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  • Foot Washing and You (There is a connection)

    Foot Washing and You (There is a connection)

    by Bill Tuck

     
    FootwashingWhen I was pastor of St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, one of my church members told me that one of the most vivid memories that he had from his small rural church was the service of foot washing.  I don’t expect that there are too many of us who have actually participated in church foot washing services.  Some church traditions observe foot washing as an annual practice of their Maundy Thursday liturgy.  Monks in Benedictine Monasteries wash the feet of guests as a part of their hospitality.  But among many church groups today any talk about foot washing usually brings only snickers or sneers.
    John is the only gospel writer to record the foot-washing episode.  John seems to depict the setting of this story on the night before the Passover.  The other gospels set the Last Supper on the night of the Passover celebration itself.  John, however, shows Jesus being crucified on the Passover.  You can debate whose chronology is correct.  John’s purpose was to depict Jesus as the Paschal Lamb.  Raymond Brown, the noted New Testament scholar, observes that there is nothing in the Passover tradition that can be compared to foot washing. This episode then was simply an occurrence that arose out of the need at a particular moment.[ene_ptp] The traditional approach sees this story primarily as a sign of the humility of Jesus.  What was it that prompted Jesus to initiate this acted parable?  The attitude of the disciples as they approached this meal likely gives us a clue.  Many scholars feel that the disciples were probably debating who was going to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God right before they came to the table.  The air may have been thick with hostility.  Angry thoughts were directed at the two disciples who thought they were going to be “big shots” in Jesus’ kingdom when he came into power.
    The assignment of who washed the feet of the other disciples was likely a duty at which they took turns.  No one disciple would have had it all the time.  Whoever’s turn it was this night ignored it.  As the disciples came in for the Passover meal, they reclined on cushions or on the floor beside the table.  Because of the heated debate about who was going to be first, no one was going to stoop to do a slave’s work of washing somebody else’s dirty feet.
    John said: “Jesus took a towel and a basin.”  The King James translation gives an incorrect image in its translation.  Jesus did not wait for the meal to be over before he got up.  Jesus got up and girded himself in the middle of the meal, as though he could stand it no longer.  Had he wondered why no one had accepted the customary duty of washing the feet of the disciples?  He could feel the tension among his disciples, so he stopped eating and took a towel and basin.  He might have taken a sword as a sign of religious power.  He might have taken gold as a sign of monetary power.  He might have taken the Torah as the sign of religious power.  He might have taken a crown as a sign of political power.  But he took a towel and basin—a sign of humility and service—and washed the feet of the disciples.
    Why did Jesus perform this humble act of a servant?  John tells us, “Because Jesus loved them to the limits.”  He loves the disciples to the “uttermost.”  Jesus loved all of the disciples.  Judas was not excluded.  John clearly indicates that Jesus knew that he was going to be betrayed by Judas.  Jesus washed the feet of all the disciples, including Judas.  Can you imagine Jesus tenderly washing Judas’ feet?  Did Jesus whisper to him, “You still have an opportunity to turn away from your act of betrayal?”  Up to the end Jesus tried to reach Judas. Were there still some words of love that were projected?  We do not know.  But the only defense Jesus used was love.  Even his touch, however, could not deter Judas.
    Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and this acted parable symbolized humility and service.  But this action was much more than that.  It was also a sign of cleansing.  When Jesus approached Peter, the “big fisherman” was filled with astonishment and shame because he had been unwilling to perform the fatigue duty of washing the feet of the other disciples.  “No, Lord,” Peter exclaims, “You can’t wash my feet.”  “If you do not allow me to wash your feet, you have no part of me.”  There have been those who have tried to interpret this statement as a reference to baptism.  But it seems to me that this action is a prophetic sign.  It points to the redemptive death of Christ.  John is seeking to tell his readers that this act of humiliation is the sign of the One who would wash and cleanse us all by his sacrificial death.  In one of our hymns we sometimes sing about “the fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins.”  We are cleansed as we are plunged beneath “the fountain filled with blood.”  Foot washing is a sign of the cleansing which Christ gives us through the power of his sacrifice and death.  I believe foot washing is much more than a symbol about baptism.  Our baptism is a sign of the greater cleansing—the cleansing that Jesus Christ brings through the essential washing of his death.  The first requirement of every disciple is self-surrender.  We must let Christ serve us—wash us—so we can be clean.
