Scripture Text (NRSV)
John 14:8-7, (25-27)
14:8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be
satisfied."
14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time,
Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is
in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the
Father who dwells in me does his works.
14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;
but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
14:12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also
do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these,
because I am going to the Father.
14:13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may
be glorified in the Son.
14:14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate, to be with you forever.
14:17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he
abides with you, and he will be in you.
14:25 "I have said these things to you while I am still with you.
14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I
have said to you.
14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not
give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled,
and do not let them be afraid.
Comments:
How do we translate the footwashing into daily service. We have
worshipers attend the Maundy Liturgy because they love to participate
in the footwashing but yet, still, know nothing about service to the
world?
tom in ga
tom in ga--
Funny, most of my older people would be glad to help others in their
usual ways, but God forbid that you should ask them to participate in
footwashing!
Actually, that's the tack I end up taking--"Unless I wash you, you
have no share of me." We like to jump to service without giving up
control, which isn't really service.
So in some ways, the service in the world becomes the invitation to
grace that each of us must have experienced, hopefully, at one time or
another. It can mean asking the question, whatever it is that Jesus
has done for you, whatever comfort or hope or good word you've
received, do you really think he washed and healed you just so you
could feel good? Is there anyone around you who needs that same
experience?
Ramblings--
Laura in TX
Here Jesus goes again, mucking up my theology of victory with images
of subservience :-)
Our footwashing is a pale comparison. People come prepared to have
their feet washed (they make sure they are already clean and are
wearing fresh socks!) They have had a chance to rationalize their way
past their squeamishness at having their feet touched. We really have
no similar role in our society to the servant who washed feet, so
people don't get it. It is just a weird activity that Christians do
every year.
What activity in our society is so low? Who is as invisible to us, as
the footwashing servant was to the people of that day? What activity
would seem too demeaning for a person we respected to do?
Shoeshining? Bathroom scrubbing?
It's almost as if Jesus was at a dinner in a five star restaurant in
his honor and began to bus the tables of everyone in the place. Only
that isn't a strong enough image.
He was not the one to be doing that activity, yet over everyone's
objections he chose to act as if we were the honored ones, so that we
might learn to honor one another for his sake.
-SS in PA
Dear Friends,
In his novel, "Leaving North Haven: The Further Adventures of a
Small-Town Pastor," (New York: A Crossroad Carlisle Book, The Crosswod
Publishing Company, 2002; ISBN 0-8245-2013-0) Michael Lindvall
includes a chapter entitled, "Our Organist." It recounts the story of
how a visiting pastor discovered the ways in which the members of a
dwindling rural congregation truly lived out the command to "love one
another." I commend it to you as a resource for this Maundy Thursday.
May God bless you with a truly holy week, Desert Dweller
Response to SS in PA - ... a slight modification to your question
"What activity in our society is so low?" Not that this is low, but it
is demeaning to the person previously in "control", if they have any
awareness of it...
Taking care of an elderly relative - perhaps incapacitated by
alzheimer's - bathing the previously proud, accomplished senior -
respecting them still despite their infirmity. Cleansing the person
who never, if they were conscious of their malodorousness, would have
let themselves (in a million years) get to this state.
This is the closest I can come to a "graphic" honor-in-servitude
example of what Christ showed His divisive, self-centered disciples -
loving them despite their infirmity - debasing Himself to guide them
lovingly to a cleaner existence.
I’ve been thinking about what to preach this time round ... In Lent
I’ve been reading the letter to the Hebrews ... and thinking a lot
about sacrifice - the Old Testament system of sacrifice, and the
sacrifice of Jesus himself. I’ve been thinking about blood especially,
and the link between blood and forgiveness.
When Jesus says to Peter ‘A person who has had a bath needs only to
wash his feet; his whole body is clean, and you are clean’ He means
that Peter’s sin has been dealt with. He stands before Jesus as one
who has been forgiven.
In our liturgy, (anglican) we use a confession every week. I wonder
what people think is going on here ? Do they think that they have
start over again with God every week. In what state do they think they
come each week ?
In the confession, we are not coming to deal with our status before
God.
We come firstly to REMIND ourselves of God’s forgiveness for us and of
our new birth as children of God. To remind ourselves that we stand
before him clothed in the righteousness of Christ as perfect in his
eyes.
We come secondly to confess that we are not perfect ...!! That we
still sin, and to rejoice that these sins are covered by the once for
all sacrifice of Jesus. And to remember that as ‘new creations’ we
have God’s Spirit within us to strenthen us and make us more like
Jesus.
