1. Find a quiet place, sit down, take a couple of deep breaths.
2. Imagine you are in Jerusalem. You are part of a crowd watching something.  Smell the smells, hear the shouting, feel the bustle, taste the dust.  The noise gets louder.
3. You look up and there’s Jesus carrying His cross. He doesn’t look like Jesus.  His head is bleeding from the crown of thorns.  His back is pasted in dried blood from the scourging.  He is stumbling under the weight of the cross and His own human weakness.  You have trouble watching and keep averting your eyes.
4. You follow the crowd to Golgotha. You can’t see much, only hear the echoing sounds of the hammer pounding the nails into the flesh of Jesus.  Then He is lifted up between two others and hangs tormented before everyone.  You hear Him say something – something about forgiving.
5. Suddenly you are aware of someone beside you. It is a person who has hurt you in your life.  You are astonished that they are there as well.  Annoyed, you turn and look at Jesus.  Jesus is looking at that person with such love and tenderness then forgives them, right in front of you!  You feel compelled to look at the person now and they look different.  Something has changed in them.  Their features are less harsh, their demeanor more humble.  You hardly recognize them.
6. Then you hear your own name. You look up and there is Jesus looking at you with the same love and tenderness He had looked at the person beside you.  You see His lips move and suddenly realize He is saying words of forgiveness to you, personally.
7. Uncharacteristic of you, you feel the need to take the hand of that person beside you and together you watch Jesus die – for you, for them, and for the world.
8. Pause and feel your feelings.
9. You realize suddenly that you are alone before the cross. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John are standing close by to Jesus.  You nod at them with respect, glance furtively at Jesus, now dead, say what you need to, though words seem to escape you.  You turn and walk back into your life, now changed forever.

God bless you.

Coleen+

Rector, St. Peter’s Anglican Church

Tonight Jesus will be betrayed and condemned on false charges.  Before that scenario of pain and despair, He will spend His last earthly night with His best friends.  Knowing what was going to happen, Jesus prepared the disciples, and us, for what’s next.

He washes their feet – a scandal then and even more so now.  Who washes someone else’s feet?  Oh wait, parents, caregivers, hospital personnel and nursing home workers do.  Most of us have forgotten the true service rendered in washing someone’s feet.  It is a humbling experience and intimate in its closeness to another person.

Jesus tells them He is giving them an example.  Horrified, they’re not sure what to do.  Peter speaks for all of us in his insistence that Jesus not wash his feet.  Jesus takes that teachable moment and shows Peter, and us, what true discipleship means – service to others.

With covid-19, we may not be washing anyone’s feet, but we can serve one another through prayer, forgiveness, compassion and hope.  Someone needs to hear from you.  They might need groceries or medication, they might need reassurance, they certainly need a word or gesture of hope because someone cares – you!

Jesus then goes on and offers bread and wine as a remembrance of His Body and His Blood that He will sacrifice within hours.  Whether we call our repetition of this action the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist or Holy Communion, it was, and is, the hallowed remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord.

When we all get back to church eventually, take communion.  It is the Lord’s ongoing gift of Himself to any believing, baptized Christian.  Embrace the privilege.  Be a responsible disciple and share the gift of Jesus by witnessing to others of His goodness and graciousness in your own life.

Life is hard now, more so than we could ever have imagined.  Do not despair.  The disciples must have been crazy with fear and worry, perhaps mostly for themselves.  Jesus gave His life to free us from fear.  Stay safe.  Keep trusting in the Lord.  He will not abandon us.

God bless you.

Coleen+

Rector, St. Peter’s Anglican Church