our enemies."

Lenten Reflection for Day 38

Date: Thursday April 21, 2011 (Maundy Thursday)

Author: John Harris

Bible Passage:

Luke 6:27–28 (NRSV)

²⁷ “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Reflection:

“Love your enemies...!!!” In his humorous tale, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis relates how two devils, an uncle and his vastly inexperienced nephew, go about tempting Christians to turn their backs on God. In one amusing example, Uncle Screwtape admonishes his nephew that despite his “patient’s” Christianity being tested by being drafted into the World War II British Army, beware of trying to inflame hatred of the Germans in this particular Christian.

Screwtape writes, “The results of such fearful hatred are often most disappointing, and of all humans the English are in this respect the most deplorable milksops. They are creatures of that miserable sort who loudly proclaim that torture is too good for their enemies and then give tea and cigarettes to the first wounded German pilot who turns up at the back door.”

“Blessed are the ‘milksops,’ for they will be called children of God.” Blessing those who curse or abuse us is hard doctrine, particularly for American Christians who historically have not suffered tyrants gracefully. After all, we hold in contempt world leaders like Neville Chamberlain who refused to draw a line in the sand to monsters like Adolph Hitler. Chamberlain’s name has become a synonym for appeasement.

So what is a Christian “milksop” to do? Do we become conscientious objectors, pacifists who refuse to take part in just causes and watch innocent people succumb to evil. Bonhoeffer, himself, was executed for taking part in a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. Do we turn the other cheek and watch 6,000,000 Europeans go up in smoke?

I do not believe that Jesus is asking us to ignore evil in the world. He wants us to stop the evil and then offer our enemies “tea and cigarettes.” He is asking us, to paraphrase President Lincoln after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, to let our enemies “up easy.” We need always to listen to our enemies and let them “up easy.”

Prayer: Jesus, it is hard to let our enemies “up easy.” It is too easy to repay evil with evil. Open our hearts to listen to our enemies and to repay them with kindness. Amen.

Maundy Thursday--May You Not Come Into the Time of Trial

Lent Day 38—The Great Three Days: Maundy Thursday, April 1

Theme for the Week: The Passion of Christ according to Saint Luke

Passage for the Day: Luke 22:39-42

³⁹ He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. ⁴⁰ When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” ⁴¹ Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”

Reflection:

Today, the Remembrance and Celebration of The Great Three Days begin. Tonight we will gather to remember Jesus’ last night with his disciples. We will recount how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and in doing so taught them about servant leadership. We will gather around a Table for a meal, remembering the last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples. We will remember how Jesus told us that the bread and wine are his body and blood, given for us. We will experience Jesus’ presence among us as we share the bread and wine.

The setting for this text from Luke, is after Jesus and the disciples have departed from their last meal together. Jesus has already predicted his own betrayal by one of the disciples and predicted Peter’s denial of him. This scene finds Jesus at the Mount of Olives, ready to begin praying about his upcoming death. Jesus knows that the disciples will have some difficult days coming up, and he urges them to pray so that they will not come into the time of trial.

As we enter the Great Three Days, this prayer is an appropriate one for us also. When I was growing up, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were a part of the culture in which I was submersed. There was no school on Good Friday and it was a time when we were fairly quiet and usually visited elderly relatives. We typically went to church. In our culture today, nothing stops for the Great Three Days. Yet, we are called by God to spend time in prayer, reflection, and remembrance during these three days. The culture draws us one way—business as usual; God calls us to stop and pray. Pray you do not come into the time of trial—tempted by the frenzy of the world.

Prayer Themes:

Thank God for the gift of The Three Days with the opportunity to experience Jesus’ passion. Thank God for Jesus’ sacrifice for me. Pray that I will not fall into a time of trial. Pray for those who are experiencing trials and temptations.