 |
| Artwork via Graphicstock.com subscription |
Luke 22 7-13 (ESV)
7Then came the day
of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8So Jesus sent
Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” 9They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” 10He said to them, ‘Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar
of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters 11and tell the master of the house, ‘The
Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with
my disciples?’ 12And he will show you a large upper room
furnished; prepare it there.’ 13And they went and found it just as he had
told them, and they prepared the Passover.
I confess that I’ve romanticized the ‘upper room’. It probably
stems from my recreational reading, and that mostly from the Sci-fi and Fantasy
genres. I’ve pictured the upper room as a banquet room above a tavern associated
with an inn. Tolkien filled his with hobbits, dwarves, and wizards; Eddings filled
his with a sorcerer and his cadre of adventurers. I have pictured Jesus with his disciples
tramping through the common room of an inn, a tavern, to the backstairs and up
to a banquet hall there to celebrate the Passover meal, wash the disciples’
feet, and challenge Judas to do what he must.
Quiet upper rooms and the solitude they offer amidst the hubbub of
life have always attracted me, it may have something to do with growing up in
an upstairs bedroom where I could get away from things whenever I needed to. I am
writing this in our office having closed the door and shut the blinds and I feel
that I’ve separated myself from our three-dog pack and the awakening household.
It feels right, as though I have been successful at making this a sanctuary for a brief
time.
Though my analogy somewhat falls apart in the face of the
scriptures and the commentary I read I still get the sense that Jesus and the
disciples separated themselves from the city with all of its energy surrounding
the Passover celebration as well as the Pharisee’s hunt for Jesus in their
efforts to put an end to his revolution. Rather than pass through a raucous
room full of weary travelers washing the dust of the road from their throats
with tankards of ale, they walked through a man’s house to a room he kept to
let out for such occasions as the Last Supper.
My interest in the upper room was piqued by taking the Lord’s
Supper with a group called the Eucharist of the Beloved. I met 13 or 14 others in
the loft at the Lucky Baldwins Pub in Pasadena. They were all strangers to me
with the exception of Dave Cameron whom I’d met briefly and only once. The loft
sits above the barroom with only a railing to separate us from the crowd, on
this night some sports team celebrated the end of a season of competition. Flat
screens adorn the walls of the pub and loft alike, thankfully the two in the
loft were muted, a soccer game on one and a basketball game on the other,
silent struggles for supremacy.
Dave and his wife Christy prepared a litany for the evening. As we
ate a meal, just as I picture the disciples with Jesus for the Passover, we
went through the litany filled with scripture and prayers given by various
folks in the group that Dave called upon. The others of us gave corporate
responses as directed.
As the decibel levels varied below us, Malia shared her story of
stroke and miracle healing, of working through rehab some had told her was
useless, and of the pastoral care she received from her husband, Dave and
Christy, and others. She spoke of great strength that came to her through her
weakness and a final victory over the cane with the prayers of Spirit-filled
young men who prayed for her as she entered a venue for a revival.
I was uplifted by her story and the common bond we all felt as we
continued through the Eucharist serving each other the cup and the bread of
life. It was refreshing to be in a group from various church backgrounds, a
sprinkling of Presbyterians, some from Christian Assembly, and others from
places I didn’t have the opportunity to learn about – it mattered not, we were
of one mind.
Dale Bruner spoke to us about the Beatitudes and I was struck by
how some people can be speaker and scribe at one and the same time. As Dale spoke to us
about God’s word and how it touches us he was also scribbling the Word on our hearts.
God bless Dale as he retires from a teaching position at the First Presbyterian
Church at Hollywood and continues on his walk with God in the writing of a
commentary of the Gospel of John. I have a couple of nuggets from Dr. Dale’s
talk and I hope to distill them to a meaningful post in the coming days.
We broke during our time together to go out into Old Town Pasadena
in small groups to pray over the town and read from scripture with each other and to talk over our experience and what it meant to us to be in the world but not
of it. The exercise stretched my comfort zone and I plan to do it again.
A couple of observations/recommendations based on my evening:
V
Find your upper room and visit it often, alone and with other
believers
V
Seek out experiences apart from your home church, it freshens your
outlook
V
Pray and recite scripture while you’re out and about, it keeps you
connected to the Holy Spirit and salts the earth, even if you do it silently
V
Be poor in spirit, help others who are also poor find their inheritance
In His grip, jerry
Eucharist of the Beloved meets monthly. For more information on
the group please follow this link:
