Church on Thursday

Yesterday was Maunday Thursday, or the day of the Last Supper. Tradition states that Jesus was celebrating Passover with his disciples the night of his arrest (Luke 22:7-15). During this meal Jesus changed the focus of the covenant to point to Himself as longed for Messiah and the sacrificial lamb. It is from this shift that Christians get the concept for communion (Luke 22:17-20).

Many churches hold a special communion service on the Thursday before Easter Sunday, some even go a step further and hold a Seder Supper to give Gentiles an idea of what Jesus and his disciples were celebrating and how much Jesus deviated from the traditional formula. Of course with social distancing dipping bread into a shared cup for communion is a no-no. So we decided as a family to do a nod toward Passover and make a Seder plate. (Apologies on any incorrect terminology that is used.)

May I just say the internet has an overwhelming amount of information on celebrating Passover. In the end I gave up and settled on the simplest explanations and recipes I could find. The next challenge, once the brain melt down subsided, was that we didn't have all the ingredients. Since we couldn't go to the store we had to get, uh creative... Petty sure some of our creativity would have made anyone who is actually Jewish cry, but we tried and had fun attempting...

Imagine it, three sisters cooking in a small space, swerving around one another as they try to make new dishes so the family could have a memorable meal. Music blasts from the table as the parents are busy with phone calls and chores in adjoining rooms. Eventually the oldest sister tired from work goes and rests until the food is finished. In other words a snapshot of community.

The meal itself wasn't quite what I had anticipated. As a kid the few times we attended a Seder supper at Church I remember an "expert" walking us through the entire meal, and while it was a fun experience there was also a seriousness to it. Last night however, serious scholarship or observation was not part of the tone at all.

In all fairness, I did give up on trying to understand the plethora of steps to Passover and settled for sentence long explanations for each item on the plate. After the symbolic explanations we ate and read excerpts from Exodus 13. Throughout the meal there was the usual joking and noise that comes with one of our family dinners. By the time that was done, my youngest sister (who is special needs and eats separately since she can't feed herself) had enough sitting and decided it was time to get down. Of course it is at this point, as I'm finishing my food, that I realized we hadn't gotten to the New Testament portion of the evening. So in the midst of dishes and people coming in and out of the room the familiar words of 1 Cor 11:23-26 were finally read.

Picture perfect food, somber learning in the midst of stillness are wonderful ideals. But reality tends to be a little more noisy and messy. Good food, good conversation, a bit of Scripture, last night on Maunday Thursday, in the midst of all the chaos, there was Church.