St. Charles' Episcopal Church – St. Charles, IL
Maundy Thursday, Year A - March 20, 2008
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26;
John 13:1-17, 31b-35; Psalm 116:1, 10-17
The Reverend William Kruse

Well, this evening we are reminded of two famous evening meals for the people of God. The first lesson reports a Passover meal to be remembered for all time, and re-presented annually as a festival for the Lord. Faithful Jews re-enacting the Passover today discover that the Lord is still setting them free. In the second lesson we have Paul's remembrance of the instruction he was given for the Lord's supper. Like the Passover it was to be a liturgical remembrance in perpetuity. A liturgy for as long as time lasts.

Eucharist is a very important part of the drama of salvation. And symbolically we see the Lord's death and resurrection in this sacramental meal. It means for us in part that Christ has died, Christ has risen and Christ lives on in and through us. That's what our baptism means, that's a major theme in the book of Acts. We are Christ's resurrected body. As the apostle Paul said in one of his letters, "I live yet now not I, not just me but Christ lives in me." In that way God is still setting us free from every bondage.

Tonight I thought I would share some remembrances of what Eucharist can be. What it was for some other people and what it can be for us, if we choose. Actually when I first started writing this I had so many stories of Eucharist and what it means, that I was going to end up with a sermon about 30 minutes long, then I cut it back to just three.

The first memory I offer you is a kind of footnote to Anglican history. When the English parliament legally separated from the Roman church Thomas Cranmer became the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury and the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. And almost as soon as the news of Britains's reformation hit Europe, four German Lutheran theologians high-tailed it to Britain to meet with Archbishop Cranmer. They were put up at Lambeth Palace and met the Archbishop at dinner that first evening. After the small talk about the journey, one Lutheran leader said, "Thomas, we're naturally curious where the Anglican church will stand theologically. For example about the Eucharist, do you agree with the doctrine of transubstantiation as articulated by Saint Thomas? Or do you agree with the doctrine of consubstantiation as taught by our brother Martin Luther? (You may remember that transubstantiation means that the bread and the wine literally become the body and blood of Christ, although they keep the same appearance of bread and wine. And Luther's doctrine of consubstantiation, "con" is a Latin prefix meaning "with", and so he was saying that with the bread and the wine we would see the presence of Christ. But the bread and the wine still were the bread and wine they were before.) Well that was a tremendous theological argument in the 16th century. And when they asked Thomas Cranmer this there was a long pause, and then he said something they did not expect, he said, "I don't know." I would have loved to have seen their jaws drop. They did not expect the top bishop of England to say "I don't know" about a very common and very hot theological debate. After a significant pause, the Archbishop said, "but this I do know, when we celebrate Eucharist with our hearts and our minds we do experience the Real Presence of Christ." I think he was implying that if there's a theological doctrine that explains that he didn't know it, but he knew that we have the real presence with us. Cranmer was probably the leading liturgist in the western church at that time. He had studied all the ancient and contemporary Greek and Latin liturgies as well as all the German Lutheran liturgies. But he did not consider himself a theologian. And Eucharistic theology didn't really interest him one bit. It was the experience of worship that caught Cranmer's enthusiasm. And to this day the Anglican Communion has no official theology of the Eucharist. But it is our aim and our hope that we do liturgy in such a way that participants experience the real presence of Christ.

So I thought we might consider what three different people experienced in the Eucharist, and Cranmer would say experience the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

There was, I remember, a young mother in the parish I served as a curate, long, long ago. She was a woman of great joy and enthusiasm. And she told me that each time she was pregnant, and she had three little children under six, she had a strong desire to bless her unborn child with her experience of the peace and joy which was hers when she celebrated and received Eucharist. Consequently, every time she was pregnant, all those weeks she attended two week day services as well as the Sunday service. Regardless which service it was, she knew a peace and joy that she was sure was a blessing to her child in the womb, as well as of course a blessing to her. Possibly Thomas Cranmer would observe that her peace and joy was a sign of the real presence.

The third person I wanted to talk about, her experience, it happened a long time ago, as a matter of fact it was in the 14th century. A young woman who had recently turned 30 became very ill , and seemed to be dying. And the parish priest came to administer the last sacraments. He asked if she would like to make her confession but it was obvious that she was almost comatose and could not make a confession. The priest then anointed her with oil in the sacrament of Holy Unction. Praying in Latin that the Lord would raise her up to new health or take her into eternal life. He then asked if she desired communion and she nodded rather eagerly. He broke a small piece of the communion wafer and placed it on her tongue, after this she closed her eyes and laid back on her pillow and it seemed that she fell asleep. The priest said the final prayer of thanksgiving and led the woman's parents and others who had gathered through a few brief prayers in English. And as he packed up his communion kit they all chatted amiably and they assumed this young woman was asleep. We don't know how long she was silent. But by the time the priest was ready to leave, that young woman startled them all by sitting up. She sat up straight and she informed them with a deep authority in her voice, that the Lord had given her some showings and that they should bring her writing materials so she could record them. By the time the priest was leaving the young woman was sitting up in the bed and scribbling with great haste. And her scribblings became the beginning of the first book in the English language written by a woman.

So allow me to read just a few brief passages from the book entitled "The Showings" by Dame Julian of Norwich. The old English has been translated into modern English which I hope you can enjoy. "In the showings the Lord said ‘it is necessary that sin should exist. But all will be well, and all will be well, and every manner of thing will be well.'" On prayer, "the fruit and the purpose of prayer is to become one with Christ and like God in all things. It is the will of the Lord that our prayer and our trust be large. We must truly know that our Lord is the ground from which our prayer sprouts. And that prayer is a gift given out of divine love. Otherwise we waste our time and give pain to ourselves." and "God wants to be thought of as our Lover. I must see myself so bound in love, as if everything that has been done, has been done for me. That is to say, the love of God makes such a unity in us, that when we see this unity no one is able to separate one self from another. Imagine, no one is able to separate one self from another. From the showings of our Lord I understood that all the blessed children who come out of God by nature, will be returned to God by Grace. (Kind of a Universalist concept there.) The spiritual thirst of Christ is a love longing. A longing that lasts and always will until we are all together whole in Him. For we are not now as fully whole in Christ as we will be one day."

And isn't this a purpose of Eucharist? To make us fully whole in Christ?

Brothers and sisters in conclusion, I just want to say, in the Middle Ages many men and women spent years searching for the Holy Grail, which was symbol for the reign of God, the rule of God. Sometimes after a lifetime of seeking they discovered that it's a mistake to seek outside for that which is already within us. Maybe both the Passover meal and the Holy Eucharist are invitations for God to speak to us and show us the divine presence, show us the Holy Grail. Perhaps the Lord is saying to each of us, I am Who I am, the place where you are is holy ground, I shall never leave you or forsake you, I am the manna in your desert experience. I am the one who parts the Red Sea for you when like Moses you stretch out your arm in command. I am the one who gives you showings of love whenever you truly desire it. I am the Real Presence at Eucharist when you are open and receptive to me. The Real Presence already is here within us. The Real Presence is always here. In sickness and in health, in lack or in abundance, in sin or in purity. How quickly we pierce the veil of illusion depends only on the depth of our desire. The Real Presence is here.