    John tells us that Jesus was conscious of who he was.  He laid aside his outer garments.  This action was symbolic of Jesus “laying down” his life.  “The laying aside of his outer garment” is symbolic of Jesus’ incarnation.  John states that Jesus knew that he had come from God and was going back to the Father.  He had laid aside his divinity and came into the world in human form.  Laying aside his divinity, Jesus came into the world and took the form of a servant.
    I believe that foot washing was also a sign of Jesus’ death which would bring redeeming grace to cleanse his followers.  Throughout a disciple’s life, he or she would need constantly to be cleansed again, because each one would sin again and again.  Having experienced the redeeming grace of Christ, we will need to return to Christ to ask him to forgive us again for our other sins.
    I think this story is also a sign of a way of life.  Jesus by taking a towel and a basin symbolized that his life and those who followed him were called to imitate the way of service.  “I have given you an example that you should do unto others as I have done unto you.”  Does that mean we are supposed to perform foot washing all the time?  No, that is not the primary message of this sign.  Jesus is our model—our pattern.  He has called us to a higher way.  We are to imitate Christ.  Foot washing is a sign of our call to serve and minister in Jesus’ name.
    In the Eastern Church there is a tradition for a Maundy Thursday liturgy which dates back to the fifth century.  The archbishop enters the cathedral on Maundy Thursday robed in all of his vestments, accompanied by twelve priests and the reader of the Gospel.  After the choir has sung the introits and collects, the celebrant removes his outer vestments and girds himself with a towel and pours water into a basin.  He begins to wash the feet of the priest who represents the disciples.  The priest who represents Judas eagerly sticks out his feet for Jesus to wash and kiss.  Then another priest who portrays Simon Peter is in tears and draws his feet back in reluctance.
    The service concludes with the recitation of the dialogue from John 13 and with the words, “Now you are clean but not all.”  The archbishop turns and points to Judas.  Edwyn Hoskyns, the Cambridge New Testament scholar, states that this ritual drama was not commemorated as an isolated incident in the life of Jesus nor was it merely an example of humility.  “It forms,” he believes, “part of the commemoration of the Passion and the liturgy is dominated by the thought of the Incarnation, the Death, and the Resurrection of the Son of God.”
    Jesus has called each of us to take a towel and basin and go into the world and serve in his name.  It may be that when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, that acted parable was a sign that they were being set apart as servants too.  “I have given you an example that you should do as I have done.”  You are being called to serve as I have been called to serve.  Some of the disciples died as martyrs.  Their call to service required some of them to lay down their life for Christ.
    In churches where the minister wears a robe and a stole, the stole is not worn merely as decoration.  The stole is a symbol of the towel.  It is a visible reminder of service.  Maybe it would be appropriate for an ordination service of a minister or a deacon to include a foot washing service.  The minister or deacon would actually wash the feet of others.  This would be a statement that the minister is being set apart not to be a big shot in the church but to be a servant.
    The Church of Jesus Christ, if it really models itself after him, will take the form of a servant.  Jesus said, “I came into the world not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give my life a ransom for many.”  “The greatest of all,” Jesus said, “is the servant of all.”  “If anyone would be first, he/she must be least of all.”  If his church is really authentic Church, it will model its life after our Lord who took the Suffering Servant as his image.  He was willing to lay down his life in sacrifice for us.  The Church is not to be served or to serve itself but to minister in the world in Jesus’ name.  Jesus calls us not to see whether we can be big shots but whether we can serve.
