“Footbridge
to Earth”
John
13:1-17
First
Presbyterian Church
Rev.
Donald E. Ray
April
1, 2010
Maundy
Thursday
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One of the better, I think, in the spate of reality
TV shows is a relatively new one, Undercover
Boss. Evidently scripted and
edited, it’s hard to believe this could happen in real life, but the concept
of the show I really like. Bosses
disguise themselves, take an assumed name and go on the job at their company’s
operations in the role of an entry level employee.
A chief executive of a national waste management
firm, for a week, sorts recycles from trash; picks up blowing refuse on the
hillside of a landfill - is let go from that job; fired by his supervisor for
not meeting the daily quota of trash bags filled; works beside an employee who
under a budget squeeze has to multi-task, running the office, managing field
operations while maintain a home for her extended family.
The Chief Operating Officer of Churchill Downs,
Inc. fed and groomed horses, learning that the woman responsible for caring for
these prize animals by track policies couldn’t get enough stalls to make a
decent living. A jockey aid, he
discovered, worked every day carrying the personal grief of his daughter’s
death and no one at work knew or seemed to care.
The CEO of an amusement park conglomerate learned
how dedicated and hard working were the employees who greeted patrons as they
entered the parks, kept them clean, served the customers and how they struggled
to reach toward their life goals, juggle work and the needs of their families.
In a refreshing departure from their paneled
offices, these executives get out from behind the mahogany desks, spread sheets
and bottom line to gain a new appreciation for what the persons who do the front
line jobs every day have to offer and what needs to be done to help them.
The waste management executive arranged assistance
for the woman doing the myriad jobs so she could focus her talents on what she
did best to make the operation run more efficiently and leaves her more time and
energy for her family. The Churchill
Downs COO named a race the next season in memory of the jockey aide’s daughter
- a small thing to the corporation, but huge
for the man and was reflected in his commitment to work. The
Amusement park CEO enhanced the company’s employee assistance program,
provided access to child care for the many single parent workers and developed a
scholarship program to aid employees with dedication and vision to get an
education to enhance the skills they brought to their jobs.
This week from Palm Sunday to Easter the church
calls holy. Somewhere
in my education I learned that holy
referred to God as wholly, w-h-o-l-l-y as
in God is entirely other than creation, lofty, to be revered, above all God.
By the time John’s Gospel was written, the
fledging community of Jesus followers was too well on the way to elevating its
practices. The Lord’s Supper had
become institutionalized as a new Passover, so that many were being left out. In
John’s reference to the supper he writes, Jesus took towel, poured water into
a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet.
Were John into parables, he might have written the
story in tonight’s text this way:
What is the
The disciples were so shocked by the story’s
reversal of roles, they asked what this could mean. “You
call me teacher and Lord,” the king said. “and you are right, for so I am. If
then, your Lord and teacher, has washed your feet, you also ought to wash one
another’s feet. For I have given
you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. . . If you know
these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
(John 13:13-17)
Sorting through the definitions of holy as sacred,
saintly, entitled to veneration, I found one I think appropriate to Holy Week. Holy
is defined as belonging to, derived from, or associated with a divine power. (1) Looking
at the events we remember through Holy Week - Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem
riding a donkey - a work animal rather than a king’s regal mount; washing his
disciples’ feet; offering bread and cup as his body and blood given for all - divine
power is retrieved from the revered, lofty, distant to be the love that
fills life with compassion and faithfulness and all that is the Spirit of God.
John produces a kind of reality show with Jesus as
an “Undercover Boss.” Their
Teacher and Lord had taken off his robe and like an entry level servant washed
the feet of his disciples. God, the
Divine, Holy is the power of love within us and through us as we live in caring
and serving one another.
The word “Maundy” is derived from the Latin
word for “command” referring to Jesus’ command to love and serve one
another. The Presbyterians
Today Lenten Devotional Guide for Monday of this week quoted a saying, its
origin unidentified: “We don’t believe our way into a new way of acting; we
act our way into a new way of believing.” (2)
A special Communion service on
Maundy Thursday can become a ritualistic observances acting out our belief that
Jesus shared such a supper with his disciples. Adding
foot washing can become but a ceremony that commemorates Jesus washing the feet
of his disciples.
Ceremony probably is unavoidable. It’s
just human nature to bring structure and ritual to the things we do. But
that ritual be only ceremony, we can avoid. Washing
feet here for us is not the necessity it was when people walked through muddy
streets. A tiny piece of bread
dipped in juice is not adequate nourishment, only a teaser if we were really
hungry. If this Maundy - Holy
Thursday is for us derived from, associated with divine power, then if we choose
to wash another’s feet or have ours washed, we may learn a new vision of
caring and serving. If we choose to
receive the bread and cup, we may learn a new sense of the power of love that
stands faithful in the face of evil and suffering and triumphs, moving us to
live life more abundantly. May we do
these millennia old rituals. As we do them, we learn anew this day the holy that
is the power of love in and through us.
To keep arrangements simple, there are stations
either side in the front of the chapel. You
may come if you wish and share with another, to wash or be washed in the
uniting, leveling of serving. A
cloth may be moistened in the basin, a towel used to dry.
In time we will move on to sharing the supper. You
may come up the center aisle and to your right, receive the bread and dip in the
cup, returning to your seat by the side aisle.
Lighted candles to
represent those across time who gather; Scripture to stir our vision of God’s
reign of love; music, prayer and quiet to refresh us in hope; basin and towel to
link us in serving; bread and cup to remember the love evident in Jesus, the
Christ. This is Maundy Thursday. “I
give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just
as I have loved you, you should also love one another.” (John 13:34)
Amen.
(1)The
American Heritage Dictionary
(2)
Presbyterians
Today - Lenten Devotional Guide, Monday March 29. 2010
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