Maundy Thursday-Footwashing

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http://www.reep.org/resources/easter/2003/footwashing2.html



I provided this reflection on footwashing at our Good Friday service this evening. I thought I would share it with you as well.
I began with reading this scripture:
John 13:1-15

It is because of this scripture text that Mennonites have adopted the tradition of footwashing. In the broader Christian community, there has been discussion as to whether footwashing is a one of the sacred rites, even a sacrament of the church, or something done for guests and visitors, or only in monasteries or convents, or some other special occasion like the coronation of a king. From the early church on, there have been some communities that have adopted footwashing, and others that dismiss it as an overly literal reading of a metaphorical or spiritual text.



Footwashing has been part of the Mennonite tradition since the Anabaptist reformation, but unlike universal Mennonite traditions like communion or Adult baptism, footwashing has always been a bit of an outsider. Footwashing isn’t mentioned in the first Anabaptist confession of faith, the Schleitheim confession. It was a big deal in the Netherlands, but the Swiss Mennonites never really got into it until they got to America. While Lancaster Mennonite Conference always participated in footwashing, Franconia didn’t through most of the 1700’s.
The Anabaptists who have adopted footwashing do so because of their strict Biblical literalism. For the first Anabaptists, gathering in Bible Study on a regular basis, their guiding goal was clear. If Jesus says ‘do this’ they tried to do it, just as he said. Since Jesus says, “you will be blessed if you do them [e.g., footwashing]” Mennonites decided to wash one another’s feet, and so footwashing became the most obvious example of the Mennonites adding a ritual to the church, when so often they believed that the rituals of the broader church were unnecessary additions to the Biblical story.

All this, then, to admit, if you think that footwashing is odd, or unnecessary, you certainly are in good company.
But the story from John 13 remains a story about the power of service, and the ways in which we are called to serve one another and to serve God. The story of Passover is a story about God saving the Israelites-God acting on behalf of the world. The story of the last Supper, and of footwashing, is the story of God caring for the world in a more intimate and personal way, breaking bread and feeding us, washing our feet like a tender parent, like an attentive servant.
So as we wash each other’s feet, this is what I invite you to bring to mind-
That we do something strange, that most Christians through most of history have considered unnecessary, because of our peculiar insistence on listening with precision to the words of Jesus, uncomfortable about deviating from his commands.
That we do something uncomfortable-taking our shoes off in public, letting someone else touch our feet, touching another person’s toes, because we recognize the power of this symbol-that just like Peter, thinking of a subservient God is uncomfortable, distressing, inappropriate, but that in order to be a part of the Body of Christ, to fully experience the love of God and our acceptance into the divine reality we would let our brothers and sisters wash our hands and head as well.
That we do something out of the ordinary, because in this small symbol of unusual behavior, making ourselves uncomfortable and vulnerable, we practice in a little way our common commitment to being strange, striving to delight in simple living in a world of things, striving to be a people of peace in a world of violence, seeking security not in high walls or full prisons, but in faith in God, following a Messiah who had no place to lay his head, loving not only our families, but all people, opening our circle to everyone who comes looking for a place to call home.

Thus, I invite you this evening to share in footwashing together. There are basins around the room, three for footwashing, and one for handwashing, and you can go in small groups to one of the stations, quietly taking off shoes and socks, and then washing the feet of one another, then trading places, and ending with a hug, a recognition that even in the distances and differences between us, we are fellow children of God, in the body of Christ.
As you wait, pray for those who are washing each other’s feet, and join in singing along with Rachel.