This very night
Jesus will be betrayed,
arrested in Gethsemane,
marched off to the house of Caiaphas
for a very illegal, flawed, trial,
whisked off to Pilate
so they might have him put to death,
then to King Herod, as Pilate tries
to pass the buck,
then back to Pilate
for Herod is just as politically astute
as is the Roman Governor.

Then Jesus will be humiliated,
beaten,
made to carry a heavy cross
to the place of public executions -
and will there be nailed there to the timber
where he will die.

It is a hard journey
exactly because we in this life
are faced with hard journeys,
and Jesus will not do less.

This night,
Jesus gathers his little inner circle
one last time,
for their journey -
will be much like his.
They must be prepared
for a long, difficult time to come.

So, in the building urgency of the hour,
as he is about to be betrayed,
what does he do?

He reminds them of their foundational story,
he relates it to their journey to come,
and he feeds them
there in the upper room.

It is the Passover of the Lord
and Jesus is telling the old story
for a new time.

Last night, all over the world
each faithful head
of a Jewish household
sat down with his extended family
for the Passover Meal.

He caused the youngest person present to ask,
"Why is this night different
from all other nights?"

The Seder begins.
It is a time of teaching the ancient stories.
It is a holy observance
of God's saving grace in the Exodus event.

The Hebrews, enslaved in Egypt,
are about to experience a brief opening
in time and circumstance,
during which they might escape.

Moses is getting them ready
for the breakout.

It is a tense night of preparation.
Each family is to kill a lamb
and roast it quickly.

They must eat it standing up,
shoes on their feet, ready to set out,
staff in hand.

There is an urgency
to this life-or-death enterprise,
for they are about to be betrayed.

The enemy, the Pharaoh and his Army,
will come for them in the morning.

They must be far away by then,
traveling fast and light.

So did God prepare his people urgently
for a faithful journey,
a journey from the helpless state of slavery
to the connectedness of full humanity,
fulfilling the promise of God.

That is a lifetime journey.
It starts with the departure meal;
the escape is couched in the miraculous
as they walk through the sea;
they are to be instructed in divine and human relating
at Sinai
with the gift of the 10 Commandments;
and they will follow a vision of God
by day and by night
for 40 years,
which means "a lifetime".

And, all along the difficult way -
through the wilderness and desert,
there will be questioning,
and the temptation to abandon the vision,

Yet, they will be sustained for a lifetime by God
with Mana and water, even quail,
as they journey
toward being God's Holy People.

So does Jesus prepare his little band
this night of the Last Supper.

He prepares them to teach
and to lead the infant church
through the wilderness to come.
He sustains them by his very life
and connectedness to God,
through hard times,
toward a vision
which embodies goodness and faithfulness,
purpose, and the nearness of God.

It is a lifetime journey
but it is THE journey.

For me, in this particular Holy Week,
nothing illustrates the power
of this legacy,
this living Spirit of God,
as does our response to the sudden
loss of our friend Albert Eddy.

Albert's Mass of Christian Burial
was celebrated here yesterday afternoon,
as hundreds of people who loved him
sang hymns of Gods faithfulness;

and we, in response to the teaching
and the gift of Christ Jesus
shared Jesus' life and labor in Holy Communion.

Many witnessed after the liturgy
that in it they had found
sustenance in the midst of pain,
food for this wilderness journey of our own.

In the mystical presence of Christ at such times,
we find a vision of God
by day and by night,
and we discover
that living, loving, acting,
and even dying faithfully
is far easier, far more natural
far more comforting
far more genuinely human
far more life-giving
than anything else on earth below
or in heaven above.

Our culture has largely lost any compelling
or even useful vision of God
by which to make our way.

We have substituted a kind of slavery to success,
an addiction to power and wealth,
a capitulation to anger, resentment, and bitterness,
all of which render us paralyzed,
our humanity blighted.

We have our betrayals of one another
in this life,
which break the hope for intimacy and peace.

We have the trials and discord
on which this world seems to thrive.

Yet, God calls to us this night
through the fog of our spiritual warfare
with a message of great urgency.

We have so little time - so little time
in which to discover God's power -
to make us whole
so little time to prepare us
for helping others along the way.

This is God's Church,
but ours are now the voices telling the story.
We are now the hands offering the feeding of God.

Jesus presides in Spirit,
but we preside in telling the story of Truth and Life,
we preside over the meals of sustenance,
and the examples of faithfulness
for all to see.

"Why is this night different
from all other nights?", ask our little ones.

It is different
because we have a wilderness to negotiate
and feel God's urgency for us.

And, it is different because
we are those gathered into a faith community
with a story to tell
bread for the journey
a vision of victory
and God with us,
all along the way.

So take, eat, my brothers and sisters,
this is the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus,
which was given for us.