I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.
The sermons over ‘the Three Days’ explore the sections of this prayer mantra. The characters in the passion story journey through scenes of repentance, forgiveness, gratitude, and love. Journeying though the passion narrative and the liturgies of the Three Days is a reminder of our broken relationships – with God, humans, and creation.
I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you – are phrases that carry the power to honour meaningful relationships and heal broken relationships. The Three Days take us into the very heart of relationship -the heart of God.
MAUNDY THURSDAY -Thank you
I have a colleague whom, if I had a nickel for every time he stated, “all that’s needed for a good death is to say, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you,” I could go and live in a very warm place for a very long time. Although, I may at times get annoyed by the constant repetition, his pastoral sensibility is correct – I have seen it at work at the bedside of those who are dying – these words are a way to say and share a meaningful goodbye. The process also allows the family and friends to grieve well.
It is a meaningful goodbye that Jesus shares with his disciples the night of their last meal together.
I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. --- Investigating this mantra, one will be directed to ancient practices of the South Pacific – to Indigenous practices of Hawaii, Samoa, Polynesia, Tahiti, New Zealand. The practice called, ho’oponopono, means to “make right-right.” It is an active practice of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is a practice that is believed to clear the mind and clear away the roots of illness. Various traditions, including Christianity, have mirror phrases and rituals illustrating the spiritual component of the mantra, and subscribe to the actions as ways of living. None though have become a part of us in the same way as ho’oponopono is integral to South Pacific healing and life.
Make right-right:
This is the meaningful goodbye that Jesus shares with us as we walk through the rituals of this night.
Make right-right -the rituals are simple.
We begin with an anointing of oil as the sign of lavish healing and abundant life. This healing and life flow when we free our heart from the shackles of guilt, shame, unforgiveness, grudges, self-doubt, grief, and those things that come from broken relationships; through confession - I’m sorry. Please forgive me.- the laying on of hands and anointing is a balm, a blessing to heal the broken hearted, to set our hearts at one with God; to make right-right.
We follow anointing with the washing of feet. In our times, it is the washing of hands. Recently we have all been reminded of the importance of taking our shoes off at the door, of washing our hands, removing dirt from the outside as we enter our sacred spaces of home. We are reminded of our relationships with others – that they are broken - in that until a crisis there so many we take for granted, so many we fail to protect because we do not wash our hands. This too is a practice of the heart – the washing of feet is a reminder of our distance from each other and our distance from God; who is God that God should wash my feet? Who are you that you should touch me? Remember, Peter was annoyed that Jesus should wash his feet. Jesus responds: You do not know what I am doing but later you will understand. And later we do. Jesus is offering a thank you to his friends and a way for his disciples to share their thanks in the future – once they experience his death and resurrection - the meaning starts to sink in; as thank you to such lavish healing and abundant life, make right-right by loving neighbour, by washing their feet, their hands – my own hands, and say often: thank you, I love you.
Jesus and the disciples eat together.
United Methodist pastor Alphonetta Wines writes.
“Israel’s bold movement toward freedom and Jesus anguished journey toward the cross are associated with a meal. These meals bear witness to the paradox that no matter how horrific, tragedy inherently holds the promise of something new. Both meals commemorate unimaginable pain and suffering. Both signal the beginning of something new. They are turning points in the lives of all who partake. For the original participants in these meals, life would never be the same.”
Make right-right, ho’oponopono, share a meal. Share a cup of coffee -even if it means via telephone. In rural communities especially, what happens within 10 mins of a tragedy, whether sickness, death, fire, bad news of any kind? Casseroles and baking start appearing at the door of those in crisis. It is an expression of I love you, thank you for who you are to me, I’m sorry. The food represents the hope of lavish healing and abundant life which are currently clouded by circumstance but still active and present just outside one’s periphery. Neighbours are offering a dedicated assurance that suffering and pain, brokenness, are not the end.
Stripping of the altar, is not a ritual mandated by Jesus, yet, it has become Christian practice for the setting of the stage as we move to the crucifixion and the cross. The removal from this sacred space of symbols of faith, of means through which grace comes to us, being stripped down to an altar – that looks like an empty box – illustrates the stripping down of ourselves, our attachments, to see that our relationships are broken, barren, and even empty.
And this is where the journey leaves us this evening – empty-
To go to bed and return in the morning in hope of forgiveness and reconciliation – in the hope of lavish healing and abundant life.
This Holy Week -living through it under different circumstances – has drawn me into the heart of God, the heart of relationship. It is not the eloquent crafting of words or elaborate ceremonies that bring meaning to the story of the Three Days; rather, it is simple words and simple rituals that speak volumes and have us experience repentance, forgiveness, gratitude, and love; these four. In end there is nothing more lavish for healing or abundant life than these.
Holy One, tonight I say thank you.
Thank you for anointing me with the oil of forgiveness and lavish healing.
Thank you for washing my feet - my heart – for making our relationship right-right.
Thank you for sharing with me spiritual food and abundant grace.
Thank you for stripping me bare, bearing open a heart of brokenness, waiting something new.
Thank you for a continued journey wherein there is promised hope of abundant life. Amen.
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