I grew up in a village, where the lots were quite deep. At the back of our property, just where the swamp began, there was a big old maple tree. It was great for climbing and it held our big tire swing. It was at night as the sun was setting behind it when the tree was at its most magnificent. As evening rolled around, 30mins or so before dusk, the tree was a gackle of activity. Red-winged black birds by the hundreds rested in the tree –singing rocous songs and muting all other creatures in the neighbourhood.
As the sun set, the birds became quiet –the last hurrah for the day was done, and sleep was upon them.
Supper is done and the day is drawing to a close. The last gackle of activity is entering the streets to sing traditional psalms, walk off dinner in the garden, and return to the place where one will spend the night. Jesus and the disciples are out and about migrating towards the garden, just as the birds migrated to the old maple tree. There is singing for awhile but as the sun sinks lower over the western horizon of Jerusalem the garden –the birds, the disciples became quiet – the last hurrah for the day was done, and sleep was upon them.
Well that is how the day had ended so many times before. But tonight was different.
It was the dreams as they drifted off – when one is neither awake nor asleep –when the mind tries to make sense of all the tidbits of songs heard over the past few days –that were an overwhelming cacophony of sound. The disciples minds whirled from all the happenings in the past few days, no wonder they were exhausted: it started with the raising of Lazarus –the disciples trying to tell Jesus not to go towards Jerusalem –for fear that he and they would die; but Thomas had stood up and said “I’ll go, even if it means dying with him.” And that was just the beginning: there was the entry into Jerusalem on a donkey surrounded by a huge crowd, then there was confrontation in the temple as Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers, then the healing of a blind man on the Sabbath and more confrontation with the religious leaders.
Tonight was nice, they had made it to a sit down dinner; in a rented room, where no one knew where they were, and everyone else was busy with their own celebrations anyway. All was good.
But the disciples’ minds, in those moments before sleep, must have thought about dinner and how it was different.
During supper Jesus washed their feet.
During supper Jesus said one of them would betray him.
During supper Jesus said he would only be with them a little longer.
During supper Jesus said Peter would deny him, not once but three times.
During supper Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
And then sleep came and all was quiet.
Quiet until the birds slumbering in the bows of the olive trees were awaken by a noisy group of intruders to the garden. The birds rose upward in a squawk startling the disciples awake.
From here we remember the story, Jesus is carried off for a quick trial and sentencing –the disciples scatter while Peter follows at a distance.
The importance of this account by John is the song that is sung; a song whose melody swirls in the hearts and minds of the disciples enough that through the chaos of the next few days, the song is remembered. It is remembered because the disciples’ hearts didn’t just hear the song, they were invited into it -
Listen...pour water...
Accompanying this melody is the encounter with Jesus –with Jesus hands, with Jesus touch, God’s love song of hope to the wounded.
The action struck a chord, with the disciples –“not my feet”
But God’s music is kind of like a blaring radio, the music is for everyone whether they want to hear it or not, the pounding of a pumped up bass that one feels in their very being –can’t be avoided.
This love song, the disciples remember and it is the song they return to as they form their community. God’s love song, sung through water and Jesus’ hands –plays new variations as it warms, encourages and encounters human hearts. Love blossoms in major and minor chords, swells in arpedigos, crescendos in spirit; God’s love song of hope –through Jesus death –sings through acts of loving kindness; intentional loving of others.
The church, this community, is kind of like the tree from my childhood backyard. Tonight we are birds that have come to rest in a sacred place. As we came in our songs quieted; we settled in for a quiet service –where silence continues well into tomorrow morning.
But God has a surprise for us, God comes to us with Jesus’ command to love one another. We are asked –to start and practice here in a common bird bath – to practice God’s love song of hope with each other; a song to carry us through woundedness, through darkness, through death.
Tonight we are invited to sing love with water, with hands, with a touch.
Come encounter Jesus. Come encounter love.
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