Maundy Thursday

We were having a conversation the other say at work about the meaning of the stripping of the altar at the service on Maundy Thursday Evening. Many of you will be familiar with this ritual. After the remembrance and re-enactment of the footwashing. After the celebration of the Insititution of the Eucharist. Then, the mood of the service changes and becomes more sombre. All decoration is removed from the Church. Hangings, candles, crosses, rugs, kneelers are all, one by one, taken out. In many places the altar is ceremonially washed. Our discussion was whether to give people context by explaining what these actions meant - the interesting thing was that we did not have to talk for very long before we discovered that there were layers of meaning for each of us and we would need to be careful not to over-simplify - and therefore run the risk of over-defining the symbolism of what we are doing and reducing its power.

As we approach these great days of story we will be surrounded by symbols. Maundy Thursday has the washing of feet - that moment when Jesus reveals that he is both servant and savior. It has the giving of the Eucharist - that great celebration of praise and thanksgiving. And then the disciples follow Jesus to the Garden, they are getting sleepy and they cannot stay awake as he prays. This is where we leave the story this Thursday night as we watch with those bleary eyed disciples.

The stripping of the altar of a poignant reminder of the emptiness which approaches, it is an animation of the simplicity of human life. It is a reminder of Jesus' tomb and perhaps of Jesus himself being stripped of clothes. Where the sacrament is reserved, a single light remains in the darkness as Jesus prays those aching prayers, "If this might pass from me....... but Your will be done." Your will be done, Your story be made real in word and symbol and sacrament.