Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
Rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, AR
April 13, 2006, Maundy Thursday

Suzanne Stoner was supposed to preach tonight, but her mother-in-law, Elliot's mother, died yesterday, and Suzanne has gone to Dallas to be with the family. She gave me her notes for tonight's sermon; so if you hear some good ideas and phrases, they are hers. The rest is mine.

The arrangements for Jesus' last supper were made in secret. The authorities who collaborated with the Romans had already recruited Judas to help them find Jesus in a private, non-public place away from the crowds. The support of the crowds had made it impossible thus far for them to take him. Jesus worked hard to keep this location a secret, even from Judas. Later in the evening, the betrayer would be able to lead the conspirators to an isolated place to do their dark work.

Jesus knows the noose it tightening. Rome doesn't allow alternative kings and kingdoms. Rome's local allies who run the profitable Temple monopoly need to rid themselves of this troublemaker who exposed their corruption. They've been after him since Sunday and Monday. They will catch up to him. This would probably be his last opportunity to be with his friends.

It's interesting what Jesus chooses to do with his last visit with them. What do you do with your last free minutes with your loved ones? It seems that his choice is framed by his confidence that he has come from God and is going to God. His identity as God's person is secure. We typically make better choices when we are grounded in our true identity, don't we? What will Jesus say or do to leave his legacy with his friends?

It's pretty significant what he doesn't do. He doesn't summarize his teaching to make sure that they got it right. He doesn't pass along to them some secret knowledge or esoteric understanding meant only for the close initiates, like most Gnostic texts might wish for him to do. He doesn't announce some regal claim for honor, prestige or power for himself or his followers.

Instead, he takes off his outer robe, stripping down to his flesh, making plain his incarnation, his humanness. Instead of teaching, he acts. He washes their feet. He is showing them what his words have meant. Loving actions are more important than getting it right. Loving actions -- even when based sometimes on slippery understandings and dim perceptions of divine reality -- loving actions are more significant to Jesus than being certain or right in thinking.

He kneels at their feet as a servant. Here is the leader who is not above all but beneath/underneath all. He is the slave at the door, the one who prepares the others to enter into the household.

It is an odd way to interrupt their meal. The timing must have been puzzling since the feet of the guests had already been washed that evening as they arrived at dinner. Coming into this household, they had most likely entered through a door inscribed with the Shema, the first great commandment, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." And now within this household a new commandment is being revealed. "Love one another as I have loved you."

Jesus is preparing them for his absence even as he is preparing them for his continued presence. They will be like him, the community that expresses its love for one another through service. This is his glory. This is Jesus' glorification, to lose one's life for another.

He breaks bread and gives it to them. "This is my body."

He passes the wine among them. "This is my blood."

Whenever they do this, they will be re-membering him.

That's all that is left to do. Washing feet. The sharing of a sacred meal.

It will be enough. If they are to know him beyond this night, they will have to know him in the breaking of bread and in the sharing of the cup; they will have to know him in the humble service of loving one another.

These are the actions that re-member his presence. This is what will have to last beyond death and forever.