Maundy Thursday

1992 (Year C) 16 April / Maundy Thursday

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

‘After washing their feet and taking his garments again, he sat down. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked. ‘You call me ‘Master’ and ‘Lord’, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Then if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. I have set you and example: you are to do as I have done for you.’

Simar things have happened to everyone of us here tonight. We have all been served by another at some stage in our lives. Treated tenderly, gently, deferentially, with humility yet with dignity.

And how did those acts of service make you feel when they took place. Did they make you feel embarassed ‘You Lord, washing my feet’. Did you misunderstand them ‘Then Lord, said Simon Peter, not my feet only; wash my hands and head aS well’. All those reactions will’ve been ours and many many more.

Was the service you remember being done for you undertaken because of the colour of your skin? Some people here tonight can speak very eloquently about that. Was it freely given or did you buy it with your wealth? Did you manipulate another into giving it or coerce them by some other means? Did you use force? If the service came in any of these ways then when you reflect back on the experience, then my guess is that you will not rest eaSY· And for as many times as we remember treating others shamefully, there will be those times when people have behaved similarly to us. Such memories bring pity. In reality I think each one of us dies a little.

If on the other hand the service was given and received in love, different memories spring to mind. We feel warm, treasured. We feel gratitude, enriched, blessed. We recognise the time for what it was – a time of grace. When we have been able to behave in a way we’ll we smile and in truth we come alive. For all those times now we can give thanks.

There have been moments of pure rapture recently as members of this congregation recalled such times and discovered that what they were doing in their daily lives was in fact, a Divine action. They were responding to God’s call just as Jesus told them go, ‘I have set you an example: you are to do as I have done for you’. And when they realised it, it’s as if scales have fallen frum their eyes. You could see them rushing forward with a new-found confidence. Suddenly making connections they never had done before. Yes this really was me ministering – my acts of service, my acts of love. It really was me responding to my call from God.

Those first disciples were called into service and became intimates of Jesus. They became his friends. They knew him well enough after all they had been with him, on the road for more than three years. They must have trusted him, loved him, shared hopes and aspirations with him. Shared fears and temptations. He must’ve done the same with them.

The call makes servants of us all – for it is a call to service. And if our service is free, given in love with dignity and humility, rather than dragged out of us. If it is done with the best interest of the other person at heart, rather than an attempt to secure power and dominate the other. We will find that in fulfilling that call we discover that we become more than mere sservants. We become friends one with another and with Jesus ‘I shall not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I call you friends’.

And just as Jesus called his friends to share a meal so now his friends in this place come to share the Eucharist, the memorial of the Last Supper. We are intimate with him, commune with him, here and now, on this day.

Together we will go on to recall his suffering and one dare say we will all share in that. That will come in due as we live out our lives. And in the end please God we will share in his glory. AMEN