    Years ago when missionaries first went to China they asked a group of Chinese pastors what most impressed them and appealed to them about the teachings of Jesus when they first heard them.  None of them noted his miracles or the Sermon on the Mount.  One of them said quietly that the thing that most impressed them was the story about Jesus in the upper room washing the feet of his disciples. The sign of foot washing also calls us to practical service.  The Christian life is both prayer and worship, but it is also the bearing and lifting of burdens in the everyday world around us.  Let us take the towel and basin, and follow our Lord who served us supremely through his death and calls us to serve and live for him.
     

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  • Our Challenge to Overcome Prejudice

    by Bill Tuck
    www.friarsfragment.com

    Untitled
    Prejudice is deep-seated. It has a long history in our world. The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, and Moses stood before Pharaoh and challenged him: “Let my people go.” Later when Israel became a nation, it showed great prejudice toward other nations. In fact, they declared that everybody else was a Gentile, not as worthy as they were in the sight of God. The Greeks proclaimed that they were the superior people of the human race. The Romans saw others as inferior, especially the Syrians, whom they looked upon as dogs. The Chinese erected a wall to separate all of the heathen devils from them. People on our nation’s west coast often show prejudice toward Orientals. Those in the southern borders of our country often are prejudiced toward Mexicans. Many in the Southern states are still prejudiced toward blacks. Northerners are often prejudiced toward Southerners, and Southerners are prejudiced toward Northerners. Prejudice is an awful reality in our world, but it is real.
    Albert Schweitzer often mentioned the impression that stuck in his memory as a young child on seeing in the town’s square on many occasions the statue of a black man burdened down with heavy chains. Later Schweitzer went to Africa to minister as a medical doctor to the black man. He knew that he did not put that black man in chains, but nevertheless he felt a sense of responsibility to help ease the burden placed on him by the white man.
    Oh, I know you can say: “Well, I have never burned a cross in anybody’s yard. “I have never thrown a rock at a person of another race.” “I haven’t expressed hatred toward a person of another race.” But that does not mean that you and I are free of prejudice. Too often we prejudge another person by his or her education, background, social status, appearance, or skin color. [ene_ptp] The Church declares boldly that God is the Creator of all persons. God created man and woman in God’s image. Paul daringly asserted that we are all one in Jesus Christ. He declared that “there was neither Greek nor Roman, slave or free, Jew nor Gentile, male or female in Christ.” We can also confidently say that there is no black or white in Jesus Christ. In him we are all one. At the foot of the cross the ground is level. God’s love reaches through the crucified Christ to all persons. Jesus reminded his disciples: “The one receiving you receives me, and the one receiving me receives the one having sent me” (Matt. 10:40). Even a cup of cold water given to someone in need is to minister in Jesus’ name. When we reject our fellow man or woman, we are rejecting our Lord. The writer of 1 John reminds us: “If anyone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).
    As Christians, let’s acknowledge that we are all one in Jesus Christ. Our Lord clearly taught that we are one in God’s sight. When you read the gospels, it is clear that Jesus Christ began to break down all the barriers which society had erected. He called Simon the Zealot to be one of his disciples and broke the political barrier. He reached out to minister to a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery and ignored the reputation barrier. His conversation with a Samaritan woman at the city well transcended the sexual barrier. His nighttime talk with the aristocrat, Nicodemus, whom he told must be born again, and his eating a meal with Zacchaeus broke the class barrier. He told a parable which praised the prayer of a publican over a Pharisee and disregarded the religious barrier. He reached out to the poor and outcast of society and broke the poverty barrier. He made a Samaritan a hero of one of his parables and challenged the racial barrier. He praised the faith of a Roman centurion and transcended national barriers. Again and again Jesus broke the barriers which had been set up to separate persons from each other.
    Remember, Jesus was not crucified because he said: “Behold the lilies of the field, how beautiful they are.” He was crucified because he attempted to break down these barriers. He taught that man and woman, whatever their status in life, were loved and welcomed by God. Like its Lord, the Church is challenged to go into the world with a gospel that breaks down all barriers as it calls all men and women to become the sons and daughters of God, saved by his grace. As members of the Church, you and I are to be the salt and light in the world as we reach out to all persons to lead them to redemption in Jesus Christ.
