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This Sunday, Palm Sunday will mark the beginning of "Holy Week" in Christian tradition. Holy Week includes Maundy Thursday. Deservedly, Good Friday, and Easter get the most attention. However, Maundy Thursday also contains an important teaching to take through this whole week and beyond.
One of the chief ways that Maundy Thursday is celebrated is in foot-washing ceremonies incorporated into or around a worship service. Typically, people in church leadership wash the feet of people in the congregation. This is taken from an account of Jesus, before the Last Supper, washing the feet of the disciples. The disciples are reluctant to let him do this. But he says to them: (John 13) :
`Do ye know what I have done to you? Ye call me, "The Teacher" and "The Lord", and ye say well, for I am; if then I did wash your feet -- the Lord and the Teacher -- ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given thee an example, that ye should do as I have done to ye. Verily, verily, I say unto ye, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
He tells them straight up -- If I did this for you -- who are you to not do this for others?
And more than that -- "Happy are you who do the [these things].
Beyond the lesson about the character of Jesus, Maundy Thursday has a fine lesson for anyone of any faith.
Maundy Thurday is about getting over ourselves, and about paying attention to people who need us, who have taken care of us, served us. It is about learning once and for all that generosity is an act of required human service, not a bragging chip. It is a lesson in community.
Whose feet should you be washing? Who needs to know that even you do not consider yourself "better" than they are?
I am not suggesting that we all start wandering the streets and hills with a washcloth looking for feet. I am saying that when we look at our communities of life -- our jobs, neighborhoods, schools, stores, factories -- whom do we encounter that we should be humble towards? Who needs us to step down from our high assumptions?
Did we look into the eyes of our waitress today? Did we even read the name on her name tag? Why not -- was she "just a waitress"? Was she just someone that we expected would care for us and our needs whom we might tip later? Or was she "Margo" who may have had a horrible day and is frightened that she may not be able to pay her heating bill. Or she may be Claire, who volunteers as a Big Sister even though she barely makes enough money to get by. Did we thank her and mean it? Did we really tip adequately? Was her life any happier, even for a moment, for having met us?
The clerk in the grocery store, standing eight hours a day and being told to smile at everyone all the time -- did we even notice her hair color? Did we think about saying "What pretty earrings!" or "Thanks for bagging that so carefully," or making some comment that let her know she was actually seen or appreciated?
At the dry-cleaner -- did we take a couple of extra moments just to have a civil bit of pleasant smalltalk? Did we help humanize the attendant's day by speaking with them, not at them? Or did we walk away leaving just another numb moment behind us -- or worse yet, one in which the attendant may have felt our disregard -- our assumptions that the affairs of our day were so much more important than being courteous to them, as one human being to another.
You get the point.
We all could come up with a laundry list of people to whom we might have been better -- people who served us and our needs today.
I messed up today. I stopped at the drive-up window of the bank. I didn't even look at the woman. I remember it now with embarrassment. I just wanted my transaction done. I just wanted to drop off a deposit and dash. Did my saving ten seconds merit treating
