God provides. That is the true, loving, compassionate, and never-changing strand that runs throughout scripture, beginning not just at the time of the Exodus, as our Old Testament lesson today recalls, but at the beginning of time itself. As our EFM group studied the Genesis stories this past fall, we were reminded that even when Adam and Eve rejected the provisions God had made for them in the Garden of Eden, and even as God expelled them from the Garden, God still provided for them. There’s that wonderfully loving and quietly redemptive action of God in which, as the writers of Genesis put it: “And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.”

In the story of the Passover, the lesson today from Exodus, we hear the story of the Lord’s provision for his people as he prepares to lead them, finally, from slavery in Egypt on the journey towards freedom and the Promised Land. “They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs,” God instructs Moses and Aaron. So central is this provisional act of God’s to the subsequent religious life of the people, that the events of that one night are told over and over again through the years, and remembered through an actual reenactment in the yearly feast of Passover.

Psalm 78, in prayer and poetry, tells the story of God’s provision for his people during the wilderness wandering following the exodus from Egypt. God “led them,” “split the hard rocks and gave them drink”, “brought streams out of the cliff”, “rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them grain from heaven.” The psalmist sums up the loving providence of God: “So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough.”

What we particularly remember with such thankful hearts on Maundy Thursday is the provision Jesus makes for us to be with us always through the simple food of bread and wine. As Luke recounts the events of the last Passover meal Jesus shared with others, Jesus said, breaking a loaf of bread: “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And pouring wine into a cup: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Throughout scripture, then, we remember that God provides – garments of skin, roasted lamb, water, manna, bread and wine. Over and over and over again, scripture teaches us that the God who loves us is the same God who provides for all our needs, not just the material needs of food, clothing, and shelter, but our spiritual needs to feel God’s closeness; the gift of communion with Christ and the gift of the Spirit dwelling within us.
On this Maundy Thursday 2005, Christians in the United States and indeed around the world are divided over whether it is right or wrong, from a scriptural, ethical, or moral standpoint, that Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube has been removed. What an sad irony that as we focus today on God’s provisions for his beloved people, both material and spiritual provision, we are witnessing the legal battles over this poor woman’s condition and treatment.

Many Christians feel that to deny Terri Schiavo food and water is inhuman. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was quoting as saying, “One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the visibility of what is going on in America, that Americans would be so barbaric as to pull a feeding tube out of a person that is lucid and starve them to death." (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=609658)

I don’t know where to begin to comment on that statement, and I’m not a physician able to analyze her neurological lucidity or lack thereof, so I’ll just leave it as is. But I will say that both the blessing and the curse of modern medical science, and the ethical issues that arise as a result are only issues in the wealthiest countries in the world, such as ours. Some of us have been the beneficiaries of modern medical science, and are alive today because of it. We are thankful for pace makers and by-pass surgery and chemotherapy treatments and artificial joints and so on. Modern medicine saves and prolongs many lives. We rejoice in that for ourselves and our loved ones. But just because we have the medical capability to prolong life does not mean that that is justified always and in every situation.
Wouldn’t the real miracle, in this heart-breaking situation, be if all the thousands of people who are protesting the removal of Terri’s feeding tube, denying her food and water, as inhuman and barbaric, would feel the same horror and dismay about the millions of people who are starving around the world, not because they don’t have a feeding tube, but because they have no food, and take measures to serve God by alleviating their suffering? And maybe a second miracle would be if all of us took the time to write advance directives so that our families and loved ones would know absolutely what our wishes are if and when we are unable to make medical choices ourselves.

Maybe there’s a third miracle possible as well. God’s provisions for us in this life don’t end with this life. Through the resurrection of Christ, death itself is no longer a barrier, and God has opened up full and abundant life, healed and whole life beyond our limited lifetimes on earth. Maybe the third miracle is for us all to live our lives truly trusting in God’s providence now and forever. Terri won’t be healed by having a feeding tube reinserted; Terri will be healed in heaven. Sometimes to prolong a heartbeat through medical means denies and delays our loved one his or her own day of resurrection and new life.

On this Maundy Thursday, we pray for Terri Schiavo, her parents and her husband. We pray for people around the world who are starving because we don’t have the will to feed them. We pray for discernment to know when God intends us to fight and cling to this life and when God invites us to let go and peacefully enter eternal life. We offer our prayers of thanksgiving for God’s gift of communion with him through Christ. And we pray once more:

"Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”