This night is different from other nights

[discussion points]

“Why is this night different from all other nights?”

• Our Jewish friends began Passover earlier this week (sundown on Monday)
• At the Passover Seder meal, this question is asked, usually by a child, to solicit explanation about why this elaborate evening of eating and reading is now like other social gatherings and holidays
• For ancient Israel, and still for Jews today, this evening Seder brings God’s chosen people back into the remembrance of God leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt… and, particularly, remembering how God’s final plague against Egypt(the death of all first born) passed over the houses of the faithful Israelites because they had marked their entryways with the blood of a perfect sacrifice (a special lamb selected and slaughtered in a special way)
• [ref. unleavened bread, being ready to leave quickly, etc.]

Why is this night different from all other nights… for us?

• If you were to ask the Altar Guild, they’d probably say “because it’s more complex logistically and even kinda awkward in places” – indeed.
• There is more going on this night that is meant to unsettle us and, frankly, confront us with some rather uncomfortable moments meant to help us open our hearts and use our hands in new ways
• Although our service tonight is very similar to the sacramental meals we share each Sunday, tonight is different for at least three important reasons:

o   1)  we’re meant to comprehend more vividly that whereas our Jewish ancestors use a special meal this week to celebrate being spared of  violence caused by God and being led by out of bondage into a promised physical kingdom, we’re gathered for a meal that shows us how God has led us out of the burden of our sins and into a spiritual kingdom even amid the violence of this world

o   2) we’re invited into a very intimate experience of giving and receiving humble service in love through touching – cleaning! – each other’s feet

o   3) while we know there’s hope to the story ultimately, tonight we don’t end in hope – we end if loss, abandonment, and, if we really ‘go there’ – dark despair.

Put another way, it’s said that one of the longest spiritual journey’s we take in life is only a little over foot in length – it’s the distance from our head to our heart. Tonight is different in that we’re invited to experience the call of our Lord even more deeply emotionally - experiencing more from our hearts what it means to express love toward each other through humble service, and how it feels to allow someone to care for us as Jesus cares for us. 

Jesus took an expected act of hospitality normally done by a slave and lived into it as a powerful symbol of the humble love and charity expected of us as his disciples. We’re being asked to bring the power of this story to life again tonight through our own hands and feet... and to have this experience help us consider differently how we related to everyone outside the walls of this church.

o   Foot washing had very practical purposes for our ancestors; in the biblical context, having a slave wash a guests feet upon arrival in your home was an act of hospitality that said, ‘you’re welcome here; take a load off those feet that have traveled so far; we’ll care for you here.’ 

o   For us, this actions can be a transforming emotional journey. THIS IS BEYOND RELIGIOUS RITUAL – this is an invitation to touch each other and be touched by love in Christ’s name; I pray we lose track of the liturgy for a few moments during this service and actually encounter the brokenness, fears, and reservations in us… and also accept the healing and gentle love that Jesus offers and that we’re invited to offer to each other; we’re being asked to expose intimate parts of ourselves and touch each other in humble humility while lovingly respecting our mutual vulnerability

o   This was hard for Paul, as we’ve heard.  This is hard for some of us also.  Is this appropriate for our friend and neighbor to do this for us?  Are we embarrassed by it?  Do we have the courage, conviction, and love to humble ourselves to this type of action?  Do we feel worthy to accept such tender kindness from others?

NOTE: Jesus humbly and loving did this for all of those gathered… knowing, John says, that all of them would betray him in some way, E.g., Judas, Peter’s denials, all of them fleeing in fear, etc. – because Jesus wanted this powerful example of what God’s expects of us to endure as an instructive memory long after the shock of his death and the elation about his resurrection fades

   

A young-adult who is serving in Hong Kong with Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps wrote on her blog today: “Being a servant is more than just getting dirty, or taking on a job that no one else wants to do; it’s about loving someone else so much that you’re willing to sacrifice—really sacrifice time, talent, and treasure—for that other person’s well-being and betterment. Jesus calls us to love one another. He goes so far as to say that we will be known as his followers if we love each other.” [Grace Flint, Young Adult Service Corps in Hong Kong]

What’s different about tonight?  How we conclude the service.

Following the coming together in washing of each other’s feet and the sharing of this sacred meal in remembrance of Christ’s last Passover support with this closest friends, we will descend into darkness and are invited to encounter some of our own deepest fears and injuries around death, grief, separation, abandonment, and loss of hope. 

At the close of our time all together we will strip the altar bare – reminding us how our Lord was stripped of all dignity and how empty and bare our lives are without the light and love of his presence; we will wash the altar as we would prepare the dead for burial; we will lay the broken body of our Lord in the chapel as a tomb.
How will you feel when all signs of hope are removed from this place and we’re left only with an altar of repose for our Lord? 
Will you join with others to keep awake and keep watch? 
What sense can you make of tonight’s journey with each other – through the intimacy of washing each other’s feet through to the witnessing of the signs of death and loss of our Lord? 

As you journey from head to heart tonight, surrender the rules and conventions that tell you that those in power and with prestige are there to be served; that keep the poor and underclass under foot… consider that one of Jesus’ final demonstrations of God’s intentions was in lowering himself to serve us so that we could see how to do the same so that we all may be lifted up. 
Generous acts of humble service in love are to conquer fears, help the lost be found, and to restore the broken-hearted to their rightful place at the table – as equals and beloved in the eyes of God. 
And no matter what darkness seems to overtake us, remember that we’re in this together – walking each other home to God’s kingdom, where places have been already prepared for us as a heavenly family. 
It is Jesus himself who call us into this night that is different from other nights. 
It is our Lord who calls us to do as he has done… who give us the mandatum (Latin for ‘new mandate’) to love each other as he has shown us how to love each other.

“you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15)

It is our Christ who calls us to participate differently tonight.

“do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11: 24)

AMEN