Relinquishing Power and Privilege: A Maundy Thursday Sermon Year A

And so begins the Great Three Days... the Triduum... of Holy Week. Amazingly, I was able to get all four sermons done before Holy Saturday. 

What struck me as I wrote this one for Maundy Thursday is the message of Jesus' action of leaving the table to wash feet. With a back drop in America of blatant racism in a state legislature...other than Florida's! Tennessee Republicans expelled two African-American Democratic colleagues because they "broke decorum" on the floor of the House by bringing a bullhorn into the chamber after having protested the lack of gun control in the state. A third Democrat... a white woman... was also chastised by her GOP colleagues for taking part in the demonstration, but she was not expelled. The Republicans say race had nothing to do with their extreme punishment of two young Black legislators.

And if you believe that... I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!

Text: John 13: 1-17;31b-35

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Prayer: O God, let your Word be spoken and heard, and may our hearts be ever fixed on you. Amen.

           Last night, I was able to gather with my wife and some dear friends for a Seder meal on the first night of Passover.

It is both a meal of remembrance… and reflection… and there is joy… and laughter as multiple families gather at the table. It is meant to be a shared multi-family meal.

And there is ritual.

Lots of ritual.

The youngest child gets called upon during the lead up to dinner to answer four questions.

The first one is “Why is this night different from other nights?”

The answer is to give a part of tracing the history of Israel’s escape from the tyranny of Pharoah and the Egyptians.

All four of the questions are really designed to remember what God did to help Israel escape from their oppressors.

We could ask this same question in our own tradition:

What’s so different about this night?

Why do we gather on a Thursday?

Probably for most of us… not a whole lot is really all that different.

Today might have felt like any other Thursday.

Some of you probably rushed here after getting off work… so the difference is that you’re here and not at home.

For the disciples… at least in John’s Gospel story… this is pretty much… just another day.

It’s a few days before the Passover celebration.

They’re at a private dinner with their teacher and friend, Jesus.

And then he does something unexpected.

With no servants around to wash their feet… Jesus gets up… wraps a towel around his waist and starts to wash their feet.

Odd.

This is their leader… the one on whom they’ve pinned their hopes to take down the Romans once and for all.

He’s already made a joke of the Roman Governor by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey… while on the opposite side of town…Pilate and his Roman army arrived on horses.

And so… what is Jesus doing now washing everyone’s feet?

This isn’t what a leader is supposed to do!

I mean, think about our own political leaders… pick your favorite one… and ask yourself?

Would we not be puzzled if they were to suddenly pick up a towel, grab a pitcher of water and a basin, and wash the feet of a young person crushed with student loan debt?

Or even soak the feet of the average sanitary worker riding around on a dump truck all day?

What if they were to even kneel down and wash our feet?

(It’s too bad that we don’t expect that from our leaders!)

What Jesus is signaling to his disciples then… and now… is that real power… and the mark of a true leader… is not the person who embraces and exploits privilege.

A true leader is ready to relinquish privilege to serve.

For those who hold power… of any kind… that can be so challenging.

Letting go… giving up control and figuratively… taking a knee to wash the feet of those without power… is difficult, especially for the one who has a lot of privileges and power.

We might recall the Gospel story of the rich young man who simply can’t let go of what he has because his possessions, his privilege, his power is how he knows who he is.

Our egos… are so invested in being the privileged… and we don’t want us to give up status.

And when we see someone of status giving up their power to another… it can make us anxious.

I think that’s what’s going on with poor Peter.

Peter is more interested in the Jesus who he thinks is going to stick it to the Roman Empire…not this Jesus who… insists on washing feet.

That’s not the job for a Messiah!

I can almost here Peter saying as he looks around the room…”Isn’t there some other… some foreigner… some eunuch who could be brought in to do this task?”

“No”… says Jesus. “You do not know what I am doing, but later you, Peter, will understand.”

What will Peter understand?

What is that you and I need to understand?

To follow Jesus and live into his teachings… requires us to relinquish our need for privilege and power.

We are to look out for that person or that community that needs to know that they do matter.

On this night… God is giving us another chance… one more shot… to become a people united with Jesus by showing love for one another…and not clinging to our smaller selves that desire power, privilege and prestige.

One way we do this is through the act of foot washing. By being willing to let our feet be washed… and by doing the washing… we are taking a chance at being vulnerable.

In participating in the foot washing, we are engaging our full selves into a ritual that makes this night… this worship service… unlike any other.  

The foot washing prepares us for this great Eucharistic banquet we celebrate tonight. We will share in the body and blood of Christ one more time. But unlike on other occasions… the blessed bread and wine… the symbols of Christ’s body and blood… will go to the chapel at the end of the service. We invite anyone who wishes to go sit before the altar in that tiny room… and keep watch with Christ as he had asked his disciples to do in the Garden of Gethesemane.

And then there is the stripping of the altar… the reminder that we have reached the moment for Christ where he gave up everything… including his body… for the cause of Love.

An act of sacrifice and trust.

We are invited to contemplate that act… and search ourselves as we approach these final hours of Jesus’ earthly ministry… what are we still holding on to?

What are we ready to let go of?

What… if anything… has changed in us as we consider an empty table?

This night is different than other nights.

This is the night we our preconceived ideas of what power and privilege looks like get left behind in a water basin.

This is the night we are invited to be transformed into the loving human beings God so needs us to be.