Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 116:1, 10-17
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on March 29, 2018.
Whenever God makes covenants with his people, he provides clear instructions for fulfilling our part of the agreement. We call these instructions commandments or sometimes “mandates.” God gave specific commandments to Noah and Abraham when he made his covenant with them. He commanded Moses and the children of Israel to follow the teachings of the Torah, which we usually sum up in the 10 commandments. However, the Torah includes much more than 10 commandments; it actually includes a total of about 613 commandments, 613 instructions for fulfilling our part of the covenant. Because the Bible is so full of instructions, some cleverly refer to the Bible as an acronym (“BIBLE”) that means “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.”
Today, we attend to the commandment of the New Covenant. The reason today is called “Maundy Thursday” is because it is the day we commemorate the commandment of the New Covenant. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word “maundatum” which means “mandate” or “commandment.” Jesus said to his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” And then he gives very specific instructions on how we can fulfill that commandment. He says, “Wash one another’s feet.”
Now foot washing was an expected act of hospitality within ancient Middle Eastern culture, where people often walked long distances without shoes or socks along dusty roads often covered in camel dung. Because people’s feet were often so smelly and disgusting, the foot washing was generally expected to be performed by servants and slaves. So Jesus is instructing his followers to take on the role of the lowly servant just as he did when he washed his disciples’ smelly feet, before dying a slave’s death. This context and understanding helps us to see our foot washing tonight as a symbolic act of humility, service, hospitality and self-giving love for one another; as a symbolic way of fulfilling Christ’s maundatum for us to love one another as he has loved us.
When Christ says, “wash one another’s feet” he is inviting us to hold each other lovingly in our human vulnerability by touching and being touched, by washing and being washed and by entrusting to another person one of the most sensitive parts of our entire body: our feet. He invites to risk feeling some discomfort or some pleasure or some self-consciousness or embarrassment or intimacy or awkwardness or joy. All of these are feelings that can emerge whenever we seek to obey the new commandment to love one another and so we should not be surprised if such feelings emerge within us, perhaps even more acutely, when we wash each other’s feet. Or perhaps we might not feel much at all during the foot washing and that’s ok too. We are called to obey the command to love one another by washing each other’s feet, regardless of how we feel. So that is what we will do tonight, in this beautiful sacred space, with meditative music, among many people whom we know and love. This is one important way that we fulfill the new maundatum today, on Maundy Thursday.
However, as I have praying and preparing for this service, another way to fulfil the new maundatum keeps emerging for me. Last week, I met a woman who has devoted her entire life to obeying the new commandment and has taken on the role of servant to some of the most ostracized, dirty and smelly people in our neighborhood. This woman has washed the feet and legs and arms and clothes of people who have been covered in refuse far more smelly and toxic than camel dung. This woman has given hundreds of desperately needy people food, new clothes, new homes and new jobs. And if she is not fulfilling the new maundatum than no one is. The woman I am talking about is Betty Kwan Chinn and, now when I hear Christ say, “Wash one another’s feet,” I hear him also saying, “Follow, support and seek to emulate this woman.”
Last week, Betty shared a story with me about meeting a homeless man who had been in a wheelchair for several weeks and was actually unable to properly use a restroom. He initially told her to go away and leave him alone because he knew how much he smelled, but she told him that she had showers where he could wash up. Eventually he agreed to go with her, but his condition was so poor that he could not even wash himself properly. As Betty helped him wash himself, he started to weep and his tears started pouring down his face and onto Betty. The man apologized for crying on her and when she looked up into his face, she said she felt like she was looking into the face of Jesus. By letting go of our discomfort and seeing people who are in need as our brothers and sisters, we can also see in them the face of Jesus.
Betty inspires me to understand the commandment of the New Covenant as more than an invitation to participate in a mostly clean and beautiful sacramental act of foot washing on Maundy Thursday, which I look forward to doing this evening. Betty inspires me to understand the commandment of the New Covenant also as a call to not turn away from the pain in Eureka, in Humboldt county and in myself; to not turn away but rather to look at it all head-on with love and a ready willingness to be part of the healing.
I know this will be challenging and that is why I want to keep learning from Betty, keep sitting at her feet and supporting her as this faith community has already been doing for years. This is why I want Maundy Thursday to be a day that we as a faith community support Betty Chinn. All of the offerings we collect this evening will go to Betty Chinn and the outreach services she provides: the meals she serves twice a day to over 500 hungry people; the transitional housing she provides; the medical care; the job search assistance; the child care; the education; the clothes; and the showers.
By supporting and emulating Betty Chinn, we will be fulfilling the commandment of the New Covenant. “By this,” as Christ said, “everyone will know that we are his disciples.” May it be so. Amen.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 