Holy Thursday 2025

The way one hymn says it, “Welcome to the hungry feast, hungry for a word of peace…We come, we come to the hungry feast…” it makes it sound as though this day and this Holy meal were created by writers, made up for our benefit—in the best possible way—carefully weaving Hebrew Bible stories and Jesus encounters to make a new tradition—a Christian tradition.

It certainly sounds that way.

But if the writers were making it up, says a Presbyterian minister, "if the writers were making it up, For the purpose of converting the world, presumably they would have described it more the way the book of Revelation describes how Jesus will come back again at the end of time...in a blaze of glory.

But that is not the way the Gospels tell it.

They are trying to describe it as truthfully as they can.

It was the most extraordinary thing they believed had ever happened, and yet they tell it so quietly that you have to lean close to be sure what they are telling.

They tell it as softly as a secret, as something so precious, and holy, and fragile, and unbelievable, and true, that to tell it any other way would be somehow to dishonor it.

To proclaim the resurrection the way they do, you would have to say it in whispers: "Christ has risen." Like that."

So, as we get closer to Good Friday. A vigil on Saturday and a celebration of Jesus resurrection on Sunday;

Shhh…Listen.

As the fulcrum of the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther says, “God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars.”

Shhhh…Listen.

Resurrection is in the flowers…and the trees; and, and, and amazingly in you…

but remember before the resurrection of Jesus there’s the sadness of Good Friday and before the sadness, and anger, and disbelief of crucifixion—Jesus the loving one—executed by Rome; between two criminals?

There’s a meal; a banquet; time with friends. We call it, we call today-Holy, Holy Thursday.

Here’s some sadness. Ascema told me after church her friend is dying.

Oh no.

I’m so sorry.

What’s your friend’s name.

I’ll pray for them…for you; and for everyone who loves your friend.

“Umm” says Ascema with the slightest trace of a Guyanese accent “I don’t really know his name. We all call him Bread.”

There’s a lot more to this story…but even with this small, tiny fragment, it’s got my full attention.

Like a sunrise; or a meal with friends. I’m leaning in to hear more.

Does this fragment, “we all call him Bread;” like a jar of perfume and tears washing the feet of Jesus—even without more details—have your attention too?

Did you know Indian civil rights leader Mahatma Ghandi said “there are some people so hungry in this world god can only appear as bread.”

Ghandi said it in England in 1931 to a group of thoughtful people—presumably church going Anglicans. People who supported Ghandi and Indian independence movement from Colonial rule; but they had questions. Ghandi was annoyed at having just had a luncheon where all the guests had eaten their fill to then be nitpicking the details about starving people and said…listen.

Maybe you have also had friends in their last days. Maybe, if you’re part of a particular culture you also only know people by nicknames. One of the disciples, the first Pope and namesake of the college two blocks from here is called, Peter, which means rock. Rock, Peter, is not his name—it’s Simon.

Also, “to James son of Zebedee and his brother John Jesus gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder.”

So while nicknames are in the Bible, nowhere does it describe accents. However, in many places the books of the Bible do mention multiple languages. There is a constant reference to many cultures, which means even without fanciful interpretation, there’s no way there aren’t accents.

So, when Ascema says, “we all call him Bread” with the smallest lilt of a Guyanese accent I think of the 20th century and stories of my immigrant wife tells me of moving to the United States and speaking no English. She watched soap operas in order to get rid of any trace of an accent. That way no one could tell she wasn’t from here.

If you’ve got an accent, don’t worry about that; accents all kinds: southern y’all; yo, Staten Island; oh ya sure Minnesotan; a touch European; ya Caribbean; all of them me feel a little bit at home; from different times in my life.

Guyanese accents in particular make me feel much younger.

A childhood friend contacted me a couple weeks ago. He shared a picture. It’s us from 40 years ago on soccer team—which won 1 game, the last one. After the game Curt’s father, who was Guyanese, took us out to eat pizza. I can still remember most of that evening, celebrating being winners—even though we were, by definition losers, or at least had a losing season, decades later I still remember the meal. Unbelievable.

Even more unbelievably I met Curt’s father’s classmate at an Episcopal clergy event two days ago.

Small world.

We lamented that Jai Paul died way too early in life. Of an asthma attack in 1987.

