Maundy Thursday – Year C
 Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14
 Psalm 116:1, 10-17
 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
 John 13:1-17, 31b-35

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

Most parents treat their children like children…  the children may try to act like grown-ups in little bodies…  but they’re not…  and we teach them by example…  we set limits…  we increase the responsibility we give them  when they’ve demonstrated that they can handle what’s already on their plate…  we walk with them as they grow and mature into the adults we hope…  and pray…  they’ll become…  and we join with cultures the world round…   which participate in various rites of passage that mark endings and new beginnings…  we’re all familiar with baptisms…  bris’… first haircuts…  Bar Mitzvahs…  the quinceañera…  first communions…  confirmations…  high school graduations…  and maybe about the best one…  getting their driver’s licenses… 

And during this time…  they’re both learning and being formed…  and for the most part…  they get their education here [head]…  and they are formed here [heart]…  formation is a process… it’s the “becoming” that we’ve heard about over the last few weeks…  and so with this becoming in mind…  I’d like to share a passage from one of my favorite children’s books…  The Velveteen Rabbit…

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?” “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints, and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

After graduation from Bexley Hall…  Joel and I attended the ordination of a fellow seminarian…  who was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism…  an international living history group whose aim is to create 17th century Medieval European cultures and their histories…  Zeke had taken on the persona of a 14th century Irish squire to a knight…  and as he has lived out this character…  Matheus had become deeper…  more multi-dimensional…  not exactly historical…  but in some sense…  more real…

And the priest who offered the ordination homily…  reminded us…  that when a church gets a new communion vessel…  a chalice…  let’s say…  there is a prayer offered to dedicate that chalice for use at Table…  but the truest sanctification of that chalice is accomplished by every occasion in which it carries the life-giving wine of the sacrament…  by every generous-hearted servant who extends it…  by every yearning heart that takes in its nourishment…  the chalice is certainly made sacred by its dedicatory prayer…  but it becomes even more deeply sacred by those who make it the mediating vessel of the Grace which it is…

And the grace of foot-washing…  was a common practice in the Jewish and Greco-Roman world…  it was done…  well…  because people’s feet got pretty dusty from the dirt roads on which they travelled…  and it was also an act of hospitality…  often…  the foot-washing was performed by the guests themselves…  or sometimes by servants on behalf of the host…  and the part of who did what…  was intricately entwined in the whole honor / shame code…  which we continue to live out…  and live with…  today… 

In our Gospel reading tonight…  we’re told that Jesus  loved them to the end…  the Greek…  eis telos can be translated two ways…  first…  as an expression of time…  and the other…  as an expression of degree…  and John probably intended for both meanings to be heard…  because it was in loving them to the end that the full extent of Christ’s love was revealed…  the depth of the Gospel’s Greek is further revealed…  in the verb used to describe Jesus’ removal of his clothing…  tithemi…  it’s the same verb Jesus uses to describe the laying down of his life…  this is the great kenosis…  the great emptying of Godhood…  into servanthood…

And when he assumed the position of servant…  and washed the disciples’ feet…  which was the prerogative of the host…  Jesus combined the two roles…  he took foot-washing…  and sanctified it…  by making it something which was done not by a less-worthy servant…  but by God…  and in doing so…  Jesus not only challenged the validity of the honor / shame code itself…  but offered a foreshadowing of what was to come…

When we wash each others’ feet here…  we too challenge the honor / shame code…  and eliminate those distinctions about social standing…  entitlement…  prejudice…  and rank… because in this night… Jesus gave his disciples…  a new commandment…  which is what maundy means…  to love one another just as he had loved them…  over and over again…  Jesus tells and teaches that the world is not the way it seems…  that power comes from weakness…  that light comes from darkness…  and that victory comes from defeat…  when our hands reach out to give…  and others’ hands reach out to receive… we are all burnished into fullness by love and service…  it’s the becoming…  that we achieve through doing…  it’s like that movie-moment…  when on their journey…  the protagonist is suddenly faced with what seems like an insurmountable challenge…   and the only way through…  the only way forward…  is through some form of sacrificial giving…  and in that moment when the leap of faith is taken…  providence itself moves…  

Jesus called the disciples children…  he knew that they were in the process of growing up…  of letting go of those things which wise Skin Horses know don’t really matter at all…  like hair that’s been loved off…  and eyes that have dropped out…  and joints that have gotten loose and shabby…  he was giving them more responsibility…  Jesus acted like a loving parent…  helping his children grow into the fullness that all parents wish for them…  Holy God…  continue to help each and every one of us…  to become Real in this Holy way…