Sermon for Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2024

Exodus 12:1-14+Psalm 116:1, 10-17+1 Corinthians 11:23-26+John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Recently, I have been in a few group settings where not everyone knew everybody else, and so we did some get-to-know-you activities. The icebreaker at a couple of these was to name my favorite holiday. Now, given my vocation, holidays are usually "work" days, but I relish them nonetheless, including the Great 50 Days of Easter that follow this weekend. Yes, I will take all 50 of those days as my favorite if you please.

But I think that one holiday that holds truly warm memories for me is Thanksgiving, a day set aside simply to be thankful. Gratitude can operate on us in powerful ways, and we should always maintain a posture of gratitude, but it is, to me, a lovely tradition for our entire nation to recollect all the blessings for which we can be thankful.

Imagine for a moment your favorite Thanksgiving dinner, surrounded by friends and family - biological or chosen family - a table groaning with food and beverages flowing. Stories and laughter fill the room with joy and contentment. And then imagine if the matriarch or patriarch or grandpa or grandma or your dearest friend stood up from the table, rolled up their sleeves, filled a bowl with water, and told everyone to take off their shoes and socks, and then this person - this one admired and loved by everyone - proceeded to kneel down and wash feet.

If my grandmother or grandfather or my parents or even my best friend had done such a thing, I would absolutely have protested, trying to pull them up off the floor, embarrassed and shocked that they would even think I would let them do that. Washing my feet? I have a hard enough time letting the lady doing my pedicure do that.

So here we are at the Thanksgiving table (that's what Eucharist means, after all), and the one we all love is determined to wash our feet to show us what true love really means. I think the disciples were probably as shocked and reluctant as we might be.

You may have noticed that John’s gospel does not describe this last meal, the breaking of bread and offering of the cup. The central part of this meal is, for John, the vulnerability and humility of Jesus, even as he is clearly in control of himself and the actions that are about to transpire. This foot-washing becomes the sacramental act on the last night of his earthly life. This was a tangible and memorable demonstration of what it meant to serve one another. This is what it looks like to love one another as Christ has loved us.

Obviously, washing feet was not the sacrament of choice of those who made these decisions early in the life of the Church as our liturgical observances developed. Bread and wine are a bit less vulnerable, less threatening, less discomforting. But I wonder if that's not exactly what Jesus was going for. This loving one another isn't about being comfortable; it's about servanthood, and this is what servanthood looks like. From the saints and martyrs who washed the oozing wounds of lepers and outcasts to those who serve in helping professions where people’s lives are most exposed at their worst moments, foot-washing is merely the forerunner of how we are to minister in the name of Jesus to whomever it is who needs us.

Sometimes we will serve meals. Sometimes we will wash feet. Sometimes we will lift our voice on behalf of those who cannot. Sometimes we will put our money where our mouth is. Sometimes we will risk our reputation and maybe even our life.

Sometimes, though, we will be on the receiving end. Jesus is also saying that our job is allow that to happen, too.

This night when we are given a new commandment to love one another as we have been loved, it might serve us well to ponder what that love might look like. Maybe it looks like washing someone's feet. Maybe it looks like allowing our own feet to be washed. Maybe it's all of the above. Whatever it is, Jesus is the one doing the inviting.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)