ST MATTHEW'S WESTMINSTER
  • Welcome
  • Livestream
  • Music at St Matthew's
  • Safeguarding

13/4/2017

Love Bade Me Welcome, Homily for Maundy Thursday, Mass of the Last Supper (Fr Jeremy Davies)

0 Comments

Read Now
 
​The night is closing in: the enemies of goodness, some of them thinking they do the
Lord’s work, are closing in as well. Even at the supper table there are those who are
singing from a different hymn sheet; whose mind is set on betrayal. There are those
indeed who will say one thing and do another; those who do not know what they will do
until confronted by overwhelming force - when they will crumble, disappear into the
crowd. In the poignant words of St John’s gospel “They all forsook him and fled”.
Over the last few days we have been following the climax of the story of the one who
though in the form of God, did not cling to equality with God but revealed his divine
nature by emptying himself, and taking the form of a servant was obedient to death
even death on a cross. This self emptying God reveals his godliness and his god-likeness
precisely at the point where he is bereft of all the appurtenances of divinity: where he is
empty, humble and obedient. And he is never more empty, more humble or more
obedient than at this moment when he took a towel and washed his disciples’ feet; never
more empty, more humble or more obedient than when he took bread, thanked God for
it, broke it and shared it - with those words never spoken before: This is my body, given
for you.

The night is closing in and the enemies of goodness are closing in as well.

As most of you know I come from Salisbury. Between 1630 and 1633 a poet named
George Herbert became priest of the parish of Bemerton close to Salisbury, within easy
walking distance of the cathedral. In the three short years before his death George
Herbert wrote most of the poetry for which he is renowned today: some of the finest
poetry in the English language.

Herbert knew something about self-emptying. He was an academic, a member of
Parliament, and so well connected to the aristocracy, that a life at the royal court could
have been his for the taking. And we know from his poetry that such secular possibilities
at Court or at the university tempted him. But he turned his back on such preferment
and became a priest in the newly settled Church of England.

I often think that George Herbert prepared his sermons sitting in his parsonage house
in Bemerton or beside the River Nadder that flowed at the end of his garden. He would
take the text, ruminate over it, and by way of sketching out his sermon, and instead of
making notes, a poem would emerge. His beautifully crafted poem Come my way my
truth, my life, based on Jesus’s words ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ in John
chapter 13 is a perfect example of what I mean.

I wonder if it was on such a Thursday as this in Holy Week that George Herbert
ruminated on the texts from scripture that we have heard this evening - Paul’s
articulation of the words and actions we are familiar with in every celebration of
communion and which will be repeated here this evening. And John’s description of the
self-emptying God who stoops to wash the feet of his friends. No - the self -emptying
God goes further, for he stoops to wash the feet of his enemies. For it is only after the
disciples feet are washed that Judas, with feet cleansed, but with mind troubled, and
hands already bloody , goes out into the night with Jesus’s words ringing in his ears.

What you are going to do, do quickly

The night is closing in, and the enemies of goodness are closing in as well.

George Herbert reflects on this scene and recaptures the mood of the Last Supper - the
table is prepared, the lights are trimmed, the guests are at the door. In a moment of
insight the poet sees that the host opening the door to bid his guests welcome has a
name: his name is Love - love which empties itself in order that the guests might be
filled.

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.

Night is closing in, and the enemies of goodness are closing in as well.
Night closes in for all of us. At sometime or other we are confronted with our own
emptiness, our own poverty, our pain or shame or grief. Sometimes we will lie or cheat
or be insincere, or trample on the dreams of others. We are all unkind, gossipy and
treacherous sometime or other. And often we don’t recognise these failings in ourselves,
until something or someone brings us up short and we are revealed to ourselves as we
truly are. Like Peter in the courtyard we do a shameful act and then, even as we try to
disappear into the crowd we feel the eyes of the one we have betrayed upon us. The eyes
see us, and see through us, and we see ourselves as we truly are. And like Peter we too go
out and weep bitterly.

What George Herbert recognised was that the look of the betrayed which was turned
upon the betrayer was a look of healing as well as of judgement. Yes, Jesus looked at
Peter and revealed him as he was in all his moral emptiness. But Jesus who had emptied
himself for Peter’s sake, healed him at precisely the moment he revealed him.
We are Peter in the courtyard - so George Herbert recognised. We are the guest
welcomed, though we don’t deserve it, at Love’s feast. And there is that moral tussle
between the guest who sees how degraded and degenerate he is, and the host who loves
him and her, despite our degeneracy. ‘I’m unworthy; I can’t possibly; look what I’ve
done’

It is of course because we are unworthy to be there at the Feast that love stretches out
his hand across the threshold to bring us in. This is why love has confronted the world’s
evil, and emptied it of its power to enthral us, simply by emptying himself, in order to be
beside us, where we are in all the degradation and degeneracy of our being human. And
there in the pigsty of our despair he feeds us - not on the empty husks that pigs survive
on but with himself.

He took bread, gave thanks to God for it, broke it and gave it to them saying: This is my
body given for you. And then he took the cup of wine, gave thanks to God or it, and
gave it to them saying: This is my blood shed for you: do this to remember me.
You must sit down says Love, and taste my meat;
So I did sit and eat

For the night is closing in and the enemies of goodness are closing in as well.

Share

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

Details

    Back to resources

      Sermons
    Lectionary
       Essays
       Prayer
       The arts
       Links

    Categories

    All
    150th Anniversary
    Advent
    Affirming Catholicism
    Alan Moses
    Andreas Wenzel
    Andrew Crawford
    Annual Meeting
    Bernard Silverman
    Chris Minchin
    Eastertide
    Epiphany
    Festival
    Gerard Irvine
    Golden Jubilee
    Gregory Tucker
    Holy Week
    Jacqueline Cameron
    James Rosenthal
    Jamie Johnston
    Jaqueline Cameron
    Jeremy Davies
    Jonathan Aitken
    Lent
    Louis Weil
    Madonna And Child
    Martin Draper
    Martyr
    Matthew Catterick
    Michael Skinner
    Mothering Sunday
    Nick Mercer
    Ordinary Time
    Other Preachers
    Patronal
    Pentecost
    Peter Hanaway
    Peter Hyson
    Philip Chester
    Raymond Baudon
    Remembrance Sunday
    Rob Coupland
    Rochester
    Ross Meikle
    Rowan Williams
    Sermons
    Stephen Conway
    St Matthew
    Tamara Katzenbach
    Trinity

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2016
    March 2015
    September 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    October 2011
    August 2011
    June 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    May 2009
    March 2007
    February 2007
    September 2006
    April 2006
    March 2006
    September 2005
    May 2005
    April 2005
    October 2004
    March 2004
    February 2004
    October 2003
    September 2003
    April 2002
    March 2002
    February 2002
    September 2001
    June 2001
    August 2000
    August 1997

    RSS Feed

Privacy & Safeguarding

Privacy Notice
​
Safeguarding

Other websites

St Matthew's School
Conference Centre
History of St Matthew's
Picture


© St Matthew’s Westminster, 2010-20   |   20 Great Peter Street, Westminster, London SW1P 2BU
 +44 (0)20 7222 3704  |  office@stmw.org  | ​
|  School   |   Conference Centre | 
Picture
  • Welcome
  • Livestream
  • Music at St Matthew's
  • Safeguarding