Scene at the table: A disruption on Maundy Thursday
As I came to the first student and his family, kneeling with outstretched hands, suddenly someone took out a phone and snapped a picture.
Last year, my church made Maundy Thursday the day for the fifth graders’ first communion. While this practice is a long tradition in some places, for us it was new. We hoped to connect the children’s learning with the experience of Holy Week. Also, for the past several years Maundy Thursday attendance has skewed older, so we hoped to generate some intergenerational interest in the first of our three Holy Week services.
There were just five fifth graders last year, four boys and one girl. In preparing for first communion, we had fun experiences and good intimate conversations. Then came Maundy Thursday, that somber evening service culminating in the chanting of Psalm 22 and the stripping of the altar. Before the service started, the students and their extended families gathered, along with those who faithfully attend every Holy Week event. One couple was recently divorced, and each brought a new partner. There were a few introductions and some awkward shyness.
I had prepared a short and simple sermon, all about eating and welcoming and how we remember Jesus. I remember looking out into the congregation that night. It seemed even smaller than usual, despite the fifth graders’ families. They were the first to come up and kneel around the altar to receive communion, a posture that isn’t our norm but seemed right for Maundy Thursday.
