everyday holiness


A Pilgrimage to the Cross

Walking through Lent with Jesus

It’s the weekend- Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th April

An enormously complex web of engagement is behind, underneath and around even the simplest meal we serve or that is served to us. The preparation, serving and eating of meals is perhaps the most complex cultural process that we human beings find ourselves in. It is a microcosm of the intricate realities that are combined to form the culture that gives meaning to the daily lives of us all: men, women, and children- and Jesus.

The meal is a focal practice for re-enacting in our dailiness all that is involved in the Eucharistic meal in which we participate in the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the world.

                           Eugene Peterson ‘Christ Plays in a Thousand Places’

It is only a few hours before Jesus would be betrayed, tried, and crucified. Throughout his journey to Jerusalem, he has shown an acute awareness of timing, of when to stop and linger, and when to press on with urgency. Now, with only such a short time left to spend with his disciples, he chooses not a sermon on a mountaintop, not a teaching session in the temple, but a meal. It was important to him not just what he said, but what he did and how he did it. Here is the incarnation in all it’s glory and significance- washing feet, reclining next to his friends, breaking bread and passing wine.

Have we forgotten that Jesus was a man, not a religion? Do we still feel that we are closest to God when we are doing something solemn, liturgical, steeped in ritual, or carefully prepared innovative worship?

Maybe we are being most like our Lord this weekend when we spend time not at church, but out with our friends; not reading our Bibles but at the supermarket; not in taking time for ourselves to pursue holiness but in giving time to preparing, sharing and enjoying the everyday stuff of life.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

                                                      Luke 24: 30, 31

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