On the night before

On the night before the night before he died, (now read that again!!)

Got it?  Good.  now read on.

Jesus (might have, but let’s face it probably didn’t) took a cup and a plate.
He placed the cup on the plate and poured milk into the cup.
He took a large jug and into it he poured some boiling water, then ceremoniously swished it around three times before emptying the jug.
Jesus then placed some dried leaves of some sort into the jug and poured over it more boiling water.
A short time later, He poured out the contents of the jug into the cup containing the milk and passed the cup on the plate to one of those with him saying ‘do this in perpetuity, especially after your meetings, but never before’.  He filled more cups on plates with the strange mixture and passed them around.
Jesus then took some small oat based discs, after giving thanks that they were made locally and a fair price had been paid for them, he passed them around.  Strangely they fitted snugly beside the cup on the plate.  Again he said, ‘do this in perpetuity, remembering never to dunk the oat based disc for too long in the contents of the cup for the soggy mess made afterwards is not nice.’

And so for thousands of years meetings and groups have obeyed this ancient custom arguing over the colour of the cups, (generally a pale green) and the type of disc to use, (some now square or oval with or without filling, some now made of wheat or other grain)  But always, always following the main ceremony. Cup, plate, milk.   Pour, swill, chuck, leaves, pour, wait (also a cause for controversy) pour out, discs, share around, dunk, whine, as some silly sod got over zealous in dunking and created a soggy mess.