My colleague also lamented, with humor, Jai was Lutheran, not Anglican. Although he was Lutheran, I doubt Jai Paul would have particularly liked that Luther quote. He was well-read. Under the guidance of a kind Lutheran Pastor named Hanson he went to a Lutheran college in Wisconsin. The same one my father went to. Jai was a serious student. He probably knew that stuff about flowers was apocryphal. My hunch, and this is only a hunch, is that he would have much preferred the sacrament of Holy Communion in bread and wine to meditating on a mountain.

Is that what Jesus is doing here?

Instead of offering another sermon on the mountain, blessing the poor or meek, Jesus is blessing bread. More important, like he did in the feeding of the 5,000 people, Jesus is sharing bread with hungry people. And he’s saying…well, he’s saying, he’s bread.

For our friends in faith, the Jewish people celebrating Passover this week, they have a ritual around bread and wine. The traditional guide to Passover is called a Haggadah. The Haggadah is a text that sets forth the order of a Seder meal on Passover that recalls the story of Israel and the journey from bondage to freedom.

In recent years Haggadah’s have creatively used stories not found in the Hebrew Bible to illustrate Passover. One version that I’ve been introduced to is called the Hogwarts Haggadah. It uses the story of Harry Potter as the lens for liberation. For a generation of people who learned to read with Dumbledore, Hermione, and Ron as friends this is especially exciting.

And for a father who swore up and down we wouldn’t have screen time with our kids, you’ll forgive me for saying that.

I didn’t know what I was talking about.

We sometimes eat dinner in front of the TV.

And I’m elated that our son has chosen Harry Potter as his show of choice as we make our way through dinners and the series of movies. The imaginative world of walking trees, invisibility cloaks, a train station with a secret entrance unlocks the possibilities of his mind in the best possible way. It helps him imagine the world, not as it is, but the world as it could be.

The Hogwarts Haggadah takes a traditional sacred text and unapologetically brings Harry Potter images and plot lines that teach the Exodus story and build Jewish identity. This Haggadah is also an important resource for Christians. It can serve as an accessible introduction to the Seder itself as well as window into a tradition of at home faith formation. The Hogwarts Haggadah challenges non-Jews to think about ways traditional texts…the Bible, lives of saints, works of theology, and spiritual exercises, can be reinterpreted.

As a Priest, I also advocate for such a view.

On Ash Wednesday I told you about a woman at the end of this block who had an NDE; a Near Death Experience. I also told you about a spiritual exercise I did with a colleague years ago. We created a podcast based on a TV show about people who had Near Death Experiences; The OA for Lent. I created a digital study guide that invited viewers to see a popular Netflix series as a spiritual resource.

Like Jai Paul on that Martin Luther quote about flowers, not everyone agrees. Christian Feminist theologian Dorthee Solle is wary of practices that sentimentalize faith and individualize sacred texts. She fears that such practices, especially in Christian dominant cultures, can sever Jesus’ connection to the Hebrew prophets, and make a mockery of his ministry and mission to the poor and the marginalized Sölle contends “what remains is a metaphysical Easter Bunny in front of the beautiful blue light of the television screen…”

Conservative and liberal Christians, as well as those from other traditions may nod in agreement; they don’t like cultural references with faith practices because it leaves too much open to interpretation.

What Sölle warns I think is not to avoid culture altogether, but to rightly understand practices of faith — pushing back against those who try to distort religious adherence. Careful contextualizing helps faith be at its best. It makes more things become holy rather than making holy things commoditized and consumable.

This is theology though.

That’s what Professors, Priests, Rabbis, and care takers of institutions think about.

What we need in this world is not more food for thought; or even a catchy tune.

We need bread, as Ghandi pointed out to Colonial England, bread to eat.

When I say bread I’m thinking of Ascema this year and the fact that she has a friend called Bread. I’m thinking of Jai Paul and the meals I ate with him.

I’m also thinking on Holy Thursday of Jesus. Jesus calls his body bread. He says, it’s broken for you.

If Jesus saying he is bread is too Harry Potter; if finding platform 9 and 3/4 is too difficult; Jesus also says the entrance to the Kingdom is through love. Loving one another, as he has loved us. Let us come to the hungry feast; let us be fed by, and then become part of the body of Christ—we’ll feed the world together. Amen.