Kneeling at the Feet of God

Text: John 13:1-13
March 21, 2004
Aldersgate UMC

It was twelve or thirteen years ago. I had arranged for a foot washing service in the small, rural church that I was serving. I had prepared the congregation of fifty people and several had agreed that I could wash their feet as part of the liturgy for the Maundy Thursday Service.

We gathered around table as if we were sharing dinner and part way through I began to wash their feet. I found this a humbling experience but when I came time to Dixie and Ralph, I was moved to tears as I washed the feet of these two pillars of the church. Ralph was about seventy and had worked all his life in the mill. In his retirement, he "found the church" and I had learned that if I needed anything built I could ask Ralph.

Dixie was my lay leader and she was always at church. She cooked and cleaned there as if it was her own home. And she wrote the most beautiful prayers, even though she may not have graduated from high school.

You see Dixie grew up in Germany during the Second World War. I remember her confessing to me, "We didn’t know, Sharon. We didn’t know what Hitler was doing to the Jews and the homosexuals and the mentally retarded. We honestly didn’t know!" She cried out to me and to God seeking forgiveness for her role of not knowing.

They were two ordinary people, yet unique pairs of feet. Hers were small, petite, worn and bent with years of walking and standing. The toes were curled over and around each other by the pointy shoes that women have to wear.

And Ralph, well his feet were kind of blue with the veins that were close to the surface. They too looked used, but it was the skin tone more than the shape. They were dark, almost like years of sweat and grim had been worn in from the hard physical work that they performed for so many years.

I washed these feet and all of a sudden I realized that God’s feet would probably be very much like these. Rather than soft and pretty and pink, God’s feet would be hard and miss-shaped and dirty from years and years and years of use.

I washed their feet with water and soap, then dried them with a towel and sprinkled a little baby powder on them before helping them put their shoes back on. No one had put baby powder on these feet for years. So, I wondered, "Who puts powder on God’s feet?" Who cares for God?

Jesus knelt at his disciples’ feet. They had come together for a simple meal and no one had done the customary ritual of washing their feet. They did not have servants to travel with them and their host for some reason had not provided the people. So Jesus, himself got up from the table to assume the role of servant, some would say a slave. He took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and went to work as if it were nothing at all. Jesus took this very ordinary meal and a very ordinary ritual and created an extra-ordinary event.

And no one knew, except perhaps Peter. He recognized the extra-ordinary nature of what was happening. He saw the absurdity in the master washing his feet. Those who should be servants to the master were being served by the one whose feet they should be washing. He did not want Jesus to serve him. Peter protested, let me serve you instead. He did what any one of us would have done. He wanted to wash Jesus’ feet. If the master takes the role of servant, who washes the master’s feet?

Mary and Salome and the Magdalene tried; they went the next day after his death with oils and spices, on Sunday to care for his body. They must have shared their grief on that early morning in hushed tones, fearful of who might overhear. They made their way to the cave where they had seen him laid. And when they arrived even they were prevented from performing the ritual washing and anointing; even they could not wash his feet remembering the way he had washed theirs. They found an empty tomb, yet they did not comprehend. It was only later that they were able to proclaim, "He is risen!"

So today, in the name of Jesus, we perform the foot washing as he instructed. We become the servants in the way that he showed us. We were made to be in ministry, to love God by helping others. Rick Warren writes in Purpose Driven Life, "We are healed to help others. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are saved to serve, not to sit around and wait for heaven." (Rick Warren, Purpose driven Life, p. 229) We are called to kneel at God’s feet by becoming a servant to others. And every time we kneel in ministry, serving other human beings, we proclaim with the women "He is risen indeed!"

And in that moment God invites us to stand up and let someone else serve us. That’s the remarkable thing about serving others, there’s a sense of respect that comes to those who serve.

What’s your ministry? What set of unique gifts has God given to you? Warren writes, "You have dozens, probably hundreds, of untapped, unrecognized, and unused abilities that are lying around inside of you. … Part of the church’s responsibility is to identify and release your abilities for serving God." (Ibid., p.242) What is it that you always wanted to do in your life and now find yourself unable to do in your work life? Aside from becoming a millionaire, I suspect that there is a way your church can help you do it.

