The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
April 13, 2006
Exodus 12:1-14a 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15
How is this night different from all others? It is the night Jesus gathers with his disciples for the last time. It is the night he gives new meaning, eternal significance, to the meal they share. The bread and wine are what will connect his disciples to him and to one another forever. It will be their strength. It will be their nourishment. It will be their bond. It will be his continuing presence with them.
How is this night the same as the others? It is the same group of disciples that Jesus has been with for his entire journey toward Jerusalem. Along with the un-named women, they are Simon Peter, James son of Zebedee, John son of Zebedee, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot.
They are the same bickering, quarrelsome, contentious group of people they have always been. Apparently looming crisis and confrontation do not inform their behavior. They are arguing and debating many things, including questions of status (who will be number 1 in the absence of Jesus), clueless as to what is about to happen and about it’s meaning for them and for the world.
Into that familiar disputatious scene comes Jesus, who “having loved his own who were in the world loves them to the end.” (God alone knows why), Jesus comes with one last teaching, one last demonstration of the nature of God’s kingdom he is bringing into being, one last act which incarnates – which brings to life right there and then – the purpose of his life and ministry and the nature of God and God’s kingdom.
He does it by washing their feet in a humble and humbling act of love. “The only way to teach the disciples the reality of the kingdom was to get down on his knees and wash their feet.”
The Gospel of John was written decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus to a church that was polarized with division, with contention, with great disputes about who was more right, more righteous, had the best take on the truth, knew best what God wanted for people, for the world and for the church. It seems disciples will be disciples, will be disciples no matter in what era they live. The gospel writer obviously felt that the great divisions of the world and the church needed to hear again this final teaching from Jesus that the kingdom of God is defined by love as he has loved, and by servanthood as he has served.
And tonight we hear again this message addressed to us, to our world, and to our church. Of course, things are much different today. Not much self-righteousness, not much “my way or the highway”; not much division in the church, except for a little among the roman, and the orthodox, and the anglican, and the protestant denominations; a little between the evangelicals and the social gospel crowd; a little between the Episcopal Church USA and the conservative churches of the Anglican Communion, etc., etc. etc.
In the hopes that the message, the commandment to love and serve, will work a little deeper into our personal and communal awareness, we watch once again as “Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”
We hear him say again, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”
This self-offering and servanthood is not what the people of that time - including the disciples - expected from God, from the Messiah of God, or from the man Jesus. It is not what people from this day and time expect, either. People do not expect the power of God Almighty to be shown in acceptance of all sorts and conditions of people, especially the lonely, outcast, the sick,
The tired, the poor,
The huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse on our teeming shore.
The homeless, tempest-tossed, the illegal aliens.
They do not expect power to be patient in suffering. They do not expect power to be an offered love. They do not expect power to have to - or be able to - endure. They do not expect power to serve others.
The Jesus who offers himself, the Jesus who serves others, the Jesus who goes to the Cross is the truth of God. God who loves, of¬fers and serves. It has been said "The crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has ever seen."
Bill Lewellis holds dear a vision of how Jesus will greet each of us when we arrive in heaven. Tired and worn, Jesus greets us with a towel tied around him and a basin and water to wash and refresh, as he says “you are welcome to the banquet that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
What we have been given by his example of serving, what we have been given by his continuing offering of himself in the Eucharist, will help us. Because if God was in Jesus, we must come to terms with a God for whom it is natural to be humble, compassionate, serving, and at risk - for others. And take his nature upon ourselves.
And so as mark of our new nature I invite you to humble yourself to receive an act of love as some one bathes and refreshes your feet and to offer that act of love to another.
We will then go to the table to participate in the supper that unites us with Jesus and with all believers throughout eternity as share the bread and the cup.
I pray that thereby we will be empowered to bring his love and his servanthood to a suffering world and a divided church and to those who have not experienced his love or who do not yet know him.
