Grace Episcopal Church, Norwood, Massachusetts
Maundy Thursday, Year A - March 20, 2008
Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Cor 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Sermon preached by Madelyn Betz, Seminarian

In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We gather together tonight for a very special reason-to remember. Our readings for this evening were carefully chosen to remind us of very important events in our faith history. The Passover, the Eucharist and the Foot-Washing. Each was an event, grounded in an historical moment. Each event is described in detail. Each has become a ritual act, infused with symbolic meaning so that its significance will remain throughout all time. In ritual we both describe and enact the present reality of our relationship to God.

The stories of the Passover and the Eucharist are absolutely foundational stories regarding who we are as Christian people, who we believe ourselves to be as children of God. These two stories are at the center of our faith, and remind us of how God has worked in history. We connect these two stories each week when we remember that Christ is our Passover. He is our freedom. And we celebrate what we know by keeping the feast. That weekly sacrament, that outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, reminds us of the heavenly hope that is ours. And we go out, just as surely as the Israelites went out from Egypt, with a sure and certain knowledge of who we are as God's people. And this gives us both courage and strength to do what God has given us to do.

We only remember Foot-Washing tonight-on Maundy Thursday, just once a year, as part of the most Holiest of Weeks. What is the foot-washing all about? Why do we do it?

The first reason that I think we need to pay attention to the story of the Foot-washing is because of the importance of the story to John, the Gospel writer. It was so important, in fact, that he skipped right over the account of the Last Supper, giving it only the briefest reference as the setting for the foot-washing. We know that foot-washing was a common practice is biblical times. Geographically, the area was hot and dry; people wore sandals; their feet got dusty. There were very practical reasons why it was part of normal hospitality-when someone came to your house, your servant washed their feet-not you; your servant. Being recipients of foot-washing would not have been unusual for the disciples.

But when Jesus did it, it was very different. John tells us that during supper, Jesus got up from the table and proceeded to make the preparations to wash the disciples' feet. Wait. When did this happen? During supper. That wasn't the normal time to wash feet. Upon arrival was the normal time. So the disciples' feet were already clean. And Jesus wasn't supposed to be doing it in any case; a servant was or you washed your own. So something larger and symbolic was going on. Jesus had a different reason other than hospitality for his action. And John tells us what prompted Jesus to make this gesture.

"During supper, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table…" Jesus, knowing-this man who was God among us was facing his last few days before returning to the Father and he knew that. He had few chances left to teach, and actions speak so much louder than words- so he got up from the table. As the disciples observed his preparations, it was Simon Peter who asked the question that betrays the embarrassment and awkwardness that perhaps we feel about foot-washing. "Are you going to wash my feet? What are you doing?" Jesus said, "You don't know what I am doing…you will, you will." Peter continued to protest because he didn't know what was coming so soon. But Jesus gently insisted. He washed all their feet, we're told, including Judas'. Can you imagine how quiet the room was? How self-conscious they felt? How they must have exchanged looks?
And when it was over, Jesus put away the things and came back to the table. The teaching moment continued. His question, "Do you know what I have done to you?" is that kind of rhetorical question that has such an obvious answer that you know it isn't really the answer. So he went on: "I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you."

What was he saying? That their mission was to go out and wash people's feet? No. He was putting words to what he had just done. Knowing leads to doing. Jesus knew what the next few days would bring, which prompted his action. Knowing leads to doing. Jesus told the disciples, "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."

That brings us back around I think to the collection of scripture lessons for tonight. Each lesson describes an event-a moment in time-a moment to remember. There is also a tension between remembering an event, celebrating it and letting it go, on the one hand-- and remembering an event so that you can incorporate the meaning of the event into your way of life.

So where is the foot-washing in that tension? I think it is both. Jesus had performed a symbolic act and tied it together with a new commandment that would be the transforming mark of Christians from that day to this. And he couldn't have been more clear about what a disciple's life should look like. "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." Jesus was talking about relationship. Relationship involves vulnerability and risk. It involves opening ourselves up to others. It involves humility and serving others. "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."

Our awkwardness about having our feet washed is not so different from the disciples. They didn't want it either. But the intersection of our willing vulnerability and the tender intimacy of the act of washing feet is the kind of love that Jesus meant to model for us that night. In John's story of the foot-washing, we have the description of a sacrament-an outward and visible sign, a symbolic act, that makes physically real an inward and spiritual grace. Foot-washing, like the Eucharist, is more than the event itself. It is meant to be remembered and to transform. We do this tonight to fulfill what Jesus asked us to do. He said, "If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."

John has also written that "God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son." How much more vulnerable can one be than that? Jesus took on human flesh to show who God is and what his love looks like. This foot-washing is what God's love looks like.

Jesus did something that made each disciple look at him serving. His demonstration of loving service could not be denied. That's why we do it. It both reminds us and gives us strength to serve others in the same way. It becomes a touchstone for our witness in the world. Knowing leads to doing. One of the great Church Fathers, Gregory of Nazianzus, summed up his vision of Christian ministry this way: "there is to be no delay between our intention and a good deed." Jesus said, "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this shall the world know that you are my disciples."

Amen.