We can find energy, meaning, and new life through ministries that fulfill our hearts and make use of our passions. Warren reminds us that an active, alive person is one who gives out as much as they take in. The Sea of "Galilee is a lake full of life because it takes in water but also gives it out. In contrast, nothing lives in the Dead Sea because with no outflow, the lake has stagnated." (Ibid., p. 231)

We learn two things about ministry in today’s gospel lesson. We learn that as disciples, Jesus is our example for rendering service to others. We also learn that as disciples we need to accept the service of others.

Way back in mid-February when many of us came together for our 40 Days kick-off event, we saw and heard several members from Saddleback Church share about the ministries they had discovered in their lives. Reading Peter’s role in this foot washing reminded me of one particular woman that was a part of that video. She became involved in a food ministry similar to Meals on Wheels. She was delivering meals to people who were ill or older people living alone who sometimes couldn’t cook for themselves. She was really enjoying this ministry and then all of a sudden she found out she had breast cancer.

At first, this woman did not want to receive the meals that she had been delivering to others. She didn’t need them or perhaps her pride was holding her back. She wanted to keep herself separated from those who needed the meals. It was when this woman agreed to accept someone into her home with a meal that she took a step to deepen her ministry. The Holy Spirit broke into her life to use this circumstance to enrich her.

Jesus is always giving us backwards days; he wants to turn our thinking around. Perhaps that is why God led us to read this book together; to get us thinking about worship, fellowship, discipleship and now ministry.

In a recent Drew Carey movie, Bruce Almighty, we hear the story of a man so frustrated with his life and with God that he challenges God to let him take over management of the world. He yells at God, "Anybody, even I, can do a better job than you’re doing!" And much to his surprise, his challenge is accepted! God takes a vacation and puts Bruce in charge.

This movie is really a humorous series of happenings; Bruce practices parting the red Sea in a bowl of tomato soup. He’s a news reporter, so uses his powers to set up natural disasters and gains a reputation for always being at the right place to get the inside exclusive. He becomes so obnoxious, he drives away the woman who loves him and wants to make a home with him. Towards the end, Bruce realizes how selfish and arrogant he has been. He spends his last days as the All Powerful trying to win back the woman who has left him.

Finally, in what appears to be his last encounter with God, he’s dead, God tells Bruce, "You have a divine spark. You have the gift of bringing joy and laughter to the world. I know. I created you." And I said to myself excited by the congruence with our journey, "Oh Bruce finally learned his purpose!"

And then God asks Bruce "Do you want her back?" meaning the girl that had left him because of his arrogance. Bruce thinks for a moment and responds, "No, I want her to be happy." He finally understood: it’s not about you! He realized what love was all about!

I am told that theologian Walter Brueggemann writes about a process of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation when describing the process we go through in our spiritual journey. (www.Midrash@joinhands.com, downloaded on March 17, 2004) He points out that the point where we move to reorientation instead of going back to orientation involves the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We don’t discover a place of reorientation on our own. The Holy Spirit acts in our lives to bring us to a new place. In one sense this three-step process is an act of repentance or thinking differently that comes to us when an event causes us to change direction.

That’s what our 40-Day journey is all about for each one of us and for our congregation. We’re on the spiritual journey that will bring us to a new place. We are looking for a reorientation of our thinking that we might open ourselves to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and turn our lives back on God’s pathway.

As we move toward the end of this journey, I hope we can remember one of Rick Warren’s short little lines that I have found to be quite true in my life. "Impression without expression causes depression." (Warren, p. 231) If we are convicted by anything that we have read in this book, if some of this material has made an impression, then it would behoove one to act upon it. It is the inaction in our lives that results in depression. In actuality it’s the exact opposite of what we would expect. I know that my life seems so full and busy that sometimes I feel like I’m not making a difference and that simply leads to more depression.

Without a ministry, without an opportunity to express what we have been convicted by then we risk the danger of depression. My prayer is that each of us will discover a way to express our purposes in life as we move into the next phase of our journey. May God guide us as we continue the journey. Amen.