Holding the Cup
Holding the cup of life means looking critically at what we
are living. This requires great courage, because when we start looking, we might
be terrified by what we see. Questions may arise that we don’ know how to
answer. Doubts may come up about things we thought we were sure about. Fear may emerge from unexpected places… holding the cup of life is a hard
discipline.
(Henri Nouwen, Can you drink the cup? p 30)
Reading of the day - Mark 14 v32-42 Gethsemane
People arrived and held a small communion cup filled with water. It was to be held as we read and dwelt around the text tonight.
Abandonment and forsakenness surround this event in the Garden. A no less troubling scene for us confronted with sleepy disciples. We also see Jesus lonely and his agony begin. Attending to his words it is intense. "If it is your will, take this cup from me...' he has hold of this cup, at present it is filling up and is a crucible of sin, suffering, agony, pain, sorrow, forsakeness, abandonment and death. It is bitter to taste and hard to hold, yet it is as if his grip cannot let go, even if he wants to. It is a crushing scene and the fiery cup remains in his hand. 'Yet not my will but your will.' No mere resignation, but as God in flesh he gives himself to his Father so utterly.Deep within us,we too know of Gethsemane. We too pray holding the cup of sorrow/suffering. We know life's sorrow, pain, anguish and as we seek to cope with such sense of abandonment, darkness and uncertainty that surrounds us at times, we pray "Why?" or 'If it is your will take this cup from me'
As we wait tonight, not fallingh asleep but attentive to the cup of water/tears symbolic of the sorrowful, sufferings of others, the world and personally, we meditate upon the wrestling at this point with the cup firmly in hand.
After the silence, people came forward pouring out prayerfully the cup of sorrows as they came to receive at the Table the bread and wine.
A Prayer:
The grace of Christ attend you,
the love of God surround you,
the Holy Spirit keep you now and for evermore.
Go in PEace.
Thanks be to God. Amen
