Maundy Thursday Reflections
Footwashing:
The church is supposed to be a counter-cultural community. We are to live in the world, but not be of the world, which means we are to live differently, by a different set of values than the rest of the word, as part of the right side-up Kingdom of God in an upside-down world. This is a difficult thing to do. It requires commitment, not just to God, but to one another—a commitment of love and support and encouragement. We are more than a community. We are an extended family of God, a family in which we are all equals, all loved and valued, and all servants of one another.
Washing each other’s hands (or feet) is a concrete and intimate act of humility and love meant to bind us together, to strengthen our sense of community and family, to create a sense of communal love and support that we need in order to be church. It is a reminder that we are all washed clean in baptism, that we are all forgiven in Christ.
This is how we care for each other, support each other, strengthen and sustain each other in doing God’s work and following in the footsteps of Jesus. We serve one another in love, and in doing so, we are transformed by that act of love, so that we are able to serve God and our neighbors in the outside world with the same lovingkindness. Above all, we do it because Jesus said we should do this for each other.
Holy Communion:
Communion is a community meal. In this meal, we not only remember Jesus—we encounter Jesus. He is our host, and our sustenance. Jesus is present in the words we say, the same words he spoke two thousand years ago when he first hosted this meal. He is physically present in, with and through the wine and the bread. He is present as the Holy Spirit that strengthens and sustains us for service in the outside world. It is through the grace of Jesus that we receive forgiveness and mercy at this table, just as he promised.
But this meal is also a counter-cultural experience. Everyone is welcome at this table: young and old, male and female, rich and poor, sinner and saint, the powerful and the powerless, slave and free, the just and the unjust, the faithful and the betrayer. At Christ’s table, we are all equals, and we are all treated exactly the same. We all kneel, side by side, at one table. We all receive the same portions from the same loaf of bread, the same bottle of wine. We all receive the same gifts of grace, forgiveness and mercy. We all receive the same blessing. This meal is both a reminder and an example of the justice we are to strive to create in this world.