Thursday, April 14, 2022

Maundy Thursday

Ex. 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35

The Rev. Clint Brown

Theme: Foot washing circa 2022

Seeing God in the ordinary stuff of life. That is the classic definition of “What is a ‘sacrament?’” In the Eucharist, for example, we are presented with ordinary bread and wine, but we are made to understand that though like all other bread and wine in the world, this bread and this wine has become for us like no other bread or wine in the world. In them, beneath the form and substance of ordinary matter, we perceive Christ’s very own Presence. In St. Augustine’s memorable phrase, a sacrament such as this is what it is “because in [it] one thing is seen, while another is grasped.”[1] We are here tonight to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.

We recall tonight the institution of the Eucharist or Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper. Different traditions have different names for it as well as different understandings of what it is that is happening and how, but all Christians agree that, symbolically, it represents the fact that, as Christians, we are united spiritually. That’s pretty extraordinary. Without being related by blood or class or by any other categorical measure, those who eat at this table are family. And, like family, when we get up from this table, it is expected that we should bear some resemblance to one another. It is supposed that this Sacrament will define us and reveal to us who we are and what we aspire to become. We are meant to be recognized as the people who live out what it communicates about brokenness and sacrifice. The ongoing challenge of the Eucharist, then, is to live into its meaning not just to receive it. As Paul would have it, to receive it “worthily” (1 Corinthians 11:27ff.) and as one of our prayers has it, to be delivered from the presumption of coming to it for solace only and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. In every sense, we are to metabolize this food, to ingest it, so that it actually becomes a part of who we are.

As a counterpoint to this great act of Christian devotion, tonight we will also commemorate the foot washing. C.S. Lewis writes: “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself [by which he means the Eucharist], your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat – the glorifier and the glorified, God Himself, is truly hidden.”[2] Here is the connective tissue between the Supper and the foot washing. Without our neighbor – the common connections between us – we cannot practice the sacrament of equal importance, the giving of ourselves. Here again is God to be seen in the ordinary stuff of life.

More than a few times in recent weeks I have remarked in conversation that the reason people don’t come to church is because there are Christians there. We Christians who are supposed to be known by extraordinary acts of compassion and care and self-denial, kindness, generosity, self-offering, and patience, are more often known these days for extraordinary acts of exclusion and fear of the stranger, for small-mindedness and self-preservation, and for judgment. The place that our neighbor holds in the ordering of our lives is getting smaller and smaller. The foot washing is the antidote for what ails us. Tonight we see Jesus washing the feet of his friends.

To our sensibilities is seems such an exemplary act. We can be profoundly affected by the humbling experience of washing another’s feet, getting down on our knees, lowering ourselves, experiencing its discomfort and embarrassment, but this is not actually Jesus’ lesson. It is not actually the foot washing that matters. The trick is actually to see it as something quite ordinary. In Jesus’ day, there were two very practical reasons to wash feet: firstly, to remove dirt; and, secondly, to be hospitable. Jesus’ primary lesson was to do the very common thing that was ordinarily given to do by servant as the commonplace thing to do as a Christian. It is the foot washing attitude that matters, of serving others in a commonplace stuff of life.

We can show a foot washing attitude anytime we take on a menial task or accept a lesser role. We can try not insisting so much on our “rights” or “privileges” so much, but opt, instead, to try seeing the world through the eyes of those for whom “rights” and “privileges” are just things written on paper, a far cry from how society treats them. We can stop ourselves from time to time from blowing right past others, and, instead, meet others’ needs before meeting our own. We can wash feet when we seek out a job that no one else will do and then cheerfully do it, or when we focus on the results being achieved and not on who is getting the credit. All these are ways to wash feet in the year 2022.[3]  

The Eucharist – the foot washing – two powerful and complementary images for the living of the Christian life. Perceive it, the things that are, and become it. Amen.

[1] Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 272

[2] Bruce Barton et al., John, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1993), 277.

[3] Bruce Barton et al., John, 389.