Maundy Thursday 2012: April 5, 2012

MAUNDY THURSDAY 2012

April 5, 2012

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

“No shirt, no shoes, no problem.”

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

When my spouse and I were living in Texas during graduate school, finding cheap entertainment for toddlers was my never-ending quest. Cheap, child-friendly, air-conditioned fun—this was the Holy Grail for a stay-at-home mom of two boys. And then, one day, I found it! It was just a little coffee shop inside a much larger store, but one very intelligent store manager had placed not one, but two “Thomas the Tank Engine” train tables in the middle of this coffee shop. Yes, two train tables, and with all the accessories! I could almost hear the angels sing when I found this little piece of heaven.

But in order to enjoy this bit of paradise with my young children, I had to overlook its surroundings. You see, this particular coffee shop was nestled inside the cultural center of Waco, Texas: The Compass Christian Lifestyle Superstore. This place was, in short, the Wal-Mart of Christianity. You could get Bibles in nearly every translation, of course, but you could also purchase Christian-themed shirts, candles, books, toys, and endless home-school supplies. There were Christian breath mints and Christian casserole dishes and Christian alternatives to nearly every household product you could imagine. The guy behind the check-out counter had hipster Christian hair and lots of Jesus tattoos. The girl who made my coffee read her pink study Bible between helping customers. As a pastor’s wife, I should have felt right at home in this environment!

But sitting near those lovely train tables, drinking an over-priced latte as my boys happily played, it seemed as though the store whispered to me: “By this they will know that you are a disciple…if you buy this cross necklace…if you wear this Jesus t-shirt…if you show your kids this video…if you listen to this worship music…if you look just like us!”

In other words, this place gave me the creeps. The Christian Lifestyle Superstore, was at the same time an oasis for a tired mom and a desert of discipleship (simul justus et peccatur!) Eager to follow Jesus, we take the cross of his suffering and paint it, bedazzle it, and decorate our homes with it. We take the Word of God and put it on tins of breath mints. Looking for love and hoping to belong, we surround ourselves with tasteful (and not-so-tasteful) Christian accessories. And somehow, in all our eagerness to follow him, we’ve utterly missed the commandment Jesus left with his disciples at the Last Supper: “By this will people know you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.”

You see, on the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus sat at the table with his closest friends and shared a meal with them. And when the meal was over, he stood up, took off his formal clothes, tied a towel around his waist, and proceeded to wash their feet. It was an act of love they couldn’t even begin to process while it was happening. The disciples whispered to one another around the table, wondering what it all meant, until Jesus assured them: “I know you don’t understand now what I’m doing, but later you will get it.” Our love of the Christian Lifestyle Superstore and what it offers makes one wonder how long it will take before we finally understand what Jesus meant. “By this shall people know you are my disciples,” said Jesus, “if you have love for one another.” He didn’t say anything about t-shirts.

Now before we go any further, I must confess to you that just last week I purchased not one, but two t-shirts at a performance of my favorite Christian band. I’m not at all opposed to wearing my faith on my sleeve! But on Maundy Thursday in particular, we have the opportunity to reflect on what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This day, which takes its name, Maundy, from the Latin “mandatum”, meaning “command”, honors the new commandment our Lord gave at that last meal. He didn’t command his disciples to wear a uniform. He didn’t say a word about sandals or cross necklaces, and certainly nothing about Jesus t-shirts or even clergy collars. Jesus, as he prepared to leave his loved ones, instead commanded his followers to embrace a lifestyle that can’t be bought at any big box superstore. “If you want people to know you love me,” he said, “Love one another.”

The twentieth-century saint and activist Dorothy Day once said, ““God meant for things to be much easier than we have made them”. When it comes to loving one another, not a truer statement could be made. We’ve messed up love to a spectacular degree! We argue about who is worthy of love and who can love whom. We look for love in all the wrong places—in food, in accomplishments, in money, and in popularity. And we refuse to believe, in spite of the evidence before us, that God could love us as much as Jesus says.

All this makes it very hard for us to hear Christ’s new commandment. What does it mean to love one another, if we have such a hard time loving ourselves? How can I love my neighbor, if I don’t like her very much? What if I don’t feel very loving? Can I just buy the t-shirt instead?

Jesus must have known we’d have a hard time hearing these words, even words plainly spoken, so he gave us a visual aid we couldn’t miss. Standing up after dinner, removing his outer cloak and tying a towel around his waist, Jesus did more than give us a clever idea for a once-a-year worship service. He showed us that love is getting off our seats and doing something. Love is taking off the three-piece-suit and putting on a servant’s apron. Love is taking risks and doing the unexpected or the unaccepted. Love is dealing with the most unpleasant parts of others: dirty feet, dirty secrets, messy lives, and other things we’d rather hide inside our shoes.

Seeing their teacher on the floor washing feet surely got the disciples’ attention! But this was more than a lesson on how to be better people. The Son of God, kneeling on the floor in the role of servant, was providing a commentary on his own impending death. He gave the disciples a preview of what was to come. Out of love for the whole world, Jesus would soon shed his power, privilege, and authority in order to die a criminal’s death on a cross. And because of this gift—because Jesus loved us to the end—we can love one another.

Yes, it’s just like that song you learned in Vacation Bible School! We love, because God first loved us. God’s radical love for us, seen most clearly in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, frees us from all that wasted time looking for love in all the wrong places. In that freedom, we can love one another as he loved us. And by this will the world will know that we are his disciples.

Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land tells this story:

“One day a Muslim shopkeeper in the Old City of Jerusalem stopped me as I was walking to my office at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. ‘Look at that woman over there,’ he said. ‘I can tell she is a Christian.’ I asked the man, ‘How do you know that?’ And he replied, ‘Because she is carrying that handicapped child, and she takes care of handicapped children that are not her own. You Christians are better than we are.’ I told him that we Christians are not better than Muslims, but we practice sacrificial love because our Lord Jesus gave himself for us on the cross.” (www.elcjhl.org)

Bishop Younan makes it clear that the point is not to compare Christians to Muslims, or to people of other faiths, or to people of no faith. We love, not to be better people, and not to “one-up” our neighbor, but to follow the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to live lives that bear witness to his sacrificial love for us. In spite of what the Christian Lifestyle Superstore tries to sell us, being a Christian isn’t about having the right accessories. By this alone shall people know we are disciples: if we have love for one another.

Let us pray: Everlasting God, your Son Jesus Christ girded himself with a towel and washed his disciples’ feet; grant us the will to be the servant of others as he was servant of all, who gave up his life and died for us, yet lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen. (A New Zealand Prayer Book, p. 604)