Sunday Eucharist 8:30 a.m. - Spoken Word 10:00 a.m. - Music & Live Stream
Sunday Eucharist 8:30 a.m. - Spoken Word 10:00 a.m. - Music & Live Stream
March 28, 2024
Christ the King-Epiphany Church
Maundy Thursday
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
In case you haven’t noticed this about me yet: I really like when lots of people actively participate in the liturgy. That’s why I love that we have lectors and intercessors who read our lessons and lead us in prayer. That’s why I deeply appreciate the work of the choir, who not only sing anthems to lift our prayers and praise to God, but also offer their voices to strengthen the singing of the congregation. This idea of getting everyone involved in the action is one of the reasons that I love this Maundy Thursday liturgy, particularly as it is developing here in our community. Many of us have shared a meal together as a worshipful act. Everyone will be involved in serving communion because you will be offering the sacrament to one another. And of course all of you are going to come up and participate in footwashing, right?
(sighing). I know. Footwashing is a hard sell. In fact it may not be appropriate for me to share this, but if I am completely honest, I will admit that if I were in your shoes tonight . . . pun intended . . . if I were in your shoes, I’m not sure I’d be rushing up here to take my shoes off. I’d have all sorts of excuses. First of all, my feet sweat a lot, and I’m not sure that they wouldn’t stink, which is embarrassing. Plus, wearing dark socks as often as I do, I tend to collect sock fuzz in my big toenails – not appealing. And I have this one toenail that just grows in . . . funky. Bottom line is, I worry about grossing people out. Footwashing is uncomfortable, inconvenient, and utterly awkward. I know that not many will respond to the invitation, and with my goal of maximum participation, I find that troubling.
And so this year, for the first time, I seriously considered doing what I have heard some churches do, and that is replacing footwashing with handwashing. It wouldn’t be so hard to do. We could put bowls and pitchers of water out on the tables and invite you to pour water over each other’s hands. Then everyone could participate. It would only be a little bit uncomfortable, only mildly inconvenient and slightly awkward to do it that way. I honestly considered the idea – and then rejected it.
Because washing someone’s hands doesn’t require you to get down on your knees. If we were to pass pitchers and bowls around our tables tonight, you would wash one another’s hands looking at each other eye-to-eye. You would see each other as equals. And that is very different than what Jesus did with his disciples. He got down on his knees as a slave would have done. He stripped away his outer robe, leaving himself in just his tunic, as a slave would have worn. He put himself lower – literally and figuratively – than his friends. This is the true meaning behind the command – the maundatum – to love one another. Seeing someone as an equal across the table does not satisfy the demands of Christ-like love, but kneeling humbly at one another’s feet and putting their needs ahead of our own does. By this, everyone will know that we are his disciples.
To wash another’s hands is not the same as washing another’s feet; and having our hands washed is not the same as having our feet washed. It is a much more intimate act to handle someone’s feet; it requires much greater vulnerability to allow another person to touch our feet. Certainly Peter would understand our reluctance. “You will never wash my feet,” he adamantly told Jesus. And yet Jesus replied that if Peter didn’t allow him to wash his feet, he couldn’t have a part of what he was doing. That’s how important vulnerability is in the Christian community. The church is not a place for pretending that we’ve got our act together – it’s a place for admitting that our life is falling apart. Christian community is the people to whom we confess our weakness and sin, and who reassure us that we are forgiven and help us to try again. Sure, our friends in Christ celebrate with us when we’re feeling good, but where they really stand with us is when we are sad or anxious or in pain. By our allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, by our willingness to tell the truth that we are far from perfect, and by our trust in love that will not turn away from us, the world will know that we are his disciples.
So we’re not washing hands tonight. We’re washing feet because doing so is more in keeping with both the humility that Jesus demonstrated that night in the Upper Room and also the vulnerability that the disciples had to summon. I pray that the Spirit will move you to wash and be washed because it is a powerful sign of who we are: called to humble service and cherished just as we are.
But in the event that the Spirit does not move you to participate, let me assure you that you will still receive the humble service of our Lord as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. As you receive the bread and the wine, remember how Jesus put our needs before his own, subordinating his life to ours, in order to give us this gift. Also through the Lord’s Supper, hear Jesus’ invitation to be vulnerable, to receive him into our places of most profound need. For the deeper our awareness of our longing to be made whole, the more we can receive the fullness of him who fills all in all.
He is the model. He is the gift. Praise to you, Lord Christ.hat Satan is a liar. God is never absent. In Jesus Christ, he is with us always to the end of the age. We may trust in the God of love.
Copyright © 2024 Christ the King-Epiphany Church - All Rights Reserved.