With this image, we began our Maundy Thursday experience. The image is called "New Song." It is by Maria Gabankova, an artist who lives and works in Toronto. I invited those gathered in remembrance of Jesus, this evening, to imagine this image as a contemporary setting for the Last Supper. We shared what we found inviting, welcoming about this table: the musical instruments, the food, the candles, the tablecloth, the diversity of those gathered, the faces, some of whom are looking toward us. We noticed they look serious, pensive. A child was interested in the tree - a pear tree he called it, and then we noticed the tree also contains a fish and a building that looks like a church, and birds, and other fruits. We noticed that the table seems to stretch into infinity. We wondered where we would seat ourselves at this table. Who would we want to sit next to...and why? And then we listened to the story of how Jesus gathered his friends around a table on the night before he died, and spoke to them and washed their feet, and said to them, "If you know these things, blessed are you, if you do them." (John 13:17) We wondered...what things? And what does Jesus want us to do, as we remember Him?
And then we began what has become our Maundy Thursday tradition....walking the labyrinth in remembrance of Jesus, and receiving the elements of communion in the center. Accompanied by the sound track from "The Passion of the Christ," I carried the chalice containing grape juice and began walking. For a bit....it seemed like quite a bit....I walked alone. A solitary walk, holding the cup that signfies the blood that was poured out for me and for all. Soon enough, others joined me. They broke off a piece of bread from the loaf that was offered at the threshold, and then carried the bread that represents Christ's body into the labyrinth. We were all invited to reflect on Jesus while we made our way to the center. As more and more people entered the labyrinth, it became crowded, a sea of humanity twisting and turning on a common journey. I couldn't help but to think of the crowds who walked with Jesus in Jerusalem...walked in triumph with him as he entered the city...walked in confrontation against him on the way to the cross...walked in sorrow as he died.
As each one reached the center I was standing there with the chalice and the words: "the bread of life, the cup of salvation" From a basket in the center of the labyrinth, we picked up a piece of broken pottery and carried it on the long walk back to the threshold, while reflecting on our brokenness. Pretty soon, the crowd had dwindled, as one by one, worshipers completed their walk. By the end, it was down to just three women...those who had been holding the elements at the threshold, and me. Like Mary Magdalene, and Mary and Salome, the women who, according to Mark's gospel, were looking on from a distance as Jesus was crucified. (Mark 15:40) Our dance was tinged with sorrow, though also with gratitude for the love we remembered and in which we participated, tonight.
By the end of the evening, Maria Gabankova's "New Song" became, for me, the welcome table of the kingdom of God, to which people will come from east and west, and from north and south. The essence of that community, that communion of saints, she captured in her painting. And, we experienced a taste of it this evening, in our remembrance of Jesus.
Walking to Remember...On the Way,
Cheryl
