GREG PETERS

The Rev. Dr. Greg Peters is Rector of Anglican Church of the Epiphany, La Mirada, CA, as well as Professor of Medieval and Spiritual Theology in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University and Servants of Christ Research Professor of Monastic Studies and Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, WI. See his academic profile at https://www.biola.edu/directory/people/greg-peters.

AN EXCERPT FROM “SERMON FOR MAUNDY THURSDAY 2020”

Historically, the concept of “remembrance” in 1 Corinthians 11 is a big deal. All Scripture is a big deal, of course, but the concept of “remembrance” mentioned in verses 24 and 25 of 1 Corinthians 11 has been used to shore up whole theologies of Eucharistic thought and practice, perhaps most famously the reformer Ulrich Zwingli’s memorialist view of the Lord’s Supper. 

Tonight I would like us to notice how the Apostle Paul’s “remembrance” is tied back to Exodus 12’s “memorial day”: “This day [i.e., the Passover] shall be for you a memorial day” (Ex. 12:14). According to Exodus the Passover is memorialized so that it serves not only as a reminder to the people what Yahweh did for them (past tense) but they would memorialize the Passover by reenacting the events of their deliverance (present tense). This is no mere intellectual exercise but an embodied memorial wherein lambs lose their lives and blood flows down doorposts. And it happened year after year. This memorial day is not just about past events but it involves bloody hands and bitter herbs. 

When Jesus, then, celebrated the Passover with his disciples he was memorializing Yahweh’s miraculous deliverance of his chosen people from Egyptian slavery and abuse. He was keeping the Passover as a “memorial day.” But where’s the lamb and the blood? The answer, I think, is obvious to people of faith.

Read more of Greg’s work in Solum Journal Volume I and Volume II.