    What can we do as Christian people to combat the problem of racism? First, we can acknowledge that we are prejudiced. Every single one of us can acknowledge that he or she has some kind of prejudices. I have them. You have them. None of us is free of them. They are still a part of our life, heritage, sectional background, training, community mores, and regional values. Let’s acknowledge our prejudices. They are, unfortunately, a part of us. Then, let’s seek by God’s grace to overcome them.
    Secondly, we need to acknowledge that God is the creator and redeemer of all persons. Let us celebrate our diversity. Let us rejoice in the wide variety of gifts and heritages that are in the world. Let us remind one another that we are one family under God, and in Jesus Christ we are one in his Church. We are created in God’s image. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Let us love and respect all persons regardless of their race or color.
    In an address before the joint session of Congress, former president John F. Kennedy said: “I ask you to look into your hearts, not in search of charity, for the Negro neither wants nor needs condescension. But for the one plain, proud, and priceless quality that unites us all as Americans: A sense of justice. In this year, the Emancipation Centennial, justice requires us to ensure the blessings of liberty for all Americans and their posterity, not merely for reasons of economic efficiency, world diplomacy, and domestic tranquility, but above all because it is right!” It is right! All persons are God’s children. God is creator and redeemer of all. So let us begin by acknowledging that we are prejudiced, that diversity is a part of our created world, and learn to glory in that diversity as we see the variety of gifts in all persons.
    Thirdly, we acknowledge that the Church is called to be the transforming element in society. It should be the showcase for the world of brotherhood, justice, and righteousness. There can be no “Check Point Charlie”, no Berlin Wall, and no barred doors at the church’s entrance where persons are not allowed. Anyone to whom Jesus Christ extends his hand is my brother and sister.
    I wish we could say that because a person has committed his or her life to Christ, he or she is free of prejudice. But we know that is not always true. Peter is a good example of this. Even after Jesus had commissioned him to preach the gospel to all nations, he was still prejudiced against the Gentiles. In a vision on the rooftop of Cornelius, Peter was made to see that he was to call nothing common or unclean which God had created. He saw the barrier of his racial prejudice crumble. Then, he was able to preach the gospel to all persons.
    Fourthly, we need to be bridge builders. We are called by Jesus Christ to be his servants in building bridges to men and women. We are to tear down fences of hatred, injustice, oppression, and hostility. It has seldom been easy to be a bridge builder. We rarely recognize the great prophets as they walk among us. Today you and I can look back and talk about how great Amos, Micah, Hosea, and Jeremiah were, but the people of their day despised or misunderstood them. History will show that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the great prophets of our age. He worked and died to bring justice and righteousness for minority races in our country. The struggle for racial justice still continues.
    The denial of any person his or her God-given rights is an affront to God and a denial of the creation and redemption of God. In Christ there is no north or south, east or west, slave or free, male or female, black or white, Jew or Gentile, all are one. After Cain slew his brother Abel, God asked him, “Where is your brother?” Cain responded by asking: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” No, Cain. You and I are not our brother’s keeper, but we are our brother’s brother. We are our brother’s sister. We are sisters and brothers to each other in Jesus Christ.
    Let all barriers be broken. We are to be bridge builders, not fence contractors or wall builders. Let us lift up those who are in need and not hold them down. Let us encourage and not discourage. Let us remove the “Keep 0ut” signs and erect signs that say, “Welcome.” What we need is less bullying and more brotherhood. We need less platitudes and more performance. We need less arguments and more action. We need less rhetoric and more righteousness. Let our walk match our talk. Let there be an end to discrimination and the beginning of a greater practice of brotherhood. Let there be an end to bigotry and a greater practice of harmony in the world. Let there be and end to provincialism and a greater practice of freedom.  Let there be an end to isolationism and a greater practice of communion. I hoped and prayed that the inauguration of President Obama would usher in a new day of racial harmony and good will among all persons of all races. Unfortunately, that has not happened.
