Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Yesterday was the first day of the week-long celebration of the Jewish Passover. If you were Jewish, you would have sacrificed your one-year-old, unblemished lamb, and after sunset [technically today, Thursday] you would have eaten it, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs in the way prescribed by the Law. You would have recalled the events of the first Passover by sharing again the story of God's deliverance of your people out of Egyptian bondage … bondage of sin, sin that places the needs and the power of some, the haves, over others, the have-nots. It would be a time for you to give thanks and to look forward to the promised, eternal reign of the coming Messiah. Jesus and his twelve disciples were gathered for the Passover feast this same day some two thousand years ago. They borrowed a room in the upper level of a house in Jerusalem. And seated themselves on cushions on the floor around a low table … they ate the meal and recalled those wondrous works and promises of God. The scriptures tell us that, on that day, "Jesus knew the time had come to leave this world and to go to the Father." He knew … and he had one more lesson to teach his disciples that night. Scripture continues, "Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them to the end." In one of his final acts, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. But, what was the lesson Jesus intended to be learned from this?!

The Jewish custom that is recalled by the scriptures was not only to remove your sandals upon entering a house, but also to wash your feet. Obviously that was because the roads in those days were not paved; and the hot Mediterranean sun baked them, creating a lot of dust - dust that would build up on sweaty feet and make them filthy and smelly. Washing at the door then was, if nothing else, a courtesy to the host … and a reasonable hygiene practice! In some homes though, a guest's feet were actually washed for him or her. Such a demeaning and dirty job was, of course, done by the servant of the host. So, picture yourself in first century Jerusalem. You are invited for dinner at a very dear couple's home. It's quite a walk to their house. And, when you arrive, your feet are dusty, hot, smelly and sore. At the door though, you are immediately met by the host who calls to her servant and has you sit down. The servant unbuckles your sandals and proceeds to gently and caringly wash your feet. The servant not only washes your feet, but also gently towel dries them before showing you to your honored place at the table. It is the servant who washes your feet, but your thanks is directed to the host who ordered it to be done. The servant retires from the room, having done the lowly job as ordered. How do you feel? (Pause) Switch now to this night in the upper room. You, a Jewish disciple of the teacher, Jesus, are celebrating the Passover as the scriptures prescribe. You eat quickly with your staff at your side, remembering that this celebration commemorates the day before the deliverance from bondage … the preparation for the next morning's haste-filled exodus into the desert. Imagine that night with Jesus … going to the upper room. You are a good Jew - you talk and you eat with your sandals on and your feet dirty, ready for the exodus … just as the Law prescribes. But then, in the middle of the meal, your host gets up. Jesus, the host, the one of whom John said, "I am not worthy to [even] carry his sandals;" the host gets up, goes over to the door, and picks up a wash basin of water and a towel comes over and sets them down. He strips off his clothing so that he stands before you as a humble, nearly naked servant. And the host, the master, The Teacher, your Lord… proceeds to wash each one's dirty, smelly, sore feet! He begins with the person just a few seats down from you. He appears to be washing his feet with gentleness and with care. You watch in awe! When I was a young boy, Groma, my grandmother used to do all she could for my grandfather … who had had a stroke. For years before his stroke, Gropa would take me on his 3-day sales route, collecting the customer's orders for the delivery of Pepsi and other soft drinks from our family bottling plant. Gropa owned the business, but what he loved was simply being a traveling salesman … but more than that, he was an itinerant minister of love. He didn't just take orders and run; he spent time talking to each one of his customers … he knew them and their families personally! I even remember going to visit one his customers in the hospital one day! But, Gropa's stroke put an end to his job and ministry, paralyzing the left side of his body. I visited Gropa a lot after that. And one of the things I remember most is going to his house and seeing Groma kneeling at his feet, washing them in Epson salts. And he had those thick, curled, yellow toenails … I thought they were gross! But, Groma would wash his feet and massage them. She would trim those yellow nails … and she would even smooth them with an emery board. I watched in awe! As you sit there with the other disciples, you watch and you see that Jesus is taking as much interest in caring for the feet of the other disciples as my Groma did for my Gropa. But, then he gets to you. You look at him; you suddenly decide - "This to be absurd!" He's the master! If you were the master, you wouldn't expect to wash anyone's feet … that's the work of your servants, you staff … somebody else! And, Jesus knows just what you're thinking … that's why he doing it ! If you won't let him wash your feet, he knows you won't wash those of someone else. He knows that you haven't understood yet what it means to be the host, or the disciple of the host … the host, the master of a place that is not of this world! The Lord of such a place is not a worldly master, but a master of limitless love. He's not the master because of riches, not because he has the biggest house and that it's trimmed in gold, not because he is the wisest teacher in the world, not because of his religion, not because of his social status, not because of his health or his power … but because of all of these ~ and yet … because he gives them all up to be the personal God you need him to be … the one who does all he can to let you know that he is going to die for you! "No," you say. "If you want to baptize me or perform the ritual cleansing prescribed by the Law, that's okay … but you can't just wash my feet!" But Jesus tells you, "Unless you let me do this, you have no share with me." You're confused … "What?!!" Jesus tries to tell you that 1) you are his disciple … you've been baptized, 2) you're clean from your morning shower, and therefore 3) "it's just your feet that are plain dirty and need to be cleaned … don't think so hard!"

