March 20, 2008 – Maundy Thursday
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Grace and peace to you from God the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
It is a wonderful thing to learn something new. And, as a person who has been teaching for a long time, I would also say there is power is sharing what we know, even if we are not intending to be an example. So it was, for many in this community at a Wednesday midweek service a few weeks ago. Sheri Blauwiekel had made a prayer shawl for Nellie Thurman, who has fashioned many of the shawls we have passed along to those in need of prayers and warmth. I had asked you all to pray on it as it was passed around the sanctuary throughout the worship service. The next day, I got this email from Sheri:
“…Then you started the shawl on its prayer journey. I didn't catch sight of it for a while until it got close to my location. Then I could watch folks take a second, think of Nellie, and add a little prayer. It wasn't just the typical folks you would think, almost everyone would do it. Kids watched their parents pray, husbands watched their wives pray, and then would follow the example. Every once in a while, it would get stuck somewhere, where someone didn't really know what to do with it. After a while, someone would lean over, and whisper an explanation in their ear, and the prayer shawl would start its journey again. I was really surprised at the participation of the congregation, so many people adding their little prayer.”
Tonight we have gathered here for the first third of our annual Triduum (The Three Days) worship service, a service that tells a story so dramatic, so incredible, that it takes three whole days to complete. We begin tonight, Maundy Thursday, where all good stories begin, at a table with good friends. Maundy, (the name comes from the Latin mandatum,) means command, or mandate, and tonight we hear Jesus give us a “new” commandment. Tomorrow we will go further together, tracing Jesus’ final day in Jerusalem which ends with his death by crucifixion. “Good” Friday, we call it, because we know that without the cross, there would be no real understanding of the human experience, no real example that God knows who we are. It is “good,” because God does know, and God does not let death have the final word. Then Saturday comes, and as Jesus’ body lies in a tomb, we wait in silent Vigil for the third and final chapter of this ancient, eternal story.
I believe that most of us do not like being told what to do. And so to begin this Triduum with the new commandment kind of gets us off on the wrong foot, as it were. I mean, didn’t Jesus think that Ten Commandments were sufficient? It would have been so much easier to receive this advice if it were given more gently, as he does elsewhere, “Do this, and remember me.” That makes it so much more palatable, a “suggestion” for those of us who would like to embrace it.
But Jesus is not taking the easy way out with the proverbial “Do as I say, not as I do.” Jesus is making his point by example. He is showing us how to do as he says, and he’s doing it by washing feet.
It is a jarring shift to go from one Gospel writer to another. Especially tonight, when our past Maundy Thursdays were all titled, “The Institution of the Lord’s Supper” or “Where Did Communion Come From?” For, most of us were raised in churches that celebrated the sacrament on Maundy Thursday, a day for 1st communions, a day to lift up the meaning of the Eucharist, a day to “Do this, and remember me.” But tonight we move from the earthiness of Matthew to the relative purity of John. We shift our focus away from the institution of communion (there isn’t any discussion of that in John) to the actual “just do it” of Jesus’ last teaching…Hands-on - nitty gritty – “Do Love” teaching from Jesus to us.
The setting is undoubtedly a Passover Seder, or at least the meal that Jews shared at that time with their closest family and friends to celebrate their Passover history, the escape from slavery in Egypt to new life in the Promised Land… It is a Freedom Supper – and before Jesus places himself into captivity, he is sowing them how to be free…really free.
Jesus washes their feet. Now, this might be the urchatz, the hand-washing part of a modern seder meal, but feet? Why would Jesus take this opportunity to wash their feet? Perhaps it was because of the Psalm, “how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace…” Or perhaps, as he looked at them for these last, long moments across a dinner table, he thought about the three years they had just spent together. Years of walking, miles of dirt roads and sick people – hours of shuffling across sand in the hot sun, days of sleeping outside by the fire. They had accompanied him on his journey.
They had aided in his ministry. They were part of it all. They were part of him. And sort of like that song “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line, Jesus might have answered the question of why would he wash their feet with, “I did it to soothe them, to refresh them, to prepare them. I did it because I wanted to be near them for the last time. I did it, because I loved them.”
But even Jesus knows it will be hard to live this kind of love – a love that overflows the boundaries of comfort and convention. Simon Peter knows the rules and he defers, as if to say, “I should wash your feet!” sort of reminiscent of John the Baptist’s, “I should rather be baptized by you!”
And thus begin the “if/then” passages in this reading: “If I do not wash you, then you will have no share with me.” Which will be followed by Jesus’ later teaching at the table, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”(13:17) and “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (13:35) All leading up to the final if/then during the meal, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.” (14:15)
This is a dramatic shift of focus for them and for us - from the focus on the sacrament of the altar (Holy Communion) to a focus on service. A new set of symbols - NOT bread BROKEN for us, nor wine poured out, resembling covenant blood - but commands to remember – echoing the other gospels’ “do this and remember me…” and yet not cordial suggestions for lovely meals with friends which nourish and sustain us. This is a command to serve: DO broken, DO humble, DO love as I am setting the example for you.
Author Edward Hays writes, “From the womb of the washing bowl, Jesus brought forth a new sacrament. It was the birth of ordination to servanthood, consecrated by the power of His love.” To this we should respond, “Not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” For it is a wonderful thing to learn something new. And when we know the One who has set the example loves us enough to die for us, what we have learned can change our lives.
In Ah But Your Land is Beautiful, Alan Paton tells the story of Judge Oliver, a white man living in the apartheid society of South Africa. Oliver, a white man, accepts an invitation from a black pastor to come with others who symbolize “authority figures” and wash feet at his church on Maundy Thursday. Oliver washes a black woman’s feet and following Jesus’ example, kisses them. Tears filled the eyes of all there at Holy Church of Zion…but the press, who were there covering this example of historical incongruity, gave the incident so much publicity that Oliver was denied a chief judgeship.
Shortly afterward, the black pastor calls to apologize. He cannot believe that an act of such love and generosity of spirit was the impetus for such an unjust decision. To which Judge Oliver replies, “taking part in your service on Maundy Thursday is to me, more important than any chief judgeship. Think no more about it.” And that is why the Holy Church of Zion was renamed the Church of the Washing of Feet.
There are so many dirty feet to love. “By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.” May we have the courage and the openness of heart to DO that love. Amen.
