Sermon for Maundy Thursday Text: John 13:34-35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Finding Ourselves Sarah Raymond Cunningham is not only a Christian but a Christian who witnesses to her faith. I have braved a few real-life conversations with homosexual friends, she writes. I distinctly remember how I felt on each occasion. Queasy mostly. Sarah goes on to tell about a conversation with one particular friend. There were dozens of tangible traits I treasured about my friend, and I told him so. But in a voice trembling with nervousness and compassion I confessed I was afraid my friendship might seem insincere if I couldn t affirm what he held to be a central part of his identity: his sexuality. As far as I can tell, I gulped, the Bible only introduces one kind of sexual union, and that is between a man and a woman. So, I have to believe this is the course that leads to the fullest life the life the Creator intended for us. When I spit out these defining sentences, I worried all
my friend could hear was Blah-Blah-Christian- Blah-Blah. Maybe you ve tried to share your faith and got a roll of the eyes, a polite suffering through your witness, or just outright rejection. Blah-Blah-Christian-Blah-Blah. But that wasn t the way Sarah s witness was received. Her homosexual friend stared back at me kindly, so I continued... I want you to know I believe God loves every person deeply and equally. That includes the homosexual. It would be dishonest for me to pretend I agree with or understand the path you believe is right, but I accept that you are free to choose your own life course. That is not because I m especially charitable or generous, but because God is. Looking back, Sarah reflected, I think the conversation changed me more than my friend, because it forced me to acknowledge parts of God s will I sometimes overlooked. (David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007], 113-114). That caring conversation helped her discover more about herself. Let me make that more specific. Sarah s care for her friend helped her discover more about God s will for her life. Maundy Thursday helps us discover more about ourselves. Once again, let me make that more specific. Maundy Thursday helps us discover more about how God wants us to live our lives. John chapter 13 begins, It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. What would you do if you knew that you would die tomorrow? Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and
was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. That Maundy Thursday the first disciples found themselves served by the Son of God. Jesus knew that he was going to die tomorrow and what did he do? He showed his love by the menial service of washing the disciples feet. But Peter balked. Peter in charge here! I ll pick and choose how I relate to you, Jesus! We might say that Peter was an individualist, a good-hearted individualist, but still someone who wanted his will, not God s, to be done. Jesus challenged Peter s individual judgment. Tonight Jesus challenges you and me: Do you choose how you will relate to Me? And if you think you can relate to Me in any old way you choose, is that how you ll relate to one another? This is the most challenging time of this evening s sermon. Listen to the Bible. Jesus came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me. In America we think of churches as voluntary associations of autonomous individuals. Individuals come together as a church, if they want, and do what they want. It s interesting that our modern understanding of the individual is relatively recent in the long scope of history, going back only to the 19th century. American individualism says you can do what suits your best interests and you can express yourself in any way you want. You are free to find the true you! But Jesus goes against this do-your-own-thing individualism. Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Our life together as a
church is not a voluntary association of independent individuals. It s not for us to decide how we relate to Jesus or to each other. Jesus says, You did not choose me but I chose you (John 15:16). Peter backed right off. Then, Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well! Jesus answered, A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean. By washing their feet Jesus was giving the disciples a sign. They were cleansed...we are cleansed...by His coming, by His passion, by His death for us, by His resurrection and going back to the Father, and by the cleansing work of His Holy Spirit in our lives. Your baptism cleansed you. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). This word you are hearing cleanses you. My words are spirit and they are life (John 6:63). The meal we shall shortly receive, the supper of our Lord, is our cleansing. I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35). So Maundy Thursday helps us find ourselves. What God does this evening is show us again who we are. Our sitting together to hear Jesus words, our gathering at his table, is a visible sign that our life together is not autonomous individuals who voluntarily came to church, but we are made one body, washed by our servant Savior. Social commentator Robert Bellah wrote,
We find ourselves not independently of other people and institutions but through them. We never get to the bottom of our selves on our own. We discover who we are face to face and side by side with others in work, love, and learning. All of our activity goes on in relationships, groups, associations, and communities ordered by institutional structures and interpreted by cultural patterns of meaning... We are parts of a large whole that we can neither forget nor imagine in our own image without paying a high price. (in Stanley Grenz and John Franke, Beyond Foundationalism [Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001], 203) When he had finished washing their feet, He put on his clothes and returned to His place. Do you understand what I have done for you? he asked them. You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that 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. Let me close by going back to Sarah Cunningham. Sarah said, I worried all my friend could hear was Blah-Blah- Christian-Blah-Blah. But that wasn t the way Sarah s friend reacted. He stared back at me kindly. He knew that she cared, genuinely cared. Hmmm, I wonder where she learned that? Sarah reflected, I think the conversation changed me more than my friend, because it forced me to acknowledge parts of God s will I sometimes overlooked. The earliest Christians gained a reputation for loving one another. This Maundy Thursday God helps us find ourselves once again, people who have been washed, people who have been loved, and a community with no greater aspiration than to follow Jesus in loving service to others. Amen.