Eat and Run

“This month shall mark for you the beginning of months” (Exodus 12:2 NRSV). We’re starting over. That is what this night is: a restart to a whole new way of living. It is the inbreaking of a new reality, a new kingdom, a kin-dom of connectedness and mutual service. It is an opportunity to rethink, to reorient, to begin a new life. What it isn’t, however, is a time for a relaxing or leisurely reflection. You can’t read these instructions and get the sense that this is a casual dinner party or a quiet family night at home. No, there is urgency here, almost desperation.

But surely not, we think. This is a passage of protection. This is about God’s caring for the people of God in oppressive situations. There shouldn’t be a sense of desperation. There shouldn’t be a sense of doom surrounding those who partake in this meal. Should there?

Maybe we should ask, this Thursday evening, “What are we protected from?” Is the story on this night that all will be well? “Yes and no,” I suppose, is the best answer. In the end, of course, the kingdom will come. But there is much to endure before then. There is much to run from or maybe to run toward. This meal is about community, about family, about gathering and trusting in one another so that when the troubles come, there is solidarity and strength to endure together.

Then, when we eat in relative safety, we remember by being girded to flee. Translate the instructions into a modern-day experience. We perch on the edge of our dining chairs with our car keys in our hands and the sound of the idling engine in the drive outside the open door. We eat and run. We eat, prepared to run because the enemy is at the gate. However we envision that enemy—empire, demonic, even the forces within our own faith that distort and corrupt the message of the gospel into one of power and oppression—we are surrounded and need to be light on our feet.

What marks this night for us, though, is that we don’t run away, and we don’t run to hide. We run toward one another. We run toward those who are hurting, and we bring our towel and our basin. We run to help and to heal. We run to bind up and gather in because that was the command given this Maundy Thursday. The command is to love one another as he has loved us. The meal is in preparation for that task. The meal embodies love and service in how we include one another, make space at the table, and rise from the table to go out and live in a hostile world.

We may linger at the table for a few moments this evening. But we gather, already prepared to eat and run because the world needs us to be at work for the kin-dom.

Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries, served churches in Indiana, Arkansas, and the British Methodist Church. His PhD in preaching and media is from the University of Edinburgh. He has taught preaching in seminary and conference settings for more than twenty years.