Blood on the lintel and lamb over fire. God-given signs to preserve life in a night of death long, long ago. Egypt would reel while Moses walked unfettered toward the sea.

One nation would move through water without swimming and win without fighting when the sea closed to cover the war horses and fearsome riders and sweep them from sight. Chariots and bronze spears would sink like stones making their beds in the nethermost parts of the sea.

Who knew? How could such things be? Some blood on the doorpost and a handful of broiled lamb did this? No, not the meat, nor the flames, nor the blood of goats. These were only markers of something deeper. Signs - and not for God's benefit - God is always ready to save-but for the Hebrews.

"Do this and you will live," God said, as God would so many times and in so many ways as the Hebrews circled round for 40 years, spiraling toward Jerusalem, the Promised Land that they both longed to enter and resisted reaching by constantly choosing their own road rather than the ways God had prepared for them to walk in.

Nothing has changed. We still long for peace while sowing the seeds of conflict. We still imagine that if we gather enough things we will capture satisfaction and security. But all we really need is to realize that the maker of all things is inviting us to join His household in which there is abundance of grace and all we actual need. We crave meat and forget the Spirit. We imagine, as the Hebrews did, that we can somehow separate slavery from the food that is served by the One who enslaves the unware. But we can no more save ourselves than the Hebrews who were slaves in Egypt could themselves.

So what shall be the sign for us and who shall save us from the enemies that would enslave us, or worse? Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God, the sacrifice and the host of the feast. The one who gives who is also that which is given for the life of the World. And there are the signs of bread, and wine, and the washing of feet.

Is it the blood of grapes and the crushing of wheat that saves us? Will water on our insteps wash our hearts clean? No- these too are but signs. So let us look directly at Him to which they point.

Jesus is the light in the gathering darkness. Holiness and energy raised to incendiary pitch by unwavering intent, unswerving resolve, unselfish love that will give itself until it is all poured out.

Christ's love is not dependent on the adoration of the crowds that drank his easy words like wine but turned away when the hard sayings came. Christ's abundant love is not a glowing response to a sense of growing success. The crowds have pulled back and the hostile and powerful ones are drawing nearer and nearer. Shepherds'staffs and parables about wheat will give way to approaching swords and real life decisions that will end badly.

One disciple will meet love with betrayal, then wander into remorse and death. Others will fade away in fear while temple police drive Jesus toward a final resolution like ever faster hammers pounding down nails. Evening has fallen and the dead of night is not far behind. What could stand against this?

Jesus took bread. Or, as John tells it, water and a towel. But the love behind the actions is the same. This is how love acts in the face of fear. This is how you kindle light when darkness comes. As things are stripped away the light will burn brighter, clearer, becoming even harder to miss against the opaque and gathering gloom.

Jesus is moving from the role of shepherd to the place occupied by a lamb that will be slain. Jesus is moving from the one in front of the crowds to the one who will be raised up on the hard wood of the Cross. A cross often looms between intention and the giving of life.

A terrified five year old calls 911 and saves her parents from the home invaders holding them hostage in the next room.

A man enters a burning building three times and rescues a family he has never met. The building was on fire, he heard their cries and he just went into the flames to find them.

A small woman lifts a large car off her son's body when the jack slips and he is pinned underneath. By so doing she saves her son's life.

A young soldier sees the grenade before anyone else and throws himself upon it. By so doing he loses his life that others may live.

All around us bread is being broken for us, and light is shining in the darkness. Sometimes a person may feel like it's all crashing down around her shoulders- but this is no alien landscape to the Lamb of God. Jesus hold up bread and breaks it for her that she may have bread for the journey, hope in a land of hopelessness, and know herself carried by what Jesus will do for her, by what Jesus has done for the sake of the World.

Sometimes a man wonders what he did to deserve the pain that rains down without warning. But there is no dark valley left unwalked by the Son of Man, no alley, no country road, no corner office, no factory floor turned desert, no place of death or possession that Christ cannot enter - will not enter - to rescue even one. Whether we lie still in fear or run without thinking, Jesus has seen it all.

He has seen the darkness and has stood fast. Jesus kneels, lowers his arms and brushes away our tears, washes away the grime from our hearts, the dirt from our feet and motes and more that block our vision.

This is what God's glory is- faithfulness no matter what. Giving until life is gone. And the mystery is that all that is lifted up - all that is broken - becomes light. Incendiary grace that radiates out world without end, light without ceasing, a love that will transform all who will see the sign, eat the bread, drink the cup and become both light and love.

Be bold this night of stripping away. Walk a little father with Christ than you have ever done. Let that which is mere husk be stripped away with the cloths and furniture from the sanctuary. Let the costly light that is offered wash over you like living water. Take the gifts that are given - broken bread, the image of damp feet, wine in a cup and blood that will be spilled on pieces of wood. Take and be thankful and wait in hope, even in the dark…AMEN.