April 9, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK
Exodus 12: 1-8, 11-14 + Psalm 116 + 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 + John 13: 1-15
The hour has come. Lent comes to a close now. The great hymn, “Gloria” which we have not sung since the Sunday before Ash Wednesday brings the season to a glorious and thrilling conclusion. Now begins the Sacred Triduum, the Three Holy Days when we shall remember what Jesus has asked us to do in his memory, and tomorrow look upon the crucified man of sorrows, the suffering servant on the altar and throne of the cross. It is a lot to take in, but tonight and tomorrow lead us to Saturday night when we shall make sense of it all in the darkness enlightened by the Word of God and sing once again that great hymn of Glory.
Again and again in John’s Gospel we have been told that the hour has not yet come. Then this past Sunday we heard Jesus announce as those Greeks come to see him that Jesus knows that his hour has come. In a stunning reversal of roles, the teacher, the Lord, the Master, the Son of God, the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Messiah (call him everything you can) girds himself as servant and crawls around on the floor to wash feet.
It is a startling image of God, a God on the floor, bent down, kneeling. It is a humble God the Jesus reveals. The challenge of this image makes as much impact on us as it did to the disciples and a protesting Peter. Where is the God of anger and wrath? Where is the God of power and might? Where is the God who slew enemies, who strikes down opposition, who crushes the infidel? Where is the God in radiant robes on a throne with servants and angel / choirs? Where is this feared omnipotent one who speaks in mystery through a burning bush to tell Moses: “I Am”?
That God is in an upper room down on the floor and the treasures offered him are human feet, dusty, worn, tired, split, calloused, swollen, blistered and dirty. Something is wrong with this picture thinks the Peter inside of us. Yet, something is right says the Jesus wrapped in a towel.
Feet tell a lot about us, and we like to keep them hidden, covered with socks and shoes. If not, we’re off to pedicure and paint to distract from the blemishes most of us would rather hide. Our feet tell our story. They tell where we have been and where we should not have been. They carry our burdens, they bear the first scars of our journeys. They sweat and smell. They ache and twist with age. There is something a little daunting about placing our bare feet before another, exposing them to be touched and washed by another. It is the same for the one touching and washing.
But it is God who does the touching, the washing, and the healing. It is God who accepts those feet the story they tell and the burden they bring. It is the humble God that Jesus offers to those who will offer their feet and all the burdens those feet carry from place to place and day to day.
A humble God looks for humble people. That’s the story of this day, and it is what we are invited to remember. He never said: “Be sure to remember how I cured the blind and the deaf, the mute and the crippled or those possessed by demons; how I forgave prostitutes and ate with sinners.” The one thing Paul tells us he did ask us to do in his memory concerned what we do at this table.
Here we remember what Jesus has done for us. We recall his saving deeds in the Eucharistic Prayer, how he suffered and died for us, rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit. He comes to us each time we gather here as he did to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and because of that, we come here week after week to share what he has done for us and how we have seen him. Strengthened by the Spirit that comes upon us in this place, we then begin to be what he has been for those who are sick, desperate, and lonely.
The more we eat of this bread and drink of this cup, the more we become the Body of Christ. To share in his glory we will find our way into his sufferings. Betrayed, mocked, ridiculed, and asked to carry a cross, we will fall from time to time; but we will get up again assured of victory. We will be Simon of Cyrene for each other and carry one another’s burdens. We will be Veronica tenderly wiping each other’s face. We will go down on our knees humbly before one another, break and share bread transformed and transforming us into the Body of Christ. We will profess over and over again that we believe in the resurrection of the dead, the life of the world to come, and that Christ will come again.