The Anticipation of Wednesday

 

The Anticipation of Holy Wednesday

 

In scripture, Jesus assigned the disciples to make ready the upper room.  He told them to roast the chicken, boil the eggs, stew the carrots, and pit the prunes.  They got the wine and bitter herbs, made sure the story of Exodus was open to the right page to read the narrative of God’s liberating love in the time of Moses and got the hymnals set at each place on the table.  They ironed the tablecloth and dusted the cobwebs from each corner.  As sun set, they looked around that ordinary space now made ready for the worship service the next day, what did they see?

 

What do you see around your house today? 

 

Worship takes place not only in buildings where we have defined and determined worship should be…worship starts in our homes.  Worship starts in your home, this week, today. This is the truth our Jewish ancestors tried to teach us.  This is the truth of our earliest Christian ancestors who practiced gathering in a fellow person of faith’s living room on Sunday mornings to tell and re-tell the story of God’s liberating love.  This is the truth we sometimes forget when we purchased land, built sanctuaries, and started instructing people to come to “God’s house”…forgetting that every house/apartment/tent/yurt/canopy of trees/open field is already God’s house.

 

But today, like the disciples two thousand years ago, we can reclaim and recapture this holy truth.  We can live this way.  Go from room to room to room offering prayers of open curiosity.  In your bedroom pray for God who neither slumbers nor sleeps to watch over you.  In your kitchen, pray for our still cooking God to feed you with daily bread and manna.  In your living room, pray for the joyful noises and stillness of God to meet you there when you rest and relax.  On your lanai, pray for the Creator of all that is to meet you.  In your garage, pray for God to meet you in the details.  Let your house this day become for you a sanctuary where God resides and meets you every day.  And may the words you pray work their way into the walls and help open you to God meeting you right there at the place you receive your mail, do you’re your dishes, and lay your head to sleep praying the Lord your soul to keep.  Amen.