Holy (Maundy) Thursday by Fr Jack

Holy Week 2026 sermon series

Holy Week and our day to day life now:

The events of salvation,
the font of Grace,
the sacramental life of the Church today.

Readings:
1 Corinthians 11.23-26
St John 13.1-17, 31b-35

The Institution of the Eucharist

The whole life of the church is before us tonight. Pentecost, at the other end of Eastertide is sometimes called the birthday of the Church. It’s true, that was the day on which the Holy Spirit descended on the gathered Apostles, and they were sent out, the first bishops of the Church, to the far corners of the world. We are here now because of them, and those who followed in their steps, the likes of Saints Cuthbert, Hilda, Augustine, Mellitus.

But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Tonight is also the moment, we, the Church are given our DNA. In this sacred meal, Jesus honours the Passover and also transfigures it into the seal of the New Covenant. One not sealed by the blood of lambs, but His own blood. And in the midst of this, the Lord of All stoops to serve and wash feet, and issues a mandatum nova, a new commandment, that gives Maundy Thursday its name in England: 'love one another as I have loved you’.

Tonight is the moment the Church is given our DNA:

- in humility and service.

- in baptismal washing.

- in Eucharist.

- in fellowship.

Those things, this meal is who we are. Because this meal is Jesus, and this meal is us in Jesus. And I mean that in every sense.

Look around you at this table. See the faces of the other apostles. A rag-tag band. Mixed motives and backgrounds and different ways of saying what’s going on here. This passover of the Lord is at once familiar, and also way, way out of our comfort zone. So it was for them, so it is for us.

The personalities and textures and colours of our lives come together at this table of the Lord, because that is where He has invited us to be, where He desires us to be. Here, together, with Him.

It is true of the Last Supper and it is true of every Eucharist we ever celebrate. Whether it is one or two of us quietly on a Monday morning at 8am, or hundreds of us with pomp and ceremony on Sunday and other big occasions.

There is so much to say about this night and the gift of the Eucharist. I will try not to say too much, because it all can be said. Yes, this is the life of Jesus given to us. Yes, this is the bread of angels. Yes, this is the Christian family meal. Yes, this is the crucifixion made present in our midst - His Body broken, His Blood poured out. Yes, yes, yes.

And, indeed, a simple ‘yes’ is what we say. ‘Amen’. Amen, the people sing at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer. And ‘Amen’ is what we say as we receive Holy Communion. Perhaps we make the sign of the cross, preparing our bodies to receive this gift, and mirroring what it is that we are about to receive. Perhaps we make the sign of the cross, and then when the minister says ‘the Body of Christ’ or ‘the Blood of Christ’, and then we simply say ‘A-men’. Two tiny syllables, barely heard. An ancient Abrahamic declaration that means simply ‘Yes, I know’ or ‘Truly, let it be so’. ‘Yes’.

Just as tonight Jesus will say ‘amen’, ‘yes’ to the cup set before Him in the garden of gethsemane in His agony. ‘Yes’ to the cross.

…

And in the meantime, the Apostles will sleep and bicker and fail to understand. Because that is what we do.

If this night gives the Church our DNA, then part of that DNA, along with Christ’s gift of Himself, is the annoyance and pettiness of our life together. The disunity of the global church, and the mundanity and tensions of sharing life in the local church. If church were smooth and easy and on our terms it would be a product we have bought, not church.

The pains and problems of sharing life as the Body of Christ is also here in the Apostles tonight, and it is here in us too at St Giles’. And, bizarrely, that is a hallmark of the reality of our life together, not a mark of failure.

Jesus says to us tonight two things - both are in us, core to our DNA:

‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, because you love one another’

And

‘Take, eat…drink this, all of you’.

You can read the Bible at home, you can pray at home, you can do all sorts on your own and on your own terms. But, to be a Christian, we cannot dodge this bullet issued tonight.

God has given Church and Eucharist to us, not by accident, but on purpose. The Holy Spirit has been nudging, mid-wifing the church into life over the centuries, and still is. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to love, and to try again when we have failed to love and be loved. It is the Holy Spirit who takes this bread and wine and makes it Jesus for us.

It is our DNA given to us tonight in belonging, like the apostles, flawed but God-given, and commanded to love and to serve. And our DNA given to us in the Eucharist, by which Jesus gives us Himself and makes us who we truly are.

To this DNA brought to life in us tonight we say, ‘Amen’, that is to say, ‘Yes, Lord, I know’.