Feet, Water and Love....the touch that changes... Maundy Thursday sermonette at your service.



Feet, Water and Love

the touch that changes

      Rice was a poor man.  He didn’t have a job or a car and he often walked the dusty roads of the town.  As often as he could----- he’d  beg  along the way---never wanting food---only a little money so that he could drink away some of the pain he had going on inside……

     A few nights before Easter one year, Rice found himself standing outside that little white church listening to the sweetness of the singing that drifted out into the darkness of night.

Did he dare go inside?……

What might they do for him??

He looked down at his clothes realizing that he was not dressed the way his mama had taught him to dress when he went to church……….just a pair of old worn Levi’s and a dingy white T-shirt.

 And He stood staring and listening in the darkness—

He wondered:  Why  he thought tonight might make a difference………but something was pulling him……

Was it the music? 

 Was it the  need for human connection…………….or if the truth be told….perhaps he just needed to know God still loved him?….

His shaking hand surrendered to the mystical pull

and he reached out ---turned the door knob and stepped inside the church….into the light…Into the music…..into the warmth.  

    He scanned the place and hoped that no one might notice him as he slipped into the corner of the last pew…

The woman sitting on the end moved as he sat down on her pew and as she did he looked at his clothes. 

They looked much dirtier in the light and he really hoped that no one would see how dirty his feet looked in those old flip-flops of his. 

 As if to escape being in the midst of all those people dressed in their finery…He closed his eyes…and listened to the sweetness of it all…..listened as the preacher began to read that story about Jesus and his friends gathered around eating, listened to how Jesus washed feet and heard about how Jesus already knew about Judas and about love being important.

  It had been along time since he’d heard those stories about Jesus and and he felt himself leaning…

Leaning into the warmth of the words and the scripture and into the love of God…………..and for the first time in a very long time…..Rice felt his spirit begin to calm……
              They were just a rag-tag bunch….13 of them in all….

they had been traveling the dusty roads in Jerusalem…….and tonight  was the night before the Passover festival was to begin…

Most of them there gathered, except for Jesus, didn't have clue what was about to happen, even though he’d been preparing them for a very long time…….His time was getting close and tension filled the air……One of his friends was about to betray him…give him over to the government.  It must have saddened him ….

This would be the last supper that they would eat together……

and there they gathered………..reclining on the pillows along the floor….

….eating and drinking,

laughing and talking, food piled high—starved from their travels…………..

Jesus himself watching them……anointing them with unspoken love and hope….for he knew that after tomorrow, the mission would be left to them…….

……In the midst of it all…..Jesus got up……

took off his outer cloak began to prepare to wash their feet again……..

now typically washing feet always occurred when someone first arrived at a home….

it was a job reserved for the lowest of servants----

not a very pleasant thing you know……

the roads back then were all dirt and with the sandals and all……

well need I say more..it was not a job most people wanted……cleaning feet---dirty feet at that….was not the most pleasant job

But right there in the midst of dinner……the teacher…moves to the center and kneels down……and begins to wash their feet……

Preparing the disciples for traveling mercies if you may…….

………..It was an act of unity and intimacy……as he touched them---he became more a part of them….for to be touched by Jesus in such an intimate way was an incarnational act teaching about a deeper intimate love and offers them the possibility to experience a deeper spiritual grounding.

Jesus does not expect them to understand…..

He knows that their clarity will come in the days to follow………

A final act of service…..

As final gift to them……One final act of hospitality

and while he washed the feet of  all those gathered…….Jesus was also

also aware that one of the followers who he touched was going through the motions…..

Jesus knew that Judas would soon be about doing what he planned  do…and  he still him the chance to be part……. But as the last foot was dried,

Jesus said sadly  One of you is unclean!!!!

 For to be unclean represented a turning away from intimate union with God……

As Judas took the bread from Jesus, he departed into the darkness of night…..

 As Jesus  continued his teaching saying:

.Tonight…I give you a new commandment….that you love one another as I have loved you…….That is how they will recognize who you belong to…….you will love…..love them deeply…..

every one you come in contact with…………..They will know you by your love…….

Rice felt like he had found a place almost as comfortable as it used to be when he was a child sitting on his mamma’s lap at church….and as long as he kept his eyes closed….he didn’t find himself obsessing about all the other people…..…..hoping that he’d hear  God still loved him……still wanted him…..still cared about him even though his life was a mess.

As the minister finished talking about that night of Jesus’ arrest….He said Amen….and Rice opened his eyes for a peak of what was to come…….

And as he did the preacher invited everybody up front for a footwashing………The choir began to sing…...and the next thing he saw was people heading up toward the front with pitchers of water and towels and big basins……

He’d never seen any of that kind of stuff in church before……and so he found himself leaning into the air….squinting to catch a glimpse of what might happen next……..amazed he was…..people were forming a line….men and women and boys and girls

 sitting and taking off  shoes and socks…..

and once again he glanced down at his own unkept feet…..nails dirty…dust outlining the places where his flip-flop touched……

As he watched it all happen, he saw changes in peoples faces….some of them cried…some smiled….

…he didn’t get it…but it was obvious that something was happening…….

Rice found himself wanting…almost hoping that he could participate…but he  felt like he wasn’t good enough….

clean enough…..

rich enough….

welcome enough to enter into this communal ritual …..

So he sat there…elbows on his knees…eyes glued to the front…and.every so often…he’d see the preacher looking at him………

As most of the people began to put their feet back into shoes …

that old preacher walked t the back of the church and touched Rice on the back and then shook his hand…..

“glad to have you here…brother….”(brother…..Rice couldn’t remember when the last person shook his hand, let alone…..call him brother)….. “Brother, I know your new here…I was wondering if you’d let me wash your feet….”

Rice was reluctant at first….

scared of what people might say about him….

scared that he was too different……

.but he found himself rising….

feeling a little ashamed of who he was…..

but empty enough to risk it all as he walked toward the front.

As he sat down in that old metal folding chair….that preacher ….knelt down in front of him…and without flinching at the dirt on his feet or his unkept nails….removed those old flip-flops…..and gently placed Rice’s feet in the basin---pouring warm water over the top and then taking his calloused feet into his hands and massaging them in a way that connected Rice once again to a mystical kind of love…………..

Jesus must still love me,  Rice thought….

…..I don’t get it……but this water and this touch and this love----It doesn’t get much better than this…

He slipped his towel dried feet back into his flip-flops and

On the way back to his seat…others people  from the church shook his hand and smiled at him---even the woman who’d moved in the back smiled at him….

And Rice felt himself smile back------

When communion time came…Rice had no problem taking the little bread and drinking the cup….because for the first time in a long time he remembered the touch of Jesus and knew he was loved,

Just as Jesus touched all those disciples……

he also beckons us deeper into the mystery of the Season…………

Hanging between Palm Sunday and Easter….

Hanging between life and death and life again…..

Hanging In the Midst of fellowship and betrayal…..

Jesus reaches out …..

beckons us to stick out our feet and allow him to touch us……

wants to be an intimate part of us……It all starts with just a touch…..

and so as we gather around the table tonight to remember the wonder of our Christ……………….

let us Lean into the silence and be touched by Jesus…one more time…..

May it be so….for all of us…….Amen!!!

 Charge and Benediction

As we depart let the Spirit of Christ be with us all…..

Guiding us in the hour of trouble,

Awakening us from our sleep,

Help us to remember the cross of Jesus and

Face the crosses that we carry.

For as disciples—we must follow Jesus even in fear and fainting,

In spirit and flesh,

In life and death…

For we know….that wherever we go,

Whatever we do…

Nothing…absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ…..

Thanks be to God!!!

Amen.