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Getting Down on Your Knees

4/1/2013

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Jesus said, So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.  John 13:14-15

  What gets you down on your knees these days?  Do you wash the kitchen floor, vacuum under the sofa, repair the drain under a sink?  Maybe you plant seeds in the garden, or pull up weeds.  Maybe you attend to a small child when he or she is sick, or clean up after a beloved cat or dog? I hope that sometimes you get down on your knees in prayer – as long as your knees still work!

There are probably many things that cause us to get down on our knees, for one reason or another, but I bet that foot-washing is not one of them.

And yet – there it is, right at the center of tonight’s Gospel.  Jesus had gathered with the disciples, and he had a pretty good sense of what was coming next.  In fact, the way John relates the story, Jesus knows that his hour had come, time was up, and he wanted to leave his followers with a very clear example and symbol of who he was and who they should be.

So during the dinner party Jesus gets up, takes off his outer clothing, and wraps himself in a towel, just like any household servant of first-century Palestine would do. And then he proceeds to take up a basin and a pitcher of water and wash the disciples’ feet.

You probably know what it’s like in the summer time if you wear sandals – your feet feel cool and comfortable, but boy, do they get dirty! Well, it was the same thing in Jesus’ day, and the accepted standard of hospitality was that when a visitor arrived for a meal, the guest’s feet would be washed of the street dust and dirt.  And if there was household help, washing feet was a servant’s job.

It was a shocking thing to see the leader, the revered rabbi, washing feet like a common servant.  I am sure the disciples were whispering amongst themselves: “This is too weird; what does he think he’s doing?!”  It was finally Peter who, as usual, burst out with what everyone else was thinking:   “Master, you wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.” Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!” Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.” “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”

Peter couldn’t stand the idea of his leader and friend, the one whom he had identified as Messiah, could act like a common servant. And then Jesus explained the inner meaning of his action: “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene.”  And he went on to make it clear to them that if  they claimed Jesus as “teacher” and “master” then they had to follow his example, to live life according to Jesus’ pattern.

Jesus was giving them a new vocation, or at least finally making it clear and explicit, in these last hours before his arrest and trial and death. The vocation of the disciples was to live a life of service to others, based on their love and loyalty for Jesus, strengthened by their love for one another. 

We had flashes of Jesus’ humility on Palm Sunday when he rode a donkey into Jerusalem – a common, humble animal, and when we heard the reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians when he quoted the words of a hymn: “…though he was in the form of God, [Christ] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.”

The new vocation that Jesus gave to the disciples and to us is that we are to be servants – not subservient – but servants to those for whom Christ died, all those whom he loves, especially to those who are least able to help themselves: the poor, the sick, the lonely, the powerless, the outcast, the lesser-than  And we are to do this with love, with compassion, because really (if we look into our heart-of-hearts) we know that we have all been in that place of need whether physically, emotionally or spiritually.  Not one of us is exempt from it. And so Jesus calls us to be servants on his behalf, in the world. 

In the Church, it is the deacon who symbolizes this, and tonight I am remembering our former Deacon Bill Bailey who embodied this so well, right up to a few months before his death earlier this month.  And I know that Bill would say that he was merely showing the way for others, that he would not have succeeded in his ministry if others hadn’t learned from him a little more deeply what it means to serve, and to be Church, in and for and on behalf of the world.  The ceremony of foot-washing which symbolizes servant-hood was always Bill’s favorite part of Maundy Thursday liturgy, and I know he was a little disappointed that we did not do that here at All Saints’.

Our vocation to be servants get lived out on at least two different levels – the level of our individual actions in our work and families, and the level of what we do together as a parish.  That’s what has driven our ministry of community hospitality; it’s why we open our buildings to so many groups in our neighborhood; it’s why we host so many AA meetings each week; it’s why we collect food for the pantry in Dover; it’s why we endeavor to welcome anyone and everyone who is looking for a spiritual home, a community of connection to God.  It’s all part of our vocation as servants for Christ’s sake. 

But even as we are engaged in all this work and ministry and hospitality, Jesus bids us to gather at his Table – to be fed, strengthened, renewed, nourished – not just for our well-being or spiritual satisfaction, but so that we can be the Body of Christ in the world, fed by the Body and Blood of the Lord.  We gather for worship, we lift up the cares and concerns of our hearts and our neighbors, we are fed by Christ and then sent out to be who and what we are, only to return and begin the process all over again.

Towel and table, invitation and dismissal, bread and work, prayer in sacrament and action – it’s all part of this night, and part of each and every day that we live as Jesus’ followers, servants and friends.  Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Church, Millington, NJ
Maundy Thursday
March 28, 2013

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Ordination of Beth Rauen Sciaino as a Transitional Deacon

6/17/2011

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[Jesus said:] “But you are not to be like that.  Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.” Luke 22:26

When I was in college my campus job was working in the dining hall.

Five nights a week at this small women’s college we had waitressed family-style dinners, and usually two of those five nights I was working.

The student-waitresses carried big metal trays filled with platters and bowls of food for tables of eight – three tables per waitress.

After everyone was finished eating we collected up the dirty plates and cutlery and glasses, took them to the dish room and then went to the kitchen where we picked up dessert – servings of cake or pie or ice cream, or whatever dessert happened to be that night.

At the end of the meals the tables were cleared, wiped down and swept beneath.

