Sermon for Maundy Thursday

Greg Schaefer—April 8, 2004

It was not something they’d forget: Jesus takes on role of slave and washes feet of people whose feet were wrinkled from the sun, dry from the heat, dusty from the road, smelly from camel manure. They wouldn’t forget this image: Their teacher on floor with a towel and water washing their feet.

Peter, who often speaks for me, asks “What are you doing?” It was a dramatic (even traumatic) event. And it made an impact. Especially if you’re a fan of Jesus, but not a fan of feet.

Jesus calls it a New Commandment. But how new is it, actually?

There is a Chinese Proverb that says: Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I may remember. But, involve me and I’ll understand.

Jesus had, in fact, been telling them all along: “Love one another.” He’d even been showing them by eating c sinners and tax collectors. Now Jesus involves them. He wants them to understand. He didn’t just want them to say, “I remember something about feet and some water…” He wants them to understand. Not with the logical reasoning of intellectual understanding. But with the transformation of heart that leaves them moved and transformed.

So he takes this lowly position, and shows them what he means when He says “Love each other” in a way that they’re sure to remember.

This season is all about remembering and understanding. It’s all around us. We see it in this week’s remembrance of the Passover which, in today’s Old Testament reading, is established as a permanent ordinance… something to be committed to memory.

We see it in the Epistle: “I passed on to you what I received as of first importance” and our Holy ordinance is born. Storytelling and memories key to who we are. Because in remembering, we come to understand.

I have on my desk an icon of St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, the patron saint of teachers and the founder of the Christian Brothers. The Christian Brothers begin classes by saying, “Let us remember,” to which the class responds, “that we are in the Holy presence of God.” Over my four years in a Christian Brothers College, I found this to be a good way call to mind daily something central to who we are. Because sometimes memory fails: we don’t remember and we need that daily repetition.

But, sometimes memories fail: they don’t do justice to the thing we are trying to remember. In his small book, A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis journals his experiences following the death of his wife, Helen. He writes, ____________________________

But Symbolism and Memory are part of who we are. Our faith is based on symbols: symbols that communicate something higher. Our faith is most certainly based on some form of someone’s memory: “How is tonight different from all other nights?”

Jesus takes a step that the disciples will, no doubt, remember. But He involves them, so they’ll understand. Sure, Jesus’ life had been lived in this New Commandment all along. In fact, his life practically shouted, “Hey, love each other, damn it!” But His intermission at the Passover meal, involved his disciples in God’s love so they would remember and understand.

But what does it do for us? In Lent we hear Jesus’s call to intensify struggle against all that keeps us from loving God and each other. It is a struggle to which we were committed at Baptism. God’s forgiveness & the power of the Spirit to amend our lives continue with us because of God’s love for us. God never wearies of giving peace and new life. In the words of absolution, we remember God’s forgiveness.

As we draw near end of Lent, having all chocolate we want, we are reconciled to God in the name and by the command of Jesus. We who receive God’s love in Jesus Christ are commanded to love one another. Of course, Command is not always the greatest means of communication. In fact, they always lead to my favorite question: WHY?

When I was a kid, I asked “WHY?” all the time. And I got a variety of answers: “Because horses don’t like to be painted blue, that’s why!” “Because your sister doesn’t like fire, that’s why!” Again, speaking for me, Peter’s confusion leads him to ask “WHY?”

Jesus gives an interesting response: “To set you an example…you should do as I have…”

Again, WHY? Why should we do this? This is totally against the grain, Jesus. It’s not at all how the world works! This kind of behavior will totally turn things over! If we’re not careful, this could start some kind of revolution! Hmmm.

And, so, we’ll follow the commandment. And we’ll remember and understand. Not with logical understanding. But one couched in that great sense of mystery that surrounds us. We’ll involve ourselves in that commandment [in our ritual foot washing], taking it to heart, serving each other as Jesus served us.

Then we’ll be involved in other profound story of today. In Communion we participate most intimately in the love of One who said “one of you will betray me” and yet, simultaneously, said “Take, all of you, eat. Take, all of you, and drink.”

Gathered as a Christian community, we regularly open our hands to receive bread, to carefully sip wine, remembering. To move from “remembering” and “belief about” to “understanding, involvement, and belief in,” is simply to rest in incomprehensible truth of God’s giving. “Take. This is my body.” “Take. This is my blood”

All these memories & symbols & stories. We’ll do these things again this year, and next year, and the year after. WHY? Because we take seriously the command: Love one another . . . as I have loved you! These are graphic, physical, tangible ways of involving us so we’ll understand.

A New Commandment: Love . . . As God Has First Loved Us.

A friend of mine has two adopted sons who were misbehaving one afternoon. She raised her voice in exasperation and told them to stop. “Are you mad?” they asked. YES! She certainly was! “Are you going to send us back?” Of course not.

Gospel message is that there is no sending back! No forsaking us! God has, indeed, first loved us, with an everlasting love. We are God’s own. Jesus says, “Take,” revealing mystery of a God who gives. He says, “Eat and drink,” showing reality of God who joins us and loves us. Then he says, “Let me involve you,” so they’d understand.

Let us remember!