    There is a legend that will not die from postwar Germany. During the Nazi regime in Germany, Hitler gave an infamous edict that had to be read from all church pulpits. The edict declared that no Jew was welcome in any church and had to leave. One day a Nazi officer entered a Christian church and announced that anyone who had Jewish blood on his father’s side must get up and leave. Several on the main floor got up, one in a side balcony, and one from the choir loft rose and left. Then the Nazi soldier instructed those who had Jewish blood on their mother’s side to leave. This time about half a dozen more left. The legend then says that the figure of Jesus Christ the Jew, who was hanging on the cross over the altar, came down and walked out of the church.
    Whenever we attempt to bring bigotry, prejudice, and racism into his church, he walks out of it and goes into the world. He came to destroy such barriers not erect them.
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  • Is the Church Responsible for the Environmental Crisis?

     by Bill Tuck
    www.friarsfragment.com

    Earth bannerWe need to ask some questions about the whole problem with the environment, pollution and ecology. The first question is this– do churches and Christians have any responsibility for the crises in which we find ourselves today? There are some scientists who are saying, “Oh yes, Churches and Christians are largely responsible for this crisis.” Lynn White and other scientists are expounding that attitude. They point to the passage in Genesis which says, “Man is supposed to subdue the earth” and note that we have subdued it to the point of devastation. These scientists believe that Christians are responsible because of the philosophy and theology taken from Genesis, of subduing the earth. Are we responsible? Well, yes and no.
    The Prodigal Way of Humanity
    [ene_ptp]What then is the nature of our responsibility? Humankind has been like the prodigal son. We have taken all the blessings God has given us and we have wasted them in riotous living, sometimes in excessive living. We have received the bounty of God’s creation and we have exploited and sometimes ruined it. I wish I could stand in this pulpit to¬day and tell you that all of our rivers and streams are pure, and that our air is pure, and the water we drink is fine. But no person can truthfully tell you that today. Many of the trees on the mountaintops of North Carolina are dying because of pollution. It is a serious problem. Just a few years ago, we couldn’t eat oysters taken from our own coast because of the refuse and waste that had been dumped into our waters making them so impure. Even the ocean itself was polluted. We still have factories that spew impurities into our water and into our air today.
    Did you know that there are some cities where the air is so thick with pollution that when you breathe the air it is the equivalent of smoking thirty-eight cigarettes a day? I am convinced that one of the reasons we have such a rise in cancer is because the water we drink and the air we breathe and the foods we eat are polluted. Much of life is filled with the problems of living with pollution. You and I, as citizens have to work hard to overcome these abuses of our land, air and water.
    Suppose someone told you that you have a bank account with enough money in it to take care of you all your life, if you don’t overspend. If you spend carefully and wisely, you will always have enough in your account. You don’t know the exact amount in your account and you are never going to be told that. But you do know that if you just spend wisely you will always have enough. You would be very careful wouldn’t you?
    Our environment is that way. We can’t keep on abusing and destroying rainforests and other parts of the natural world without bringing devastation upon ourselves and our world. Some view environmentalists as “coo-coos” and pretend that we do not have a serious problem. But, it is serious! We have to realize that our children and grandchildren and others may not be able to live in our world unless we take care of it.
    Caretakers of Our Planet
    As Christian people we have a responsibility. What is that responsibility? Our responsibility is to be stewards and caretakers of God’s universe. The Genesis story doesn’t tell us that we are to devour the earth or we can do anything we want with nature. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden to take care of it. They were to be caretakers and “to tend the earth.” We are to work with nature and learn how to live in harmony with creation. All of God’s creation is our home. And it is a beautiful home. We have got to learn how to live in harmony with God’s creation and do the very best thing we can to care for it and make it a place that is beautiful and productive. One of our responsibilities as Christians is to do those things which can make this earth the very best place where we can live. It is our home—our only home—and we have to take care of it by conserving its resources and productivity. The scientist, Teilhard deChardin, reminded us that, “The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we will not perish, is to build the earth.” We are all responsible for our planet. We can’t pass the responsibility to others.
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