Rev. Jennifer Whipple
Congregational Church of Brookfield (UCC)
Maundy Thursday
April 9, 2009
"Care Instructions"
John 13:1-5, 12-15, 34-35
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and all of the meditations of our minds and
hearts gathered here this night be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our
Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
This past Sunday night we held our annual Ecumenical GA GA tournament for
our youth fellowship groups here at CCB. It
is so interesting gathering all of our youth and their adult advisors together,
because we really get to see the things we hold in common with the other
Christian communities in this town, and we also get to hear all about what is
going on in each other’s churches. As
you can imagine, this is a busy week for all of our Christian brothers and
sisters here in Brookfield, but you can thank your stars that you are members
and friends of our church here. Because
it sounds like other folks were planning to spend much more than just this
evening listening to preachers during church services this week!
As a few of the folks from St. Paul’s were on their way out we spoke
about how Tuesday night was going to be their Tenebrae service, so I asked what
tonight was going to hold for them. At
which point both an adult advisor and her teen daughter said, “Footwashing,”
simultaneously…one with a wide smile on her face and the other with a look of
disgust. I’ll let you decide who
was who.
The look of disgust in reference to feet is one that I have seen on the
face of a dear friend of mine, who finds feet absolutely gross.
If she didn’t need her own, she would readily dismiss them.
I, on the other hand, have a very different thought about feet.
In fact, a few months ago this note was going around on the newish social
networking site, “Facebook.” It
was called “25 Random Things.” You
had to come up with 25 random facts about yourself and then send them along to
your friends. I started my list and
only made it to number 8, which was, “Feet: some people can’t stand them.
I love them. Maybe it is
because I was a dancer for most of my young life and have the scars to show it,
or because I spent a lot of time with beautiful hardworking barefooted women in
the Dominican Republic when I lived there, or because his gunboats were the
first thing I noticed about Brayden the moment he was born, but I believe feet
help to tell a person’s story.”
Their feet would have certainly helped to tell the disciples’ story.
If feet could talk, the disciples’ feet would have been able to share
their adventures – beginning in fishing boats or tax offices for instance,
then showing the wear and tear of the miles walked beside Jesus as they learned
from him – from what he taught and how he ministered to everyone in his path
– feet covered in mud and muck, calluses and cuts, feet – that much like a
mechanic’s hands after many years of work with oil – would never be clean
again. And yet, here they are,
exhausted, confused by what Jesus has been telling them and continues to
foreshadow, and probably hungry after a hard day’s work, the last thing they
would have been worried about was their feet – and yet Jesus interrupts dinner
with another one of his outlandish acts. He
takes each set of their worn and weary feet into his own hands and cleans them.
He takes on the identity of a slave.
Because in those times it was customary for a master’s slave to wash
the feet of his guests when they entered into a house as a sign of hospitality.
And here Jesus takes the disciples’ feet, complete with their stories
and all that they had learned, and cleanses them – saying that one thing
matters now – it is by one thing that people will know that you are my
disciples and my message will live on after I am gone.
“I give you a new commandment,” Jesus said to them, “that you love
one another. Just as I have loved
you, you should love one another. By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus, both with his actions and his words, gave the disciples a new set
of care instructions at that moment. He
may have alluded to these instructions in many of his teachings up until this
point, but here he lays it all out on the line for them.
I cannot see this exchange in any other way than an intimate final moment
with each of his closest companions – including the man he knew would betray
him. I can picture Jesus looking
into each of their eyes wanting to both thank them for their years of service by
his side and also give them strength for the journey that was to come, gently
holding their feet in his own callused hands, washing them and softly drying
them with the towel around his own waist. “Having loved
his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
That is what this week is all about.
It is about unconditional love. It
is about the love that God has for each and every one of God’s beloved
children, despite all of the ways we fall short of perfection.
Despite all of the ways that we turn our faces from God.
Despite all of the ways that we manage to separate ourselves from a God
that so loves and cares for us that he would give his own life for our
reconciliation. Up until this point
the instructions have been to love God with your whole self and to love your
neighbor as you love yourself. A
tall order, no doubt. But here we
are challenged to go farther and to dig deeper.
We are challenged, just as the disciples
were, to love one another as God loves us – amidst all of our
differences, all of the conflict we manage to create, all of the gossip that we
spread. That is who we are as human
beings, but here we are challenged to rise above.
We are instructed to care for one another in a new and remotely
outlandish way, in order to show what it is that we believe.
“This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples – when
they see the love you have for each other.”
Yes, we are called from all different places and all different walks of
life to set our feet upon this part of our journey together.
God has called us here and has laid out instructions for how it is that
we are to live in community with one another and with others out in our world.
In our humanity we may not quite get there, and we may need to turn our
back from our neighbors for one reason or another.
But even if we cannot be perfect we can be assured that we are handled
with care by the one who will make us that way through a love that has no
conditions – a love that is sacrificial and steadfast to our end and beyond.
Thanks be to God for this good news.
Amen.
