Love at the Table

My writing is about to diverge from the normal pattern of Monday musings.  I have a practice, every Easter season, of writing 50 Days of Gratitude.*  Those will begin on Easter Sunday and continue daily (or almost daily) until the Feast of Pentecost (May 24th, this year).  Fifty Days.  It will be a different practice this year;  I suspect it will require  me to move grief to one side in order to catch a glimpse of the gratitude that is there.  Because it’s there and I feel it often.  

Today is Maundy Thursday in Holy Week.  Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, which means mandate or commandment.  Christians remember that Jesus gave the disciples a ‘new commandment’ on this night, as they ate a last supper together and as he washed their feet:  that they love one another.  I’m reminded of that song/saying they’ll

know we are Christians by our love, which I was reflecting on with our bishop (the pastor in charge of the judicatory) this week.  He noted that often the actions of people who profess to follow Jesus look nothing like love.  We separate ourselves from this very simple mandate and cling to power and fear and judgment.  This is perhaps the greatest example of sin.  Sin is not a failure to follow the rules; sin is a failure to walk in love.  

Maundy Thursday is about love in the face of persecution, which, trust me, is a tall order.  

It is about love that says there is a place at the table for the betrayer.  It is about love that says we can do the hard things that are just ahead of us.  It is about love that says the table is wide and there is room for us all.  

I believe we are all hungry for this kind of love, but don’t believe that we have the capacity to offer it to the world.  If we did, who knows what sort of long held prejudices and pre-conceived fears might fall away?  If we did, who knows what perceived power we might give to another?  

Tonight, Jesus takes the bread and wine and reminds his friends and followers that he gives his very self for them.  Friends, may it fill us also, all the way, so that love becomes the way we walk in the world. 

* If this more frequent writing feels like it clutters your inbox, do feel free to scroll past.  But if you’d like to join in the conversation about gratitude, I love reading the comments you leave!