Maundy Thursday Sermon

We had a full communion service with footwashing. Actually had a fair number of people who wanted to wash feet/get washed. All in all, I was quite pleased with the service. The musical selections were amazing, and by then end, when we were stripping the altar, I just felt like some very special had just occurred... Here's my sermon for your viewing pleasure.

When I began preaching, just a few years ago, all of my dressy black shoes were high heels. I hated wearing heels. So to ease my nervousness, and make me at least a little more physically comfortable while preaching, as soon as I stepped behind the pulpit, I’d casually slide my shoes off. Nobody ever noticed until I forgot to put them back on one day. So, feel free to sit back and relax and kick off your shoes. Didn’t God tell Moses to take off his shoes on holy ground? Well, this too is holy ground… Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered, Christ is present among them.
Here we begin the ancient and holy tradition of the Three Days, the Triduum. Traditionally celebrated as once service, beginning on Thursday and ending late Saturday night at the end of the Easter Vigil Service. Maundy Thursday is the Holy Week observance of the last day of Jesus’ life before his trial and execution. It is traditionally a time for the church to celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist or holy communion, and to reflect on Christ’s new commandment to love one another. The name “Maundy” is derived from the Latin “mandatum” or commandment. Jesus tells his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” But what does this love look like?
Frederich Buechner once wrote, “To say that love is God is romantic idealism. To say that God is love is either the last straw or the ultimate truth.” It’s a radical unconditional love that changed the world when God became incarnate in Jesus, and this love still changes the world. And Jesus says that it is this sort of love that will be our identification as Christians.
How do people know that you are a Christian? I think the church has it backwards today, and I may even admit to getting it backwards sometimes. People know that you are a Christian because you go to church, right? Your neighbors see you leave your house on Sunday morning all dressed up. You have a bumper sticker on your car. You wear a cross necklace. You tell your friends that you can’t go to the movies on Sunday night because you have youth group. They know you because of what you wear or where you go on Sundays. But what do the scriptures say about how the disciples will be recognized? Jesus says, “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.” “In a Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion, but an act of the will.” When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors he’s not asking to have a cozy, romantic feeling about them, but to care for their wellbeing because we’re supposed to.
So part of this identifying love is serving our neighbors. We are called to serve and to reach out to the broken and to preach the good news; to love our neighbor as our self. We are called to emulate Jesus. But we cannot be Jesus. We are not called to save the world, that was Jesus’ job, and he’s done that already. Well-meaning pastors and church workers give up their lives and run themselves into the ground in the name of serving others and sacrificing everything for the good of someone else because they think it all rests upon their shoulders; all the while never allowing themselves to be served or to be taken care of. I think Jesus words to the disciples have as much to do with receiving as they do giving and serving.
This gospel scripture we read has been and still could be interpreted as simply living one’s life in humble service to the world – but there are many passages from the Bible that speak to serving the poor and taking care of the sick. I think this passage is calling us to something more specific. He’s calling the gathered community to something sacred and special. “What Jesus is doing and saying in the act of foot washing is that not just he, but all who follow him may face rejection, suffering, persecution and death at the hands of the powers of their day. He is teaching them through word and sign - they are to support and encourage each other as a faith community. They are to “wash” and to keep on washing “each other’s feet.” And if they are not both willing both to serve and especially to be served, then Jesus says, You have no share in me.
Jesus is saying to these disciples, “you’re not just a group of random people who follow my teachings and who believe I am the Son of God.” You are a family; you are all part of the body of Christ. You need to act like a family; you need to support each other, because things are going to get tough. Let me give you an example of the kind of support and intimacy that you’re going to need to have among yourselves, Let me wash your feet…
We don’t wash each other’s feet to remember the past, we wash feet to ponder the present and rejoice in the future promise. Jesus is not a character from a story in history that happened many years ago, we know that We’re not like Civil war re-enactors, dressing up to remember lives lost and battles scenes from history. The Civil War happened in the past; but Jesus is our past, present and future. We read the scriptures to hear the narrative of our shared past, but we know that Jesus has promised to be with us always, even till the end of the age. He is present in the bread and the wine that we will share and he is present in acts of love and humble service.
Both the Eucharist and the washing of feet are acts of great communal intimacy, and both evoke an almost visceral reaction. “Wash my FEET?” “Eat your flesh and drink you BLOOD?” You can’t be serious Jesus… Putting these two together is almost more than our minds – or our stomachs can take. The thrust of the liturgy, however, is to assault the well-defended walls of both in a strategic attempt to reach our hearts.
The communion meal in not merely a remembrance of a past action, and neither is the washing of each other’s feet. Jesus has commanded us not to remember what he did in that upper room, but we are commanded to show that same self-sacrificing, humbling, at-times-awkward love for others. Paul says “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.” We receive that love and grace in the sacrament of Holy Communion and pass that on to others in acts of love and grace.
I’ve now experienced first-hand; that grace and love passed on here at Lord of Life. In the months I’ve been here, I’ve seen the love you have for each other as the body of Christ. I’ve seen the sacrifice for others, the hand-written notes of appreciation, the sympathetic looks, and the smiles. I’ve seen arms embrace, hands outstretched in need, and feet would give a well-meaning kick in the pants when needed. I’ve seen this congregation take care of the basic needs of it’s members, but I’ve also seen it go above and beyond.
One of our members personally sees this as her ministry. Many other people here run programming, teach classes, preach sermons, organize volunteer efforts and provide for music and the arts in our worship services. But she’s a listening ear, and a caring friend, and she’d wash anyone’s feet in a heartbeat without being asked. She feeds us and cleans up after us, taking care of our most basic needs. She and many others in this congregation embody the sort of love that Jesus commands. We care for each other here at Lord of Life so that we can go out and care for the world. We are comfortable with each other, perhaps even comfortable enough to be vulnerable and show our feet; perhaps comfortable enough to be served by another.
But perhaps not. Maybe Jesus words strike hard at that deep dark bitter place inside each of us. The voice that tells us we are self-sufficient and we don’t need anyone else; the part of ourselves that desperately tries to hide our faults, weaknesses and imperfections. If our needs are not ministered to by sisters and brothers in Christ – how then shall we be ministers to the world?
Jesus knows he is leaving his disciples – he can foresee their loneliness and despair. But he wants them to know that they are not alone – The Holy Spirit will be will them, the advocate – but they also have each other and in this way Christ is present among them. In the meals they share and in the charity and acts of love for each other – God is found.
There’s a version of the famous hymn, “Where Charity and Love Abide – God is Dwelling There.” God lives in our love shown to others. When we allow others to show us love and care, God is there. When we are vulnerable and exposed – God is there. When we care for our community so that our community can serve the world – Christ is present in our midst. Christ is present in the bread and the wine, the grace we receive through the sacrament of Holy Communion we pass on to each other. As we wash each others feet, we live out our calling to be the body of Christ. Our calling to not shy away from the imperfect or the weak, but to love and serve radically and unconditionally despite those short-comings; Jesus Commands us to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ and in turn allow ourselves to be served in love. As the old song goes, “they will know we are Christians by our love.” Amen.