Wednesday in Holy Week

The next dramatic movement in this sacred week occurs tomorrow evening -- with the remembrance of Jesus' instution of the Eucharist and his washing of the disciples' feet.

Most people who will participate in the tens of thousands of Maundy Thursday services across the globe already know the story...they know how it unfolds...they know the characters...they know "who does what"...they know how it will end on Good Friday...and they know how the finality of Good Friday will be obliterated at first light on Easter.

So if we all know the story, why bother? Why not look for a different story? In a culture obsessed with novelty, why not spend our time with something new?

Retelling the story -- literally "re-membering" it -- individually and corporately, enables us to bridge the distance of time and culture. In these next few days, the story of Jesus' Passion is brought forward -- from the "there and then" of the streets of Jerusalem to the "here and now" of Main Street, USA. This is not simply any story after all, this is THE story -- the story of God-with-us and God-FOR-us. This is the story of the Son of God who journeys to the far country of human sin and frailty.

Here is God: no monarch he, throned in easy state to reign:
Here is God, whose arms of love aching, spent, the world sustain.
(The Hymnal, 1982; #585)