A meditation for Maundy Thursday
Every year at the Maundy Thursday service I try to take a slightly different approach. Last night I decided to use prayers from the Didache, discovered in 1863, and possibly written less than a century after the death and resurrection of Christ. Why bother using such ancient prayers? The reason was to evoke a sense of connection with those who have gone before us on the journey of faith. To underline this, we passed a scarlet thread, secured to the communion table, from person to person before the words below were uttered.
A scarlet thread…
There is a scarlet thread, wrapped tight around and around a deeply-rooted tree in a garden of unparalleled perfection.God, who planted the tree, wound it there when the tree was less than a sapling even in his imagination.And nothing will tug it free.Adam carries it with him when he walks, sadly from the garden – head bowed and heart heavy.High on a mountain, when God stays the hand of a man ready to slay his own son if that is what is needed, it snags upon a briar. Isaiah’ s vision of a servant king, greyed out owing to distance, nonetheless has a streak of scarlet here and there in the pattern of his words
John the Baptist will have it wrapped about his waist as he wades into the Jordan. It will dangle from his wrist as he raises an arm to point out the sacrificial lamb of God. It will curl around the feet of the disciples as they sit in a deeply shadowed upper room and share a meal together. Splashes from a cup of wine held aloft serve only to deepen its hue. It will be wound around and around the foot of a tree once again.. and carried with its occupant into the tomb
From there, with him, it will emerge again, grasped hungrily by the hands of those who thought him gone forever.Bound to them it will cross borders and rivers, oceans and continents. It will plunge with them into deep holes in the earth where they must hide from sight for their safety. They will carry it with them to the deepest jungle and up to the thin air of the highest mountain.
Others will carry it to worlds unseen
- Above
- Below
- In the mind
- In the as yet unimagined
And one day the Father will take its end and wrap it around and around the base of his throne. And all in all, shall be complete.
Give a gentle tug to that scarlet thread.FEEL how all are joined, each to the other. The repetition of ancient story. The lifting aloft of a cup, or the breaking of bread as generations have done before us. THESE things keep us linked, all part of the thread of God’s mercy. In using ancient words as we share communion tonight we are not being clever, or arty, or fanciful. We are reminding ourselves that we are linked by a thread of faith-to those who went before;to those who will come after; to all who lift the cup and break the bread as they remember the mercy of God
