Yesterday I was telling some of my co-workers about our church’s upcoming Maundy Thursday service. Typically, our church celebrates the Passion Week with a Maundy Thursday fellowship dinner and communion service; a Good Friday service of confession; and then regular Easter Sunday services (of which most are familiar). As one of the few Presbyterians around the office, all of my Baptist & Pentecostal friends had no clue about Maundy Thursday — in fact, one person even commented that it sounded rather cultish. Hopefully, this ensuing explanation removed all doubt about the Christian relevance of the celebration.

“Maundy Thursday” refers to the Thursday follwing Jesus’ regal entry into Jerusalem on which he gathered with his twelve disciples to celebrate the Passover with them. The Passover was traditionally a time for those gathered to recount to one another and celebrate the great stories of God’s mighty acts of Salvation.

The term Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum (from which we get the English word mandate), from a verb that meants ‘to give,’ or ‘to order.’ The term is usually translated ‘commandment,’ from John’s account of this Thursday night Passover meal during which, according to John, Jesus rose and washed the disciples’ feet to illustrate the unique, upside-down sort of leadership by servanthood that was to characterize citizens in the Kingdom of God. As they walked to Gethsemane after the meal and this surprising illustration, Jesus said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, you also ought to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. — John 13:34-35

Just as we did in our fellowship around the Maundy Thursday dinner table, I encourage you to recount to one another the great stories of God’s mighty acts of salvation: Who IS this Jesus? When all is said and done, what DID he do — really? And WHY was it necessary for us? We say he is still physically living and working today — tell stories of his continuing work today!

In the spirit of my post, “Not by the Power of Man,” a friend recommended that I search YouTube for “kids sing obama” — be prepared to wonder: should I cry, be terrified, be angry, hunker down in the comfort and rest of God’s good grip, laugh … other?

Interestingly, it took me several minutes of searching in order to find just the clip, because there were so many satirical submissions; video collages mixing the Obama children’s chorus with historical footage of the Hitler Youth, Mao’s “Good Little Children” and even recent footage coming out of Pyongyang, North Korean. While those are fairly easy comparisons for most people to make, the whole thing seems eerily reminiscent of the many children’s productions I have seen at church — especially if you pay close attention to the words.

WE’RE GONNA CHANGE THE WORLD
Music and lyrics by Lily Campbell, age 9

We’re gonna spread happiness
We’re gonna spread freedom
Obama’s gonna change it
Obama’s gonna lead ‘em

We’re gonna change it
And rearrange it
We’re gonna change the world.

SING FOR CHANGE
Music and lyrics by Kathy Sawada

Now’s the moment, lift each voice to sing
Sing with all your heart!
For our children, for our families,
Nations all joined as one.
Sing for joy and sing abundant peace,
Courage, justice, hope!
Sing together, hold each precious hand,
Lifting each other up;
Sing for vision, sing for unity,
Lifting our hearts to Sing!

YES WE CAN
Music and lyrics by Kathy Sawada

Yes we can
Lift each other up
In peace, in love, in hope
Change! Change!

Gary Haugen (International Justice Mission) has just published a new book titled, Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian. While I do not have a copy (nor plan to), you can click the “Search Inside” link and read an excerpt on Amazon (note: *low* priority on wish list). I know it is hard to judge a book by its cover, but the opening paragraphs are particularly discomforting.

Even though I read the words almost twenty-five years ago, I can still picture them upon the page. The words were and have remained so disturbing to me that I remember exactly where I was when I read them. I was a freshman in college sitting up late one night in the dorm laundry room waiting for my clothes to dry and reading John Stuart Mill’s essay “On Liberty.” Writing in 1859, Mill was trying to explain the process by which words lose their meaning, and he casually offered that the best example of this phenomenon was Christians. Christians, he observed, seem to have the amazing ability to say the most wonderful things without actually believing them.

What became more disturbing was his list of things that Christians, like me, actually say — like, blessed are the poor and humble; it’s better to give than receive; judge not, lest you be judged; love your neighbor as yourself, etc. — and examining, one by one, how differently I would live my life if I actually believed such things. As Mill concluded, “The sayings of Christ co-exist passively in their minds, producing hardly any effect beyond what is caused by mere listening to words so amiable and bland.”

I move that we all just continue on as if the observation had never been made. Any seconds?

Lord, have mercy.

O Breath of life, come sweeping through us, revive your church with life and pow’r,
O Breath of Life, come, cleanse, renew us, and fit your church to meet this hour.

O Wind of God, come bend us, break us, till humbly we confess our need;
then in your tenderness remake us, revive, restore, for this we plead.

O Breath of love, come breathe within us, renewing thought and will and heart;
come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us, revive your church in every part.

O Heart of Christ, once broken for us, ’tis there we find our strength and rest;
our broken contrite hearts now solace, and let your waiting church be blest.

Revive us, Lord! Is zeal abating while harvest fields are vast and white?
Revive us, Lord, the world is waiting, equip your church to spread the light.

Between the constant bombardment by the purveyors of programs designed to “grow your church” and my continual failure to grasp the Gospel, it is repentantly refreshing to come across a quote—one that could have been written yesterday (when in fact, it was more like yesteryear)—that reminds me that the good works the Lord are accomplished in and through us by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ; not by my will be done, but “thy will be done.”

The true secret to all ministry is spiritual power. It is not man’s genius, or man’s intellect, or man’s energy; but simply the power of the Spirit of the God of the Gospel. ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts (Zech.iv.6) It is well for all ministers (and believers) to bear this ever in mind. It will sustain the heart and give constant freshness to their ministry (and lives). A ministry which flows from abiding dependence upon the Holy Spirit can never become barren. If a man is drawing on his own resources, he will soon run dry. It matters not what his powers may be, or how extensive his reading, or how vast his stores of information; if the Holy Spirit be not the spring and power of his ministry, it must, sooner or later, lose its freshness and its effectiveness. How important then, that all who minister (and live) in the gospel…should lean continually and exclusively on the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows what souls need, and He can supply it. But he must be trusted and used. It will not do to lean partly on self and partly on the Spirit.

— C H Macintosh, Notes on the Book of Numbers, 1861