Holy Thursday @014

"In the Cup of the New Covenant,"
Jan Richardson, 2012.

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In her long poem "Feet"^[1] Denise Levertov¹ wrote:

"I watched a man whose feet were neatly wrapped in green plastic.

He entered a restaurant that advertised a $2.00 special C Sloppy Joes.

And I saw him come out immediately again.

"It was cold and wet, and I was taking shelter under the awning, waiting for a bus.

The man was angry.

"'What happened?'

He looked at me C

'No shoes,' he said.

We all know the rubric C

No shoes, no shirt, no service."

You can drag dirt into an eatery with shoes but not with feet covered in plastic.

On this holy night, we remember the Passover of the Lord.

The readings are a treasury of meaning and hold together in powerful ways.

The foot‑washing scene in John's Gospel has no parallel in ritual meals of the Judaism of Jesus' time.

It is innovation, par excellence.

In the time of Jesus the streets would have been filled with human and animal waste.

The washing of feet was usually done by a slave.

That is why the disciples are stunned when Jesus takes off his outer garment

and puts a towel over his shoulders and begins to wash their feet.

Peter, of course, speaks what everyone is thinking and feeling.

the first level of meaning is that of humble service.

But there is another level of meaning as well.

In biblical times the hands and feet symbolize human activity.

It is with hands and feet that we sin.

in our minds, to wash them, to cleanse them, is to wash away sin, it is to forgive.

When Jesus urges his disciples to repeat this action he is not merely talking about washing of feet.

He is insisting that we forgive one another as he has forgiven us, that we love one another as he has loved us.

What about hands?

We remember Jesus as taking, breaking, giving bread and wine.

The handing over of food and drink became an embodied symbol of that other "handing over,"

the "handing over" when Christ, betrayed into the hands of sinners, surrendered his body to death on the cross.

Human hands connect Eucharist and cross, Holy Thursday and Good Friday;

hands outstretched to take, break and give;

hands cupped to hold, receive, eat and drink;

hands nailed east and west on a cross.

On this holy night, we pledge once again to use our hands and feet for the work of forgiveness,

for the work of loving each other.

We pledge to wash each other's feet, to hand over our lives for each other, for the sake of the world.

We pledge ourselves to do Eucharist, to do this in memory of the One who gave His life for us.

We do so because Jesus is our Passover Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.