ma nishtanah
מַה נִּשְּׁתַּנָה הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילוֹת
- Mah NishTA-NAH
haLAH-Y-LAH haZEH
miKOL haLeiLOT?
miKOL haLeiLOT?
What makes this night different from all other nights?
++++++++++++
At seminary I had a spectacular theology professor: internationally prominent Lutheran scholar, author, theologian Robert Jenson, who for all his brilliance, kept things simple. Jenson never gave essay exams, because he had other use for Time of Life than reading the verbose rubbish students wrote in exam bluebooks.
Jenson had a basic question and answer:
Who or what is God?
God is whoever or whatever led Israel out of Egypt.
God is whoever or whatever Jesus called Father.
God is whoever or whatever raised Jesus from the dead.
His class was pass/fail. If you wanted to pass, you followed his instruction to write no more than three sentences in answering any Final Exam question.
His final exam had half a dozen questions. You chose three to answer. The first question was “Who or what is God?”
God is whoever or whatever led Israel out of Egypt.
What makes this night different from all other nights? Exodus 12 commanding Jews to an annual Passover observance recalling God leading Israel out of bondage in Egypt.
For Christians what makes this night different from all other nights is Jesus gathering disciples for his Last Supper. And how propitious the moment in history and national life, when we hate each other so, and a war of horrors: that we dedicate a night to pause and hear Jesus’ commandment.
Maundy Thursday from the Latin name for the day, Dies Mandatum, day of commandment:
A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Where love is not a feeling, but how you treat other people. The gospel NT Greek word for “love” is “agape”
A new commandment I give you, that you agape one another. As I have agaped you, that you agape one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, that you agape one another.
For all the talking and preaching and renewing our Baptismal Covenant, people do not get it, Christians do not understand agape love. It is not erotic, it’s not loving your parents and siblings and sons and daughters. It’s not being friendly toward your next door neighbor, or nice to people at the Yacht Club. And it's not an elective.
It has to do with people you don’t know, never heard of, will never see or meet;
people who are different from you,
people in the other political party,
people you see using food stamps at Publix and resent that your taxes buy their food when you work to earn your food.
Food stamps are agape. A monthly welfare check is agape. Universal health care would be agape. People caring for others.
Lawyers have a Pro Bono principal, it’s agape.
Agape is not earned or deserved, it’s common human decency.
A parish youth group traveling to Appalachia or up MLK into Glenwood to put a new roof on someone’s house is agape.
“Doctors without Borders” is agape.
Antiaircraft rockets and anti-tank weapons to Ukraine is agape: helping others protect themselves from evil is agape.
Justice is agape. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Black Lives Matter, meant to be agape, special awareness of people whose heritage is slavery and whose life experience is racism, bigotry, and fear.
Boys and Girls Clubs of America is agape.
At Christmas, Salvation Army in uniform ringing bells over kettles: if you drop in a dollar bill or a quarter, that’s agape.
A gift to Anchorage Children’s Home is agape.
An Eagle Scout project to build a playground for little kids is agape.
The afternoon of Sunday, May First is our annual “steak and bake” to raise money for Wilmer Hall, our diocesan children’s home: it’s agape, please take part in that, it’s $25 a plate, and no you will not get a $25 steak, but it’s fellowship, and the money goes to Wilmer Hall, it’s agape.
Tomorrow’s Good Friday Offering goes to the ministries of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, your gift is agape.
When I was a boy, everyone was given a mite box at the beginning of Lent: insert a coin every day, and turn it in on Easter morning, for the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief, teaching us agape.
Most every parish priest has a discretionary fund for helping people in need: if you give to the discretionary fund, that’s agape. If the priest uses it charitably, as the church intends, it’s agape.
A fireman running a ladder up a tree to rescue someone’s cat is agape.
At Gulf Beach, someone rescues a stranger who defied double red flags and was caught in a rip current: unselfish heroism that people don’t always deserve is agape.
Providing financial aid so a child from a needy family can attend, is a tradition of Episcopal schools, it’s agape.
Supper at Grace was agape. Now Holy Nativity is working with St Andrew’s Episcopal Church to establish a free weekly supper program here in town, it’s agape.
Bringing cans of food for the parish Food Pantry is agape.
Filling backpacks with food for hungry school children is agape.
Agape is very simple: it’s not theological gobbledygook or sanctimonious fuzzy-wuzzy, it’s common human decency that has nothing to do with how you feel about someone, or about their race, or their group, or category or class, or their politics or religion, or whether they are nice or detestable jerks.
Agape is keeping your mouth shut when others call people “libtards” and such. Agape is declining to spread hatred and contempt.
Objecting, not laughing, when someone tells a sexist or racist or ethnic joke is agape.
ZAKAT - Islam’s charity mandate is agape.
HAKHNASAT ORCHIM - Judaism’s tradition of hospitality to strangers Is agape.
Agape is kindness, thoughtfulness, generosity, charity, consideration. It’s unselfishness [SELFLESSNESS]. It’s offering encouragement, It may be prayer: Jesus says love your enemy, pray for your enemies, that’s agape.
Valuing other people’s safety and wellbeing more than your constitutional rights is agape.
Not yielding to road rage is agape.
Courtesy to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormon missionaries is agape.
Refraining from ugly anonymous Comments on the internet is agape.
A New Commandment I give you: that you agape one another; as I have agaped you, that you agape others. By this all will know that you are my disciples.
First John 4:20, “If we say we agape God, but do not agape others, we are liars”.
Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith, “Shema, Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, and you shall agape the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might. This is the First Commandment, and the Second is its full equal in every way: you shall agape others as yourself: love is not a feeling, but how people treat other people.
Mah NishTA-NAH
haLAH-Y-LAH haZeh
miKOL haLei-LOT?
What makes this night different from all other nights?
Maundy Thursday: this night we hear Jesus’ New Commandment of Agape,
that Love is not a feeling, but
how people treat other people,
how a nation treats its citizens,
how nations treat other nations.
++++++++++++
My singing from the pulpit leaves much to be desired, off tune, and I forget the words, but I like trying it now and then anyway! TW
Maundy Thursday homiletic endeavor in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida, 14 April 2022, the Rev Tom Weller (Retired) Priest Associate of the Parish.