You don't get it though, but he knows and he continues the lesson that will enable you to let go of your worldly views of Teacher and of Lord … of master and of servant. If there is some part of you and your life that you will not let Jesus bring his loving and healing touch to, then you can't share with him, with Jesus the Christ … you can't enter fully into his kingdom, into his mission … into the fullness of his love. If there is a limit to what you will let him kneel down and do for you, then there is a limit to what you will kneel down and do for another … even for someone you say you love! …That's not unconditional love given … because it's not the realization of the unconditional love offered and given by the Redeemer. If you are to fully know Christ, if you are to be a teacher and the image of your Lord, you must find nothing more important than to expose your whole self to his love … and then you will do all that you can in response, without question. In his book, Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch tells of his college professor and mentor Morrie. Now, Morrie had ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease - "a brutal, unforgiving illness of the neurological system." Mitch wrote, "ALS is like a lit candle: it melts your nerves and leaves your body a pile of wax." Morrie told Mitch of his greatest fear of ALS --- his fear was that, "One day, someone will have to wipe my behind!" … fully exposed and quite embarrassing. And someone, someone compelled by servant love, did eventually have to wipe Morrie's behind … he had no choice!

But, Jesus strips himself. He ties a towel around his midsection and then uses the towel to wipe your feet after he has washed them. You feel fully exposed and quite embarrassed. But really, it's Jesus, the servant master that is fully exposed! It is Jesus who is going to be stripped in public, exposed and humiliated and hung on a cross to die … on a torture and killing tool reserved for the crucifixion of slaves and the worst of criminals! Jesus knows … yet, he isn't using these final hours to stand in an imperial costume and deliver a war cry, to call for a rallying around the powerful angelic forces that he is going to use to subdue the Romans and the world. No, Jesus is using his final hours to teach … to show you and me his "love until the end." This, he's trying to teach us, is the only way to peace in the world … to eternal life! "Love one another," Jesus said. "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Dearly beloved, will you share with Jesus Christ this day and all your days to come? Will you allow yourself to be exposed and embarrassed by the sin in your life … giving it over to him? Will you exodus from these final days of the Easter season reborn with Christ? Will you let the new love you know from your servant master, the one who would wash your feet, shape you in a whole new way over these final days? Will you let your feet be washed by Jesus, so that you may wash the feet of another? These are not questions only for you as an individual, but they are questions for the community of faith. Will we as a church, the church of Jesus Christ, change the world around us by corporately realizing his servant love, better understanding his teachings, and being compelled to respond to him as the one and only Lord in this world? The Christian rock band, DC Talk, says, "The #1 cause of atheism [and I would add, of continuing radical religious practices] in the world today … is Christians ~ who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." Consider this: Is Israel washing the feet of Palestine? But then, does Israel see a united Christian community washing one another's feet … are the Israelis witnessing and hearing the call to do likewise to the Palestinians … or vice versa? Do radical Muslims see a united Christian community washing one another's feet … are radical Muslims witnessing and hearing the call to do likewise? What was done in that upper room matters for the world even today. What we do here matters for the rest of the world … even today! The gospels call Christians to love and to pray for their enemies. Yet, it seems that we can't even love one another unconditionally - not in our marriages, not in our families, not in our local churches, not in our denominations, not in the local faith communities, not with other denominations, and certainly not within the Universal Christian church! But, we can … and we must! "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another … and by this all will come to know you are my disciples." You will feel persecuted in this Jesus said, but "Blessed are the persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." How else will the world come to know the God of Love?!

Morrie said to Mitch (and you can hears echoes of Paul in his words),

"Life is a series of pulls back and forth.  
You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else.  
Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't.  
You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.  

-A tension of opposites - and most of us live somewhere in the middle."  

Mitch asked Morrie, "So which side wins?!"

Morrie smiled --- the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth. "Love wins," Morrie said, "Love always wins."

Dearly Beloved, we shared in confession and pardon at the beginning of this service, now let us all have a share with Jesus Christ … with his humble, servant love … so that all will come to know us as his resurrected disciples … so that love will have a chance to win!

Don't leave him kneeling there … don't leave him hanging there!