Thursday, March 28, 2024

Washing Another's Feet

"AS I HAVE DONE FOR YOU"

Off and on over the years, I participated in the Maundy Thursday liturgy at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Breckenridge, Colorado (we were there to ski and snowboard during Spring Break--nothing pointedly spiritual about it.)

Typically, the little church was half full and it was likely a quarter of us were out-of-towners. No matter.

Not used to the turnings, responses and readings of formal liturgy from The Common Book of Prayer, I would fumble my way through the service.

The part to which I felt particularly connected was the foot washing. The liturgy invites us to do for another what Jesus did for his disciples that night of their last meal together. After the pastoral team's example, we would be invited to wash each other's feet at the front of the sanctuary.

During the foot washing, the congregation sings:

Brother, sister, let me serve you,
Let me be as Christ to you;
Pray that I might have the grace to
Let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on the journey,
We're companions on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and share the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the nighttime of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you,
Speak the peace you long to hear.

HOMELESS NEIGHBORS' FEET

The radical humiliation of washing another's feet first struck me in 1989, when a nurse asked me to help with the foot soaks and foot massages she weekly offered the homeless men who visited Horizon House--a day service center for homeless neighbors in Indianapolis. I initially volunteered to assist, but when the hour came, I found myself strangely resistant and made excuses not to be available to wash their feet.

The next week, Nurse Anne wouldn't let me off the hook. I found myself kneeling before the dirty, gnarly, swollen, smelly feet of a homeless man. Still resistant, but yielded, I gave myself to the task, pushing inner protests aside. One after another, I washed and massaged feet until there were no more feet to wash. I felt relieved and released and somehow strangely at peace. From that point on, I have always viewed people without homes as neighbors, recognizing and accepting my connection, complicity, and challenge in their condition.

LEADING PARADIGM

During my 2,000-mile bicycle ride through India in 2007, we were honored in Bangalore/Bengaluru  washing. The Free Methodist Bishops of India knelt down and washed each cyclist's feet in front of all their pastors, parishioners, and non-christian friends and community members who gathered to welcome us to that city. We, in turn, washed their feet. Knowing the strong sense of caste and social role that pervade the various Indian cultures, I can only begin to imagine the radical--even offensive--action of a leader washing anyone's feet. But this is likely close to the context of Jesus' action on what we now call Maundy Thursday. He is the servant leader and this is the primary image for Christian leadership. The towel and basin stands alongside the cross. Those who dismiss or stray from this central paradigm mislead.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE FEET

I have not fully identified the points of my resistance to wash either the feet of homeless neighbors in a homeless center or the feet of a friend in a Holy Week foot-washing liturgy. I'm not nearly as interested in analyzing my resistance as in simply recognizing it and overcoming it. It's really not about foot washing, anyway. It's about doing the necessary, menial, and helpful things for one another without reference to "who's who," social role, or fear. I want to continue to move in that direction in my life, breaking resistances and hesitancies and excuses with helpful actions for whomever they are needed.

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Washing Another's Feet

"AS I HAVE DONE FOR YOU" Off and on over the years, I participated in the Maundy Thursday liturgy at St. John the Baptist Episc...