God be with you.

And with you.

People of God, friends of Jesus, today we have joined a parade that’s been underway for weeks, for years, for generations.

For Jesus, it ends in Jerusalem, on a cross, strapped to a gurney, belted into an electric chair, pinned face down in the street. We kill what we cannot control. We could not control Jesus; he had to go. Some friends we turned out to be. Blessed is he who comes in the name of God, we cry out. And then, with as much vigor, we cry “crucify him.” We are fickle friends of Jesus.

Yet, God is steadfast, and Jesus loves us – to the end.

He knew it would come to this. He knew it when he gathered for dinner with his friends, a meal we remember today. A dinner that began in love, relaxed in compassion, but ended in betrayal. Followed by denial. Followed by execution.

Yet with Jesus, there is redemption. Another meal, another piece of bread, another sip of wine, another moment to ponder our mortality, our complicity, our renewal in a life of grace and hope.

We are people of God. and with God, there remains grace, there remains hope.

So we gather for a meal. Bread and wine, Spirit and Word. Grace and Hope.

We gather and call to mind the night the first disciples gathered with jesus. Friends they were.

And when dinner was over, Jesus offered one more course.

He took bread and broke it, blessed it and gave to them and said: “eat this tonight, eat this whenever you gather, eat this and be part of me. and know that I am part of you.”

Then, he took a cup. Blessed it and passed it around. “drink this. This is what promise tastes like. when you gather, gather with me, and know that I am with you.”

So we do. As an act of defiance against evil – an act of defiance against even our need to control. We eat and drink as a way of rejoining a parade that mocks power, a parade that leads through death to life.

Let us pray:

God of life and god of death, you have gathered us again at this feast, the feast of redemption. You invite us to leave at the door the shoes of our death march and join again in the way to life. Bless this food, this bread and cup, that we who share it may be filled with your spirit – inspired to leave behind our ways and to seek your way alone. Make us again your people, and guide our work on behalf of your beloved creation. In your name we offer these gifts; in your name we pray. Amen.