Bill had been a postman during his working years and when I
met him he was principally a volunteer at the Church showing up weekly to help
with newsletters or bulletins or just being present to small tasks. His wife
had died in the time before I arrived. I was only in my thirties and this was
my first rectorship. So often I would say, "Bill would you mind..." with some
small task at the end. He would always oblige with a ready smile.
When Maundy Thursday rolled around and I asked for volunteers
who were humble enough to let me wash their feet, Bill signed up. This action in
the liturgy is a moment when the clergy traditionally have acted in humble
regard for their parishioners. Gently it reminds one that he/she is a servant of
the people. Jesus puts all Christians in this relationship to each other in
John 13.
"Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher
and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and
Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I
have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very
truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are
messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are
blessed if you do them. John 13:12-15.
When I reached Bill in the ceremony I was greeted with very
well worn feet, calluses on calluses from decades of walking. I washed them
with attention thinking about how essential these feet had been for Bill and all
who depend on the mail over decades. When I looked up to thank him, he was in
tears. This tall rugged man was in tears and I felt I was invited more deeply
into his heart. I wondered what it meant to him to be touched this way. I did
not ask. It seemed too intimate and private even in this open church
ceremony.
That is what Maundy Thursday is to me. It is an intimate day
in the life of the Church when we receive two gifts. The Passover meal in the
upper room which becomes the Eucharist is given us with new meaning: "This is my
Body...This is my Blood." Many of us come to this meal for strength, comfort,
focus in a weekly rhythm.
Secondly we are reminded that our identity is wrapped up in
service. We each get to determine our particular call or seek the church's
guidance, but we are united by one quality. What ever we give ourselves to
should humble us as much as it gives us value.
In The High Priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17 we hear these
words:
The glory that you have given me I have
given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I
in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may
know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
John 17:22-23.
The signs
we are given in life by Jesus are at least these two. Share often a sacred meal
where Jesus is to be found and can commingle with you. Look at your life as a
place of service rendered where God's care can reach out through you. This is
where you will find God as an intimate and also make God thus known.
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