Maundy Thursday 2021
Sermon by Rev. Bernadette Hartsough
I always thought of Maundy Thursday as the remembrance of the institution of the Eucharist because of the Exodus reading. But the Gospel of John, gives us another type of sacrament-foot washing.
Maundy Thursday was Jesus’s last night with the apostles. It was a night in which Jesus wanted to be sure that the apostles knew how Jesus would still be with them. It is about Jesus’s presence and his coming absence. It is about Jesus giving the disciples a parting gift to ease the grief that was to come in the coming days.
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke Jesus gives the disciples a sign by which they will know him. He tells them to give thanks, bless, and break bread; to give thanks, bless and share a cup of wine. This sign is a parting gift for the disciples from their Lord. It is the meaning of Jesus’s life represented by the bread and wine. It is a sign-a sacrament that reminds them that Jesus will never really leave them.
The Gospel of John shows us in the act of foot washing how the disciples are to live. Their actions need to reflect Jesus’s actions. Jesus says, “So if, I your teacher and Lord have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Jesus is giving them an act to do that will show that they are followers of Jesus. It revolves around self-sacrificing love and humility. This act will bond them together in love for one another and in love for Jesus. In the next chapter, John goes on to describe how Jesus will leave and the Holy Spirit will come.
As a child we never did foot washing. As an adult I was on altar guild and helped supply the water and towels. Watching people of all ages wash each other’s feet was very moving. I didn’t participate in the foot washing. I was always working behind the scenes.
My experience with foot washing started with Lorrie. It was a year before I started seminary. I was a postulant for Holy Orders. I knew Lorrie for many years. We worked closely on many committees. She was active in the diocese. We attended Cursillo together. Lorrie was a large woman with limited mobility who was slowly losing her eyesight. She always participated in foot washing. People lined up, took seats and the person behind them in line washed their feet and then they changed places. Sometimes families stayed together and washed each other’s feet. Most of the time it was random depending on how the lines went. Sometimes you had someone you didn’t know very well or someone that you weren’t too fond of. This particular year, I was attending to basins and towels thinking we were done when Lorrie approached me. She asked me, “Will you wash my feet? I cannot wash yours because of my leg, and I cannot get down.” I said of course. I washed her feet. It was a beautiful and moving experience. We tearily hugged.
Lorrie gave me a parting gift. The gift of being able to be fully present to her and to minister to her. The gift of washing her feet for the last time. Sealing Lorrie as belonging forever as one of Christ’s own. She gifted me by helping me to start my own ministry. She knew I needed to wash her feet. I couldn’t just be a bystander getting water and towels. I needed to participate in the ritual. The opportunity to minister to Lorrie came about because of a need. I wish I could say that I saw the need, but I didn’t. It was Lorrie’s speaking up and her inability to participate in the ritual in the customary way, that opened my eyes and gave me the opportunity to participate. I am forever grateful.
Two months later, I sat next to Lorrie at the consecration of Bishop Doug. We sang,” I am the Bread of Life.” it was a glorious day. None of us sitting there that day knew that would be Lorrie’s last eucharist. That three days later she would drop her grandchildren off to me at St. Andrew’s Vacation Bible School and never return. Lorrie would be killed in a car accident while on her way to pick her grandchildren up from Vacation Bible School at St. Andrew’s.
Lorrie’s funeral was more like an ordination. It was presided over by two bishops. Numerous priests attended. We sang, “I am the Bread of Life.” We remembered Lorrie singing it with us. She knew she was one of Christ’s own. She lived out the ritual foot washing.
This year we are still in the time of COVID19. Our Holy Week feels different. We mourn the loss of so many things. We remember foot washing and the ritual of Jesus and his disciples. In many ways, this year of loss brings us closer to the disciple’s pain and loss. In less than 24 hours after Jesus washed their feet, the disciples would be full of grief causing them to scatter and to hide. We can feel the disciples’ impending loss.
Jesus commands us tonight to live out the sign that we belong to him. This year we cannot wash one another’s feet. But we can remember the purpose of the ritual. It is to live and act as though we belong to Jesus. It is to put ourselves in the position of another. It is a gift that Jesus is united to us and is with us when we put others first. Serving others doesn’t need to be grand. It can be as simple as washing someone’s feet who cannot bend down to wash your feet.
Tonight, let us contemplate how we can live out this parting gift of Jesus in these strange times. Jesus has washed our feet in the moment of our baptism. As we gaze upon the pitcher and the basin, how do we live out Jesus’s command, “So if, I your teacher and Lord have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”