Sermon Maundy Thursday

This winter I was traveling to visit some friends in mid January. It was cold out. Really cold.

I stopped at the BP station here in town to fill up with gas before I headed out. I put the nozzle on the highest catch setting with the handle, and since the wind was just blowing like crazy, turned around with my back to the pump to shield from the wind. I waited for it to finish. After a while I realized that I smelled gas, more than normal for a gas station. I looked behind me and saw gas just flowing out of the tank! So I quick grabbed the handle and undid the latch, but had to step in a puddle of gas on the ground. I now know that when it is really cold the stop on the nozzle can malfunction and not automatically stop the flow. I also know to stand with your back to the wind positioned so you can watch the nozzle.

But, what was the worse was that my shoes just reeked of gas now. I had luckily brought two pairs as well as boots along, but the gassy ones were the ones I had been planning on wearing most of the time.

I can also recall a time when I was canoeing with friends on a river and we got pointed sideways in some rapids and had to stick my foot over the edge to keep us from flipping.

Or the time when I was working at Outlaw Ranch in the Black Hills, one week on a servant camp where we were on trail duty, digging trenches in the trails and sticking rocks in them to direct water off the trail. And our shoes would just get caked with layer upon layer of mud. You would use your pick-ax to trench for a while then take a break to let someone else dig, and scrape two inches of mud off your shoes.

Lets look at our feet. We have shoes, quality shoes. The disciples have sandals, good for heat, bad for stopping all the dirt, mud and rocks from getting to your feet though. When your mode of transportation was walking your feet got dirty. Filthy dirty. Ever spend the day without shoes on? Ever then try to get that dirt off your feet? They stay black as pitch. It takes work to clean them.

Feet were important in that time. They were your mode of transportation, and needed for livelihood. There were no wheelchairs at that time. No feet, or even missing one and you became a beggar in the street. They signified importance. When Jesus sends the disciples out in twos earlier in our gospels they are to shake the dust of towns that do not welcome them off their sandals. They are to knock off even the dirt of the town, to have no association, as if they never were there, or that the town never existed.

In our gospel text for this Maundy Thursday we see another part of Jesus actions in his last supper with the disciples, the other gospels and our 1st Corinthians reading show us his giving of his body and blood, but here in John we see his service to the disciples. Jesus, gets up from the table during dinner, either about to give his body and blood, or has just given it, and takes a towel. He takes a basin of clean, clear water, and washes the disciples feet. He washes these travelers feet, these feet that are caked with dirt, beaten and broken, cuts, scars and bruises on them. These are no pretty manicured feet, but feet of pain, feet of discomfort. The water that started clear will come out dark, unable to even be seen through. Jesus does not just get into the nice parts of the disciples lives, but into the very muck they tread through.

Jesus in washing the disciples feet cleans their soles, in more ways than one.

Jesus action of service shows us how we are to serve our neighbor. In Jesus cleaning the disciples feet he cleans them of their pain, discomfort, and the caked on dirt of their life. In giving of himself in his body and blood we ourselves are cleansed of our pain, discomfort and all the mud that surrounds us. The word Maundy comes from the Latin, Mandatum, which is the first word in Latin of verse 34, Commandment.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

It is not an easy thing to love one another. It requires us to get into the muck and dirt with our neighbors. In order to walk with them, we need to walk in the same places they walk.

To break bread with our neighbor we must sit where they sit.

To drink wine with our neighbor we must use the same cup they use.

It is a marvelous thing to remember that Christ has come down to us. But it is an even more marvelous thing to remember that coming down to us he walked with us, sat with us, and ate and drank with us. Jesus in this last supper, giving of his body and blood, washing the disiples feet, gives us as well all we need for life. The Lord's prayer has the line, give us this day our daily bread, in this meal Christ gives us that, gives us nourishment, and gives us protection from the things in this world that harm us.

In Christ's last actions he gave all of himself to us, in service, and in body, and blood, and finally in death. To paraphrase a line from our Easter Cantata, This day and the actions following are the greatest service ever given. In love Christ's greatest service was not done in the regal bearing of a king, but in the bent posture of a slave, in the broken and nailed form of a criminal.

It is such great love that has been given to us.

Let us pray,

God of service and blessing. As we sit in our brightly lit houses, in our clean clothes, wearing our spotless shoes, help us to remember those who have none. Show us where your hands are calling us to work. Show us the muck and dirt that you have walked through, send us through it as well. Help us declare your command of love to those who need to hear it most. Your great actions of service cleanse us to this day, and will continue to cleanse the world to the end of time. In all of this, show us your grace.

Amen.