By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A few weeks ago a man came into this church for the very first time. He was not from a Christian background and had very little previous experience of the Christian faith. He asked if I could spare a couple of minutes to explain it to him. Where to begin?
How to distil thousand years of Christian thought into a few sentences that would bring to life for him all that Jesus did and what it means. As is so often the case with our great faith, history, tradition and scripture had done the heavy lifting for me. The very shape and focus of our church building tells the story. I took the man to the altar. I took the man to the altar and began to describe the events of our Gospel reading this evening. English not being his first language, I tried to do it as clearly and simply as possible.
A man, with his friends, sharing a meal around a table.
Breaking bread.
Drinking wine.
Together.
I explained that at least three times a week in this church, we do the same because that man, Jesus Christ, told us to carry on doing what he had done. The reason we try and do what he tells us is because this was not just any man, he was the beloved Son of God himself. And because he was God himself, the other thing we remember tonight is all the more remarkable. Part of the usual customs in first century Palestine was washing feet. It was a practical response to the clothing and climate of the day. It was a sign of cleansing. It was also a sign of service, usually rendered by a servant themselves.
On this occasion, it is Jesus who washes his disciples’ feet. It is none other than the Son of God who bends down and washes the feet of those he loved. Washing the dusty feet of those who have followed him, in their imperfect and broken ways. Sharing a meal. Washing feet. Simple actions. Transformative actions. Bread, wine and water. Some of the very basics of life. Transformed by God into the heartbeat of what it might mean to truly live. To live knowing that we are loved by God so much that he sent his Son to walk, eat, drink, suffer and die alongside us. To live knowing that just as Jesus washed the feet of the first disciples, so too we are washed clean by all that he has done for us, giving his body and his blood. The god who came not to be served but to be the servant of all. And to live knowing that, just as God called his first followers into fellowship with him around that table in Jerusalem to eat with them and to serve them, so too we are called to gather and to serve.
Tonight, we are reminded by our liturgy in the strongest possible terms that at the heart of our faith is communion. Coming together to recall the events of that last supper, not as a mere historical recreation but as the very thing which sustains us and leads us into the loving heart of our God.
It is the honour of any priest’s calling to preside at the eucharist. It has been the privilege of my life to do so in this place and to share in the love of God with all of you. Sometimes there are hundreds of people, sometimes just a few. Sometimes the sun is blazing through our windows, sometimes the rain is hammering down on our roof. But always, always, God is there with us.
God is there with us around that table sharing all of himself with us, so that we might share all of ourselves. That as we receive the body and blood of our Lord, we might take that love and share it with each other in this church community and throughout the world. That as God washes our feet, so we too might wash each other’s feet. As I stand here tonight, on my third Maundy Thursday in this parish, I am reminded of the many ways in which you have washed my feet. And the many ways in which I have seen you washing each other’s feet. Let us continue to be that distinctive community that is marked out by our love for one another.
Tonight, at the end of our service we will have the opportunity to wait and watch with Jesus in the Garden of repose in our chapel. An opportunity to consider all that God has done for us. The ways in which God calls us to life together. The ways in which God shows us a new way of being.
Bread, wine and water.
The basics of life.
Transformed in the hands of Jesus.
Transforming us.
Transforming the world.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Amen.