“Freed For Humble, Loving Servanthood” Maundy Thursday (April 5, 2007)

(First, read the text for this sermon: John 13:1-17, 31b-35)

In tonight’s worship we confess our sin. We hear words of God’s forgiveness. We feel hands on our heads, communicating God’s forgiveness in a physical way. We eat and drink God’s forgiveness in the Holy Communion meal. And we receive the example of Jesus – who demonstrates his lordship in humble, loving servanthood.

This is stuff of profound depth. In what we are doing tonight, God is inviting us into our deepest need, and God is offering us freedom for life that is joyous.

Here is the parable: life that is joyous is life marked by humble, loving service. It’s the joy of following Jesus the Christ: “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” Humble, loving service is what we’re commanded to do! “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Can you command love? What mysticism there is, on this night.

In the account of the “Last Supper” in John, there is no narrative of the meal itself – of the words and actions that became our Holy Communion! Instead, there is a unique story (not in any of the other gospels) of a foot washing.

Think of how shocked the disciples would have been, when they experienced this: And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 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.

Shocked? Offended would have been more like it. Jesus was their “Teacher” (see verse 13) – and according to the custom of the day, the teacher sat as a master, his students or followers at his feet. The hierarchy was clear. And so, Peter’s reaction is entirely understandable: he protests! He declares that he will not take part in this! [Jesus] came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." Still not understanding, Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" But, you see, Peter is missing the point. As Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jesus’ response, “My concern is holiness, not hygiene.”

Jesus’ washing of his followers’ feet is a sacramental act – to present a model, to offer an example, inviting his followers into the love that is expressed in humility and servanthood. Humble, loving servanthood is the path of salvation.

I think of a story told about one of my heroes, a woman named Dorothy Day. (If I had been around when our building’s stained glass was being conceived, she’d be up there!) Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker movement, attracting people who wished to live in humble, loving servanthood in a radical way, establishing “Houses of Hospitality” in the worst neighborhoods of our inner cities. One day Dorothy was cleaning the toilets in the New York City House of Hospitality, when she was told that the bishop had just arrived and wished to speak with her. Dorothy replied that the work she was doing was too important to interrupt, and that the bishop would just have to wait. Cleaning toilets, you see, she was working as a humble servant to those who were poor and homeless and that took priority.

We hear words as from Jesus the Christ: “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” And, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

The first thing we did tonight was to speak words of repentance for our sin. We then felt hands laid upon our heads and we heard words of God’s forgiveness.

That liturgical enactment was not simply for our own sake, to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Instead, God forgives you and me of our sin so that we can be free to live the life of repentance! You and I are freed to let go of our fear that we need to earn God’s love; we are freed to simply receive that grace. We are freed to let go of our self-centeredness (which often results in anger and resentment and envy); we are freed to relax into our love for others. We are freed to turn away from illusory promises of joy! We are freed to turn towards God, from whom comes true, deep and lasting joy.

All of that is made possible only through the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus, the Christ. Tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday night, in the drama of our worship, we enter into that death and we celebrate that resurrection of our Lord, Jesus, the Christ – who demonstrates his lordship in humble, loving servanthood! And we are then sent away from the empty tomb, freed for our ministry, with Jesus’ example as our model.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia