Maundy Thursday - John Wesley Love Feast

Matthew 26:17-20, Matthew 26:26-32 Passover with the disciples 17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover meal?” 18 He replied, “Go into the city, to a certain man, and say, ‘The teacher says, “My time is near. I’m going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.”’” 19 The disciples did just as Jesus instructed them. They prepared the Passover. 20 That evening he took his place at the table with the twelve disciples. Matthew 26:26-32 Common English Bible Last supper 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take and eat. This is my body.” 27 He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from this, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many so that their sins may be forgiven. 29 I tell you, I won’t drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 Then, after singing songs of praise, they went to the Mount of Olives. Predictions about disciples leaving Jesus 31 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Tonight you will all fall away because of me. This is because it is written, I will hit the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will go off in all directions.[a] 32 But after I’m raised up, I’ll go before you to Galilee.” Maundy Thursday Is the Thursday before the crucifixion. Jesus knew that his days were numbered, and yet he wanted to host a Passover meal for his disciples and friends. Over the past 2000 years, there have been a number of different ways to commemorate this day – services, hand and foot washing, communion, there are some churches that do a reenactment of the Lord’s Supper. Many churches have a Seder meal as Jesus’ last supper. There is no one way to commemorate Maundy Thursday. Maundy means commandment. When Jesus gathered with his friends, he gave them one commandment – to love one another. It doesn’t matter to Jesus what you do on this night, as long as it is done in love. Hence we are gathered here tonight to have a love feast or an agape meal. Agape means Christian love. The worship committee planned this meal 3 years ago before the pandemic. This was the first year that we were able to do it. I wanted to introduce it to the church, because it is an important tool to add to our ministry tool kit. Sharing a meal together has been a sacred time probably for as long as we have gathered together in community and family. The Passover meal was important to the Hebrew community. God asked them to have a time to remember how God set them free. They were to have this meal every year and to teach their children their history. The Passover meal was important to Jesus – he invited his friends. The disciples continued to gather at meal time and just as Jesus has commanded, they took care on one another and made sure that anyone that was hungry was fed. The early church continued this tradition. Some of these churches would gather to eat at least once a week. They would gather in fellowship, but if there were people in the community that were hungry and only came for the food that was okay. It was called a love feast because it was a time to make sure that the poor were taken care of. Today many Asian churches still have a tradition of serving a big meal open to anyone right after church. There were two traditions that evolved from Jesus’ Last Supper. Communion was one tradition that was adopted by many Christian communities – where you remember Jesus’ last meal with a ceremony using wine and bread. The love feast was a completely different tradition that was adopted only by certain communities where you served a full blown meal and honored Jesus using bread and water. Today Episcopalians, Methodist, German speaking denominations like the Moravians still do love feast. John Wesley started a renewal movement in the US and his home in Britian. He encouraged Christians to gather in groups to further their faith. His classes became the Methodist Church. While working here in America, he started taking bible study with the Moravians – who were German based community. They had Love Feast regularly. He adopted it for his movement and encouraged the Methodist to have love feast. I wanted to introduce the concept to you all – because it has 3 major functions that are important to Methodist mission and ministry. 1. Lay Leadership is critical to Methodism. As a pastor, he knew that he could not be everywhere as churches developed on the frontier. Methodist Pastors were circuit riders who rode to different churches to perform priestly functions, but lay people were the backbone to the church. Wesley wanted to make sure that lay people were empowered to do any function of the church in the absence of a pastor. So the first instance that you would do a love feast instead of communion is if the pastor was planning to be present, but was not able to come to a function. Serve water instead of grape juice and the lay leader is able to carry on. 2. If you are on a mission trip, and you want to have a holy service but no minister is with you on the trip. You can serve bread and water on the chalice and plate. During communion the pastor must says the magic words in order to turn the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. That is not necessary for the love feast. You can just say a prayer, sing a song, have a holy moment and make sure that everyone is served. 3. If you are having a meal or a holy moment with people from other denominations. It is interesting that we as Christians are called together in love, and yet we find so many different ways to separate ourselves, including communion. We have so many different views about what communion is. A Love Feast gets us beyond all of that. We can gather with Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians and even Baptist based on love and not the body of Christ. If you are inviting other denominations to dinner, then you should call it an Agape Meal and not John Wesley’s Love Feast. It cuts down on the arguments and misconceptions. You can even have a love feast with another Methodist denomination. 4. We like to have Seder Meals in honor of Jesus life. I love the seder meal, it is one of my favorite ceremonies of the year. But Jews don’t encourage us to have seder meals, because it is an important part of their heritage that we don’t always understand. The Jewish religion was established after Jesus crucifixion, so that was not the exact meal that he ate. An Agape meal is a Christian meal, we are not borrowing it from anyone. And it can be served at any time. Before we have our love feast and eat our meal I just want to point out the elements on the table. In honor of Jesus’ heritage, we have an Elijah cup filled with juice, and a Miriam Cup filled with water. When I left Englewood church, My friend John Ellis gave me a Wesleyan tea pot that would have been present at a John Wesley love feast. There is a tea cup that would have had two or three handles on it to symbolize unity. This is the cup that you would pass around and drink from. We wont be passing it around. The bread is cut up in cubes, so that we can pass it to one another. Water and towel to symbolically wash our hands. A Blessing Over the Water: This is the living water that flows through the ages. It is the water of the Red Sea, which split to save the Israelites from plight, and it is the water of the River Jordan, in which Christ was baptized. All the waters of the world are connected; now let us be connected and cleansed with this water. Let us pray: O cleansing and righteous God, it is you who can see all, both the filth of sin and the purity of love. You are the only one who can liberate us from the power of sin! Let us connect with this water you have given to us; and let us be cleansed from our sins. It was you who in humility washed your disciples’ feet. But it is we who in humility wash our hands in search of forgiveness from our sins. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. Please submerge hands in your bowl of water. The Feast: Here before us, you will find some water and bread. It is important to know that this feast is not a Eucharistic feast, but one of love and fellowship. First time doing it, wanted to make sure that you had the explanation. In the future we will do both meals. Prayer over the elements. The Feast: Here before us, you will find some water and bread. It is important to know that this feast is not a Eucharistic feast, but one of love and fellowship. You are the Beloved Community. As you eat this bread, let us commemorate our unity through Christ and feast on the spirit of love who is Christ. Let us eat together. We know that water sustains our lives, and we know that you, O Lord, are the Living Water. Let us drink together. The Lord’s Prayer: (in the language closest to your heart) Pass them to one another Grace Be present at our table, Lord Be here and everywhere adored; Thy creatures bless, and grant that we May feast in paradise with Thee (John Cenick) There will be a little bit of closing – but say goodbye to those joining us on Facebook – Table Fellowship During the regular Love Feast, should take up an offering for the poor, and have testimonies. Scripture1 Corinthians 11:23-29 Song Were you There? Dismissal with no blessing