Hmm - not sure I made the right decision tonight, to go to Goodison Park in the middle of Holy Week! Do you think it was God's sense of humour that we lost 2-3 to Crystal Palace? Looks like we have blown our chances of Champions League football next season. Don't know what happened: several of the players just didn't seem to show up. Worst performance I've seen for a long time, though to be fair CP were reasonably good - certainly played better than Everton.
Maundy Thursday tomorrow, and I hope a number of people will come to our special celebration of Holy Communion (7.30 at St Barnabas), commemorating the Last Supper of the Lord. We will be thinking about hands - the hands of Jesus. There is a marvelous line in Graham Kendrick's song, The Servant King: hands that flung stars into space, To cruel nails surrendered. What a wonderful way of connecting the divinity of Christ and his work of creation, with the humanity of Christ and his work of salvation. Those same hands also washed his friends' feet, broke bread and poured wine. Previously, they had touched lepers, healed blind eyes, raised both a sick child and even a dead man. After his resurrection, Jesus showed his scarred hands as evidence that it was really him, neither impostor nor ghost. It is truly amazing that the creator of the universe should so lower himself to become the servant and even the victim of humanity.
At the Last Supper, Jesus issued some instructions to his disciples. They were to wash one another's feet, as Jesus had washed theirs; they were to continue to bread bread and drink wine in memory of him; and they were to love one another, as he had loved them. Our hands are thus to be employed in the service of others, whether in menial tasks, hospitality or acts of service. Our Holy Week services and meditations are not mere times of indulgence but calls to action - to do as Jesus has done for us.
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