Thursday in Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) | April 17, AD 2025 | Jeremiah 31:31-34 | Andrew F. Weisner |<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Jeremiah 31:31-34<\/p>\n
Psalm 116:10-17<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 11:17-32<\/p>\n
John 13:1-7, 34-35<\/p>\n
+++++++++<\/p>\n
Homily<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 34<\/sup>I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35<\/sup>By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is not my usual custom to give to sermons titles; but if, this evening, I were to use one, it might be, \u201cExpect the Unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Had our ancestors in Jerusalem, the religious leaders and the crowds, kept this in mind — \u201cexpect the unexpected<\/em>\u201d \u2013 they would not have succumbed to the turn of events that followed in the course of the week. So suggests St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians: \u201cWe speak,\u201d wrote St. Paul, \u201cof a wisdom of God that is a mystery, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this [mystery]; for, if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory\u201d (1 Cor. 2:7-8).\u00a0 They shout with excitement over the salvation that they expect \u2013 political<\/em> liberation — not aware of the different, \u00a0indeed, richer, broader, grander salvation that God is preparing. And because God\u2019s plan, in Christ, is not the same as their<\/em> plan; because things don\u2019t go along the way they expect, they turn on their hailed, proposed leader, and (as St. Paul states), they \u201ccrucify the Lord of glory.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How easy it is to lay blame somewhere else; or better yet, to lay blame on someone<\/em> else, someone who doesn\u2019t come through with the way we think things ought to be. How easy it is to become frustrated, and to turn against the situation in which we find ourselves, rather than look for God in the midst of it<\/em>, prayerfully looking, searching, for what God might be doing in the midst of a strange, unexpected circumstance in which we find ourselves. This happens in our families \u2026 one of our children takes interest in something that we never expected she would, and it doesn\u2019t fit our <\/em>expectations; and perhaps we become totally undone by it. Or, our circumstances at work do not progress as we expect, and we become bewildered, maybe even angry. Political, economic, or world events, take a turn that is disadvantageous to us, so we blame the nation’s leader, or blame the local legislators; but do we pause to prayerfully wonder, \u201cwhat is God doing in all of this?\u201d And certainly, we are sometimes thwarted in the church, events not moving in the direction we expected, and by that \u2013 at the „house of God“! \u2013 we can surely be undone!<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An old story goes like this (maybe you have heard it before)\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once upon a time, there was an old monastery that stood on a hill outside a village. The monastery had stood there for a long, long time, and there was a time when it flourished. There were many monks, their land was fertile, there was plenty of work \u2013 and plenty of monks to help with the work; and their life of prayer was rich and satisfying.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But, over the years, in recent years, there were fewer new recruits. The older monks began to die out; new ones were not coming in. And as a result, all the monks remaining were beginning to get worried \u2026 anxious, frustrated, wondering what would become of their future, what would become of their home and monastic community. And as a result of their frustration and fear, they became angry, and „crabby,“ especially with one another. (Some of the feelings and experiences we have in our own families are not foreign to monks in monastic communities, even though they don\u2019t have wives and children!) Word of the crabbiness and \u201csour spirit\u201d that existed in the monastery spread, and people stopped wanting to go there for their retreats, which further hurt, and frustrated, the monks in the monastery.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So the abbot of the monastery traveled into town and consulted with a sage who lived in the village. According to legend, the sage he visited was a Jewish rabbi, who the abbot had come to know over the years. The abbot recounted to his friend all the frustration and anger that was going on in the monastery, and wondered if his friend had any advice. And to this, the rabbi replied: \u201cWell, didn\u2019t you know, have you not heard \u2013 I have! \u2013 that the Messiah is living within your monastery?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cNo!,\u201d replied the abbot, „I didn\u2019t know this! Which one of the monks is he?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know which one,\u201d said the sage, \u201cbut the word I have is that he is certainly there. Look for him!\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, the abbot returns to the monastery, and tells his fellow monks the news revealed to him by his friend in the village. Some of the monks didn\u2019t want to believe it; but others said, \u201cbut what if it\u2019s true? We can\u2019t ignore the presence of the Messiah! But who \u2013 which one among us \u2013 is he?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The abbot replied, \u201cI do not know, but I was assured that he is here, and that we must watch for him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And so, the monks did. Not knowing who among them the Messiah might be, each of them began to treat all the rest as if he might be actually Jesus, the Messiah, hidden, secretly, in their midst. And they began to treat each other with love. They began to treat each other with respect. Their fear and frustration \u2013 and anger toward each other \u2013 waned, as each of them was so concerned that he may treat unkindly the Messiah. And eventually, the word spread that something new was happening in the monastery. People came to visit and make retreats; people came back; some people stayed, and their vocations \u2013 new monks coming into the monastery \u2013 increased, so rich, so impressive, was the love within the community, because each person there was treating all the others there as if he was the very presence of Jesus the Messiah. They began to look for \u2013 to expect \u2013 the unexpected.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Had the religious leaders and the people of Jerusalem done this, many years ago, they would not have (as St. Paul wrote) \u201ccrucified the Lord of glory.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He came in a way not expected. As St. Paul wrote to the Philippians: \u201cthough in the form of\u00a0God, he did not regard his equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being in human form, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death \u2014\u00a0even death on a cross.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we go through the events of this week that brought about our salvation, and afterward, expect the unexpected. Look for Christ<\/em> \u2013 the Messiah \u2013 among those, among whom, you do not expect him to be. You will find him among the poor; you will find him among the helpless and humble; you will find him in unusual, unexpected circumstances; you will find him within your own family. You will find him where you do not expect him to be. There, well-he-may appear to give you a blessing<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Expect the unexpected \u2026 He comes to us and appears in unexpected \u2013 sometimes, surprising \u2013 ways. He told us, the night in which he was betrayed, that he even comes among us, comes to meet us, veiled, hidden, in bread and wine.\u00a0 Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Pastor Andrew F. Weisner, Ph.D. Thursday in Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) | April 17, AD 2025 | Jeremiah 31:31-34 | Andrew F. Weisner | — Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 116:10-17 1 Corinthians 11:17-32 John 13:1-7, 34-35 +++++++++ Homily \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,2,845,157,853,108,114,110,708,376,349,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-22644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeremia","category-at","category-andrew-f-weisner","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-deut","category-engl","category-gruendonnerstag","category-kapitel-31-chapter-31","category-kasus","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22649,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22644\/revisions\/22649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22644"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=22644"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=22644"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=22644"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=22644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\npastorweisner@gmail.com
\nPastor, New Covenant Lutheran Church
\nMorganton, North Carolina, USA
\nFaculty, North American Lutheran Seminary, Ambridge, PA, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"