Sorry, I’m going on here .... What I want to say is ‘Praise God’ -
because by the blood of Jesus, we are able to come into God’s
presence. (Heb 10:9)
Rev Ev in UK
I once preached on this with the image of an airplane, preparing for
its final descent, and the request that the passengers fasten their
seatbelts. Jesus was aware that he was on his "final approach" to God.
What he fastened around himself in preparation were the instruments of
humble service - a towel to serve as an apron. If we, too, really
believe that we are on our "final approach" to God, we'll listen when
we are asked to fasten our seatbelts, and not just keep humming to
ourselves with our headsets on. Loving service is the way to prepare;
possibly (and maybe this is just an unworthy revenge fantasy on my
part) it will be a bumpy ride for those who have chosen to focus on
their own agenda, and ignored the call to fasten loving service around
themselves.
LF
"I know Jesus because of my ‘stara matka,'" said Lenka, a
twenty-year-old Slovak woman. Lenka's grandmother, a victim of forty
years of Communist party oppression, snuck Lenka to a neighboring
village in the dark of night to have her baptized and instructed in
the Christian faith. Party officials would not, in the end, pass over
her "stara matka's" house without punishment, but the knowledge and
remembrance of Jesus had been preserved for yet another generation in
Lenka.
Remembrance. Knowing. Passing on. Passing over. Such are the images of
Maundy Thursday.
In Exodus, the passover story becomes a "day of
remembrance...throughout the generations" to be "observed as a
perpetual ordinance."
The passing on of tradition is also central in Paul's letter to the
community at Corinth as he both hands on what he has received, and
recounts the anamnesis, the "remembrance" in the words of institution.
Knowing and understanding are pivotal in John's gospel as Jesus "knew
that his hour had come to depart." He acted, "knowing that the Father
had given all things into his hands." He chides Peter, "You do not
know what I am doing." He "knew who was to betray him." After the foot
washing, he questions his disciples, "Do you know what I have done to
you?" He challenges them to act on the basis of their understanding:
"If you know these things you are blessed if you do them."
Indeed, passing over, remembrance, passing on, and knowledge are all
bound together in his Maundy Thursday mandate: "By this everyone will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
"Write this commandment in our hearts," we pray in the prayer of the
day. Amen. May it become a part of our permanent memory.
Dear Anonymous Poster: I guess you're trying to help. But I don't
think it's ethical for you to post the reflections of Twila Schock and
Bill Swanson from Sundays and Seasons without giving them credit. How
about this: type in your own thoughts! Join the conversation! You are
welcome here, and we'd love to hear from the real you.
LF
People do not relate to footwashing as they would have in the time of
Christ. It was a necessity where people wore sandals, and the dust was
mingled with animal excrement. As such, they had the lowest of the
nine levels of slave, the doulos, do it. It was the lowest of tasks.
In Hawaii we keep the inside of the house clean with removing our
shoes. Even if there is no excrement there is red dust. One year I
washed the hands of the congregation (quite without notice)to
symbolize the footwashing and it was extremely moving and very
well-received. As I write this I am reminded of a story I once heard
in relation to the progical son, but that seems to relate to
Maundy-Thursday via the removing of shoes. It proclaims a God whose
shoes don't match. I am not sure the origin, I heard it in a sermon
years ago.
It is said that there was once a missionary to China who welcomed a
"back-slid" artist back into the church. The artist felt so
overwhelmed that he offered to paint a special work for the church.
The Sunday before it was to be revealed he proudly showed it to the
Pastor. The Pastor marveled at the skill of the painter but said, "It
is a masterpiece except for one thing. You have painted the picture of
the progical son from a perspective looking over the father's
shoulder, with the son coming to him. The father's arms are crossed
and he looks stern. If you read the Gospel, you will see that the
father runs out to meet the son." "But no Chinese Father would do
that, he would lose face" the artit said. "Exactly, no earthly father
would do that, but our Heavenly Father does." "I see," said the artist
and took the painting and left. That Sunday before the service to
reveal it, he called the pastor over to and and pulling back the cover
asked, "How do you like it now?" The Pastor was overwhelmed. The scene
now showed the moment just before the father embraced the son. The son
was leaning back and his eyes revealed both the sorrow of repentence
and the wonder and joy of beginning to understand what his father was
doing. The father had his arms wide open and tears of joy streaming
down his face. The Pastor had tears in his eyes and then said, "I
don't mean to be picky, this is the best rendition of the prodigal son
I have ever seen, but the father's shoes don't match." "Of course they
don't, in China we keep our shoes at the door, and when he saw his son
coming home his joy was so great he did not look down to see that he
put his feet in matching shoes, he just hurried out to welcome him. We
have a God whose shoes don't match." We have a God whose shoes don't
match, who rushes to welcome us to the Lord's supper. A God who feeds
us and then saves us by the Cross.
B Rock
