Tonight is Maundy Thursday...that night that Jesus gathered together those he loved to share in a meal--maybe even the Passover meal. What an intimate and bittersweet time it must have been for Jesus. Maybe not quite knowing exactly what would happen, but knowing that something big was about to happen. He knew that it was time.
I am always moved by Maundy Thursday services, but miss the foot washing. Catholics have 7 sacraments and Protestants have 2, but why do you think "foot washing" got left out? Jesus commanded his disciples to do this...one of the requirement for the inclusion of a ritual to be made a sacrament.
No...I don't think it was included because it was well...too messy, too intimate, too embarassing, too sexual. This is not what descent, upstanding holy people do....touch the feet of another. But I think we have missed the point. It should be a sacrament. Jesus wants us to respectfully touch one another at our most vulnerable, intimate, embarassing, even sexual places. The holy and the human; the dirt and the spirit all mixed up together in water, a basin and a towel.
What would it be like if we did this...I mean really? Isn't this the point of church...the faith community? I can remember the 3 times when my feet have been washed and I have been given the honor of washing anothers. It was so powerful it brought me to tears. At my first foot washing, we torn up the towel and we each left with a piece to remind us--not of that night--but of our call to--servanthood.
Even if footwashing has been forgotten as a sacrament...don't forget the point...let us humble ourselves and be the servant to all.
No comments:
Post a Comment