March 24, 2005 - Maundy Thursday - Father Andrew Green

FIRST READING: Exodus 12: 1-14
PSALM: 116: 1, 10-17
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26
GOSPEL: John 13: 1-17, 31b-35

This is one of those times that it seems unusual that we should get all dolled up. We have chasuble, copes, and beautifully-embroidered stoles. We have so many things, and it is as if this is one of those times that we don't really hear what the Gospel is saying to us. But the liturgy actually lets us move through all that. Just as Jesus took off His robe and served, so we will be taking off some of the extra things and doing some of that serving, too.

We clergy often go to the Cathedral each year during Holy Week to renew our vows with the Bishop - our ordination vows. The Bishop renewed his ordination vows, and, frankly, all the other Bishops who were there did, too. It is quite a moving experience for us, and Bishop Mathes, in his first real encounter with the clergy of the Diocese since his consecration as the Bishop, had a real simple message for us. It was how we were going to be dealing with all of these things that are confronting us as a Church, or confronting us as a Diocese, or confronting us as brother and sister clergy, and he said, "Wash one another's feet".

Wash one another's feet.

Jesus didn't leave us with a whole heck of a lot. He didn't leave us with bound copies of His sermons. He didn't have a web page, to the best of my knowledge. Thank God, He never spammed anyone. He didn't leave us with much. He left us the Sacrament that we celebrate the institution of tonight, Holy Communion, and He left us relatively few commands. He commanded us to baptize and make disciples. He commanded us to remember His death until He comes again through sharing with one another in the bread and the wine, made His Body and Blood, and He left us that command, "As I have loved you, so you should love one another." He left us that sign, and the symbol of it is washing feet.

Now, it is relatively anachronistic. It is really not part of our culture today. It doesn't necessarily mean for us the things that it did to them. For us, it tends to be kind of quaint. It is a throw-back. It is very, very retro. But, for them, it wasn't cute, and it wasn't quaint. It was boundary-crossing. If you were a person who had servants, your servants did that for you and your guests. Social lines were rather more strict than they are now, so, for us, we have to kind of get ourselves into the mind-set of what these things mean. But, at the heart of them, they are really very simple. Jesus left us the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. He left us the sign of bread and wine that we might be nourished on Him, and that we might be a body of people who were there to nourish the world that was in need. It's very simple. He left us the sign of washing feet. Even though, today, it may seem for us quaint, He left us a sign that reminded us that, if we were to be His followers, then we would be one another's servants.

Now, there is something very important in this. There is a debate going on. I don't know how much this debate really gets out into the streets and into the pews and things like that, but, among clergy, there are these things going back and forth. There are a lot of folks who are really wondering whether or not they can sit down and take Communion with somebody who sees the Scriptures differently than they do - somebody who sees Ordination differently than they do; somebody who lives differently than they do. There is an actual serious question: "We can't sit down with you".

Let's go back to the Gospel. Jesus was sitting with His 12 disciples, even though, as it tells us (and it is good to have the editor speaking stuff, because we get all the footnotes), Jesus already knew that the devil had put it into Judas that he would betray Him. Jesus sat down with the one who would betray Him, at table together. Jesus washed the feet of the one who would betray Him. Now, let's face it - it was pretty easy with that crowd because every single one of them at that table betrayed Him. There is where we often miss the point. We are all so busy trying to figure out which one is the one at the table that we can't eat with and which one is the one at the table whom we don't want to be serving, that we miss the point of Jesus that every single one at that table, save Jesus, turned their back on Him and either betrayed Him, or ran away, or denied Him. Every single one of us has, at one time or another, turned out backs on our Lord. When we have walked in on someone putting someone down, and we did nothing about it; when we have gossiped; when we have participated in verbal attacks of any type, we have turned our back on the one who said we should be there as servants, and we should be people who are there to nourish the world for which Christ died.

This Holy Week is a time for us to take real baby steps and pay attention. Tonight, we are focused on getting our feet wet, literally, and sharing together in some bread and wine. We are here to be nourished at our Lord's Table. We are here to share in washing our feet or having our feet washed and letting a little bit of the roles trade places, but all of it is for us to be a sign that this is the kind of people that God has called us to be. God has called us to be a people who understand that our service is to everybody. Our service is not to pick and choose. The odds are pretty close to about 100% that somebody we are called to serve may some day stick a knife in our back (or maybe they will be somebody whose back we have stuck a knife in), but we are pretty sure that that is what is going to happen to us, because it happened to Jesus.

So, let's get that out of our minds now and not worry about it. Let's not be anxious about it, because we know it is going to be there. But Jesus made it through all of that and said, "This is the sign of how you are to be as My people". Those of us who get to wear the extra-special robes, perhaps, among all, I have the most difficulty with that. I have found, over these last several years, that I really kind of like having privileges - special this and special that. I would never really admit to it, but I find myself thinking that it is kind of like when you upgrade from coach to first class. Frankly, I wouldn't pay for it, but, gosh, I'd love it if I just kind of happened to sneak into it or fall into it!

Jesus is asking us to be honest about who we are and to realize that, honestly, the people around us are probably struggling with the same things. He is asking us to serve them, and He is asking us to serve one another. He is asking us to put aside enmity, strife, anxiety, and for us clergy to take off the stole, to put on the apron, and to remind ourselves that the work that we are called upon to do is not to try to figure out how to get ourselves wheedled into first class, but how to find the folks whose feet are the dirtiest and help them get clean - to find the folks who are the hungriest and the most in need of God's love and do our level best to share whatever small portion of it that we have with them.

That is what we are about during this Holy Week. That is what is leading us to that Easter day.

AMEN