Maudy Thursday: Staying Awake or Sharing the Cup

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing of the blood of Christ? 
The bread that we break, is it not sharing in the body of Christ? 
Because there is one bread,we who are many are one body,
 for we all partake of the one bread. 
1 Corinthians 10:16-17

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. 
Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. 
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, 
if you have love for one another.”  
John 13: 35

We share the cup of blessing and bread broken because we are of one body we Protestant Christians celebrating Maudy Thursday at The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. We came together, Arab, German, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and English speaking to remember that night of washing feet in mutual servanthood, breaking bread together, drinking from the cup of blessing. We pilgrims from around the globe gathered in Jerusalem like Pilgrims before us to walk through the darkened streets of the old city  singing pslams and hymns to Gethesemane. Once gathered outside the Church of All Nations, we stayed awake listening to the story retold in a multitude of tongues interspersed with songs and prayers. 

And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed,“My Father,
 if is possible let this cup pass from me;yet not what I want but what you want. 
Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter,
“So, could you not stay awake with me one hour?

Mathew 26:39-40

“Stay awake with me” he asked them and us now.  Are we awake to the suffering around us? Are we ready to drink from the cup and join in the struggle of becoming bread for each other, one body?