The Sacred Order of the Towel
By George Goodrich
John 13:1-17, 34
March 15, 2009
Years ago when my wife and I were planning our wedding, some of my parent’s friends threw an engagement party for us. It was a joyful, well-wishing, glass-raising time. During a lull in the festivities, one of mom’s dearest friends came up to me, a beautiful woman in her early forties with a wonderful husband and five children. “George,” she said. “George, what ever you do, don’t forget to communicate!” Then with tears welling up, and in an urgent whisper, she began to beat on my shoulders saying, “Don’t forget to communicate! Don’t forget to communicate!” Impassioned words from a woman who knew both the joys and heartaches of married life. And who, out of love for me wanted desperately to pass along some loving advice. I have always been grateful for her love and convincing urgency.
On the night before his death, Jesus acts and speaks with the same loving urgency to his disciples. It is as if He says, “Get this! Don’t forget what I’m about to say! Remember to do for each other what I am going to do for you! Whatever else you do -- serve each other! If you, above all else, will maintain the mindset of loving service then you will be my followers…” Hear the Word of God as passed on to us in the…
Gospel of John 13:1-17, 34 (with comments as we read)
As important as a vision is for a congregation, as important as money may be, as important as a good choir / worship team is today, as important as an effective session and board of trustees may be; as good as your pastor and staff may be… it is the Holy Spirit inspiring humble, Christ-like service among us that is the life blood of the church.
But how do you inspire people to serve, when they are tired and concerned with worries of their own and don’t need one more thing to do? How do you inspire them, at the end of a long day, or to break the frantic pace in the middle and stop… to look again at those around them and actually see their needs? And then stoop to “wash their feet.” Church, how do we do that?
Well, what inspired Jesus to break the meal and humble himself and wash the feet of his followers… Two things:
First, Jesus knew who He was…
Second, He deeply loved His followers. It is easier to serve when we know who we are and you love those whom we are serving. (Focus primarily on first). It is a basic Christian principle if we love God we will obey God. If we love others we will serve them.
That Jesus knew who he was surfaces from the phrase in verse (1), “Jesus, knowing that he had come from God and was going to God….” When you know your origin and you know your destiny, you know your purpose. Jesus knew that He had come into this world from God to serve God’s purposes and when he shortly would return to God, there would be an accounting, an evaluation. How about you? Have you found your purpose?
When we know our purpose, we can serve that purpose and live less anxiously, less scattered. And there will be time to serve others, especially if like Jesus, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer we have found our purpose to be “a man [woman] for others.”
“Jesus, knowing that he has come from God and was going to God…” knew what his purpose was, but also whose He was. Jesus knew Himself to be in an on-going love relationship with God the Father and God the Spirit. When we know whose we are, and with whom we committedly and lovingly share life, it is much easier to take the towel and serve from less selfish motives because we will less likely need the applause and adulation of those we serve.
Not long ago I was talking with an elder in our presbytery in Montana. He was struggling to raise his teenage son, and the son was struggling with the father. Caring little for grades, as some teenagers care, and making errant choices for pot and alcohol as some teenagers do, the son was driving the father nuts. One afternoon, the Father, was thinking about how he might re-establish his relationship with his son, and he realized that in the struggle he was now focusing only on the negative. “Don’t smoke pot, its illegal. Don’t drink, it’s illegal, too! Don’t waste all your time, do your homework.” The relationship had become a frustrating fracus for both of them.
So the father sat down that Sunday afternoon and wrote his son a letter to tell the son why the he was glad the young man was his son. He wrote about his pride at birth and how close they had been in earlier days, of his joy in watching his son develop his athletic skills on the soccer field – and deep-down pride of watching him from the sidelines. He remembered his son’s caring heart evident in his love for animals and for hurting people. He wrote of how meaningful it was one dark night when the son knew the father was troubled and came out on his bike looking for his dad. In it all, the sentiment was clear… You are my son, you have always been my son, and no matter what-- you will always be my son. I love you.
When the father sat with his son and read the letter, both men ended up in tears of pride and gratitude for one another. And the son, assured of his father’s love, assured of his relationship with his dad, in effect like Christ, knowing whom he had come from and to whom he was going, was able to better focus and reorient his life. Jesus was able to stay on task, able to humble himself to serve others because he was secure in the love and primary relationship with God.
Jesus, knowing that he had come from God and was going to God… Jesus knowing his purpose and his (peep’s) knowing his purpose and secure in his basic relationship with God… took a towel… Are you there? Do you know that you have come from God and are going to God – focused in God’s purpose for you? Based in God’s basic love relationship with you?
(Ask: Ask God to show you His love for you…
Read: Read this Jesus in the Gospels. He loves us the same as those in the Bible…
Look: Daily discipline of looking for God ‘s love: “Where did I see the love of God Today?
Thank: Thank God for the foot-washing, the ways God has daily served us in this life.)
At one point, while I was pastoring the church in Reading PA, over near Philadelphia, I was struggling. It was a gray, snowy afternoon and my mood was matching the weather. Things at the church were discouraging as sometimes happens. But I had heard a minister say, “When you are down or discouraged one thing you can do is go and serve someone who is worse off than you… And in so doing you will find Jesus in them, because Jesus said, when you serve the least of His brothers and sisters, we’ve done it to him…
The pastor’s words reverberated in my head. And I thought, “Who is the worst off person in the congregation. Maybe I can meet Christ in humbling myself to wash his/her feet – by serving that person. An old woman in her 90’s whose mind was going and who, in poverty had been placed in one of our less fashionable nursing homes came to my mind. Her name was Mary Gresh, and I went to visit Mary.
I found her in her room, alone and staring vacantly in to space. A small woman, her legs did not reach the floor from the chair she was perched on. She did not smile and barely acknowledged me. I asked her some now-forgotten questions. I talked with her about the church and some of the people she might remember. There was little response.
Suddenly she sat up in her seat, looked me square in the eye and said, “Why did you come to see me today?!”
WooooW. Do I tell her the truth? That I was bumming and I was looking to meet Jesus by serving her? I took a deep breath. “Mary,” I began. “Mary, I been a bit depressed lately, and I heard that if you visit someone worse off than you are, it helps. We may even meet Christ in them by serving them. So I came because I needed to be with you.”
And then a marvelous moment! Mary’s eyes twinkled with delight! A smile leaked out all over her face. And she sat back in ease in her chair. Christ was there as we “washed each other’s feet.”
To find Christ we only need to serve him in those around us…. Our wives and husbands, our children and parents, elders and deacons, staff and youth, elder and needy. Jesus urged his disciples, “If I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” The presbytery, the church, the Christ-followers who set their hearts to lovingly washing each other’s feet will soon find Christ among them. And those who pray, “Lord, lead me to the people whose feet you wish to wash through me today,” will find Christ in those they wash and in themselves.