This was hard work; the trays were heavy, people often made a mess of their plates, china and utensils were usually sticky or greasy, and there was more than once when I stepped on a wet patch on the floor, only to slip and fall with a fully-loaded tray.

But it was different than waiting tables in a restaurant.

The student-diners were my peers and classmates and friends.

In our small, rural academic community there was only one dining hall, the snack bar wasn’t open at meal times, the off-campus options were the real dive of a bar a mile away or the over-priced college-owned inn; any kind of fast-food was in the nearest big town – 15 miles away.

So shared meals at college were as essential as labs, lectures, rehearsals or the library.

We came together in the dining hall to eat, to socialize, to continue a classroom debate or argument, to hear all-school announcements, to be silly and to blow off steam.

It all built the bonds of our community, but a lot of that social fabric was made possible by the students who waitressed, or worked as lab assistants or library staff, or teaching assistants or lifeguards at the pool or any of the other campus jobs.

We served each other for the good of the whole, as well as for our work-study money.

The same thing happened in the early days of the Church.

As more and more people came to faith in Christ the community of believers grew, and the leadership found it difficult to keep up with all the aspects of caring for this spiritual community that also had very real physical needs.

In fact, some people were starting to fall through the cracks: the Greek-speaking widows were getting short-changed in the daily distribution of food, and so they complained to the apostles against the Hebrew-speaking portion of the community.

The size and diversity of the Church was growing beyond what the apostles alone could handle, somebody needed to make sure everyone was getting fed, and so the apostles asked the community to raise up leadership from among themselves to take on this task of overseeing the people’s physical needs.

Seven were chosen, all with Greek names – including Stephen who became the first martyr for the Christian faith.

And as the Book of Acts tells us: “The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem.”

As the spiritual and physical needs of the whole community were met – Greeks, as well as Hebrews; the newly-arrived, as well as the long-timers; the widows, as well as those who had means of support from their families – as the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of all were valued and attended to, the mission of the Church went forward and grew and flourished.

The well-being of the Christian body and the success of its evangelism was dependent on these seven deacons, those called to diakonia – the ministry of service.

And that is so because the Lord they served is one who takes account of the small, the poor, the least, the outsiders, the powerless, the down-trodden, the grief-stricken and the hurting; all of these are precious in God’s sight.

Jesus told the apostles - the Twelve, his closest friends, his inner circle - that they were not to argue about who was the greatest, but that “the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.”

 And he said this in response to an argument the Twelvewere having at the Last Supper, as Jesus shared his last meal with them.

That may seem incredible to us now, to think of the disciples arguing about their own standing and stature in the face of the impending death of their rabbi and Lord, but it’s a good reminder for us.

Too often, when we focus on ourselves, we can forget what we are about, we can overlook God’s priorities, and we need to hear Jesus calling us back to what is real and what is important: “the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves… [for] I am among you as one who serves.”

The ministry of a deacon is a gift to the Church, a gift to all of us, because this ministry keeps reminding us that we are all called to service, we are all called to reach out, we are all called to humility, we are all to take our place in the fabric of the Christian community – one person interwoven with the next.

Diaconal ministry reminds us very clearly that “it’s not about you,” because being a follower of Jesus is about loving God and loving our neighbor, and not about our own self-importance.

And so we come to this day when we are setting aside a deacon, raising up from among us one who will be an example and a role model of service, a leader who values the needs of the whole community, one who will pay attention to those least likely to draw attention to themselves – in the Church and outside it.

Beth does this as well as anyone I know.

She has offered her considerable skills and talents - and her willingness to take risks and push herself beyond what is easy or comfortable – in five different congregations in this diocese, in a women’s shelter, and in several national church organizations – all places where it could be very easy to forget what Jesus says about service and humility.

We know, and Beth and the Bishop and the Commission on Ministry (on behalf of the Church) have discerned, that her call to ministry is ultimately as a priest; but this ordination as a deacon today is so important.

It is an indelible mark that will remain with Beth throughout her life – a call to service, to diakonia, to drawing the circle wide, to including those who would otherwise be left behind; God’s mission of love and compassion in a broken and hurting world; an icon of service for the whole Church.

And now Beth and Peter and Phoebe, will you please stand.

You have come to a new threshold in the life of your family as Beth is about to be ordained.

Prior to this, Beth and Peter, you have made vows before God: baptismal vows, confirmation vows, marriage vows, vows as parents of a baptized child.

Those vows and promises continue; they are not trumped by ordination, but ordination does cast a different light, does shade things differently in the life of a family.

And so Peter and Phoebe, Beth will need your support – which you have already given so generously – but she will also need you sometimes to help her stay grounded in her relationships as wife and mother, to remind her to pray and to play (Phoebe, I know you are particularly good at the playing part and you’ll be able to help your mom with this).

Beth, please remain standing; Peter and Phoebe, you may be seated.

Beth, my friend, my colleague, my sister in Christ – my charge to you this day, and my prayer for you, is that in your ministry and in your life you will always know the love and joy of Jesus, that you will serve others with the love and joy of Jesus, that you will continue to draw the circle wide in the love and joy of Jesus – and always for God’s glory and for the building up of God’s people and kingdom and Church.  Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
Trinity and St. Philip’s Cathedral, Newark, NJ
Ordination to the Transitional Diaconate
June 4, 2011
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All Saints' Episcopal Church

 15 Basking Ridge Road, Millington NJ 07946    phone: (908) 647-0067    email: allstsmill@hotmail.com