The Royal ceremony of the Royal Maundy Money this morning at Derby
Cathedral dramatically represented once again an endorsement by our
monarch of a central teaching of Christ. The joyful duty placed on all
who share the Christian faith is to follow the command that Christ gave
this night at the last Supper. To his disciples he said " a new
commandment I give to you: love one another." (St John 13, verse
34) I don't need to tell you that the words mandate and Maundy
are from the same root, or that in the colourful annual ceremony of the
Maundy Money the queen is symbolically acting out of this
command. Our Maundy Thursday, solemnly marked each year, reminds
us that the Last Supper was not just a pleasant meal with friends, or a
dramatic, if temporary, farewell. It carried with it the memory
of the Jewish Passover, the Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt,
the liberation of the oppressed. The core of the Last Supper is the
theme of a once-for-all-sacrifice, of hope for the hopeless. Above all,
the disciples are left with a new command which encapsulates the best
of the old law as well as a transforming insight into the way to
live: Love one another.
The majesty of love is too great to handle in a short sermon. So
forgive me if I look for insight by concentrating on what has for many
is a sign of love - the Kiss. In life, as in the Christian story,
the kiss holds a noble place. The kiss is an action carrying many
messages and emotions. Perhaps, if we look at it from three aspects we
may discover resonances of the teaching of Christ given at the Last
Supper
First, the kiss can be a mark of respect. The grave way in which
a young child may kiss a grandparent seldom seen may reflect that
respect. The way the members of the Greek Orthodox Church kiss
the hands of the priest - as a mark of respect for hands that have
consecrated the sacrament is similarly respectful. In our services of
Holy Communion the Gospel is carried into the body of the church with
great ceremony, accompanied by lights and incense. We stand up,
out of respect , to hear the words and actions of Christ read formally
from that Gospel. After the Gospel passage has been read by the deacon
or priest the book is kissed. This mark of veneration or respect is an
impressive reminder to us of the way in which the Gospel is an icon or
symbol of Christ himself. The saints and martyrs of the past made
sacrifices, including laying down their lives, to write and protect the
gospels in times of persecution when these books were being destroyed.
Others too were willing to go to their deaths to provide a translation
of the Gospels into language that people could understand. This
solemn respectful kiss marking the reading of the Gospel at every
service is particularly poignant tonight as we remember the Last Supper
command "love one another."
Second, the kiss may be a mark of friendship. We have seen the
way in which the French, for example, greet one another lavishly (if
symbolically) with air kisses which never make contact. Among the
changes in church services through which many of us have lived has
been the reintroduction of "The Peace". St Paul and
St Peter refer to the "Kiss of Peace" as do the early Fathers of the
Church. But it came hard to the stiff-upper-lipped English to shake
hands with each other in Church. In this regard how things changed over
the centuries. The great Dutch scholar, Erasmus, wrote to a friend in
Italy in 1499 saying how wonderful it was to be in England - the girls
had faces like angels and it is the custom to kiss on meeting, parting,
and at many other times. The formalised handshake in church today's
version of "the Kiss of Peace" is the symbolic mark that we take
the words of Christ seriously: "love one another." These days we are
very confused about friendship. In a post-Freudian age the
tendency it to analyse what it means instead of rejoicing in our
friends, and thanking God for their interest and love. We need to be
more expansive in friendship. I had a curate who told me "I've friends
I haven't used yet." I hope he was joking! Love may sometimes be
an act of will and we certainly owe a debt of friendship and love to
each other for Christ's sake. You don't necessarily have to like those
you love! But thank God for our friends who make this new commandment
so easy to follow.
Third, the kiss when given as a mark of deep human love can
be memorable and binding. At its best it may express a deep but
undemanding love. I want to be self indulgent and remind you of a
passage from Laurie Lee's ‘Cider with Rosie’. If you are not
familiar with this romantic, autobiographical memory of childhood and
youth, I commend it to you. Young Laurie tells of his encounter
with Rosie Burdock (he never revealed her true name). "She took off her
boots and stuffed them with flowers. She did the same with mine.
Her parched voice crackled like flames in my ears. Rosie told me
outrageous fantasies. She liked me, she said, better than Walt, or Ken,
Boney Harris or even the curate. And I admitted to her, in a loud rough
voice, that she was prettier than Betty Gleed. For a long time we
sat with our mouths very close, breathing the same hot air. We kissed
only once, so dry and shy it was like two leaves colliding in the air."
As a result of this encounter Lee says nothing was ever the same again.
Tonight we remember the most famous kiss of all - the kiss of Judas.
The story of poor Judas makes most sense when we see the mark of his
love for Jesus as the ambition he had for him. Reading between the
lines it seems that, inflamed with a belief that Jesus would overturn
the order of things with a legion of angels, he sought to force the
pace. His kiss was not only a sign to Jesus' enemies to show them where
he was. It was the sign of his love all right, but a love wanting to
bring forward the coming of a material, political kingdom rather than
the kingly rule of God in hearts and minds. He thought he could make
Jesus show a firm hand by bringing his enemies to him. His mistake was
not so much lack of love as an inability to love without manipulation.
He loved Jesus but thought he knew best how to bring about what Jesus
was teaching. After the kiss of Judas nothing was ever the same
again.
We are not mere spectators of this kiss, this crisis in history. We may
reflect on our own lack of love, the way we have failed those we
love. How often has this been as a result of our selfishness and
readiness to manipulate? Because our unwillingness to see and
accept them just as they are, may mean we fail to see just how
wonderful they are. The love of which Jesus speaks is an uncompromising
love accepting us exactly as we are and where we are. In the
story of the Passion of Jesus we see just how costly love can be. His
love for us takes us exactly as we stand. It calls from us a
response; a response to love him and live by his teaching: "A new
commandment I give you: love one another." We cannot do this and
fail to be changed.