Remember to Practice

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 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. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

How many times per day, on average, do you wash someone else’s feet?  I do it once per year IF (and ONLY if) I’m NOT in charge of the Maundy Thursday liturgy and the pastor/priest/bishop who IS in charge INSISTS on putting foot washing in the service.  Honestly, it creeps me out!  It's so unusual!  It feels like a boundary violation.  Back in Jesus’ day, that was not the case.  People washed each other’s feet multiple times per day, every single day.  Nobody wiped their feet on a doormat, they all got their feet washed every time they came in the door.  That happened every time, for every person, in every home… as routinely as we stomp off the snow and wipe our feet. 

THAT, I think, is why Jesus chose to pair the mindlessly routine practice of foot washing, with the uncommon Spiritual practice of Loving One Another.  By connecting the two, Jesus was trying to get us to understand that Loving One Another wasn’t meant to be something we only do once a year or only for special people.  Jesus meant for Loving One Another to become for his Disciples as extraordinarily common… as extremely regular… as mindlessly routine... as continuously ongoing as washing someone's feet was for them when someone came through the door!    

By making foot washing into a once-per-year, extraordinarily rare, extremely unusual practice, I think we as the Church have literally undone one of the things Jesus intended to put into place that night!  Jesus intended, I think, to link a physical practice, so common, so easily done by rote, something so almost mindlessly routine… to Loving One Another, SO THAT the disciples would become trained to Love One Another in that same common, rote, automatically routine way.  That way, Loving One Another would become habit and then, EVEN when their entire world came crashing down around them, they would just automatically go on... Loving One Another.  

Jesus made this connection for his disciples so that when the world looked like it had come to a horrible end they wouldn’t lash out in violence or look for revenge.  They wouldn’t look for someone to blame or stay in bed with the covers over their heads.  They would instead, as part of their learned, everyday, habit... just keep on Loving One Another with the same sort of automatic routine as people in those days washed one another's feet.  No higher brain function required… no calculations needing to be made…just automatically… habitually... Love One Another.  

In our world, washing feet is no longer the routine, everyday practice it was for those disciples back then.  Two thousand years of time, paved roads, and dramatic shifts in cultural practice have deconstructed what was supposed to be a Spiritual workout routine, strengthening muscle memory day by day to Love One Another automatically by pairing it with a physical thing everyone also did automatically.  These days foot washing has become the opposite of that.  It is now a once per year, ritualized event that mostly brings to mind Jesus’ humility.  

Jesus was certainly humble, and humility remains a excellent quality to possess and to share in this world overrun with arrogance, pride, and self-importance.  But humility was not the practice Jesus was trying to teach that night.  Humility was at best, an aside.  The main lesson was… and I think remains… that we are being called to train ourselves, so that the life giving practice of Loving One Another becomes second nature to us... automatic... habitual.    

If you and I want to learn what Jesus was really teaching that night, we will need to first find something that we do as easily, routinely, and automatically as they washed people's feet.  Maybe tying our shoes?  Stopping at a red light?  Pushing “GO” on the coffee pot first thing in the morning?  THEN we will need to practice bringing to mind "Loving One Another" every time we do that easy, routine, and automatic thing.  That way... eventually… Loving One Another... will become not something we do with our conscious minds, but will become something we do out of habit.  Loving One Another would simply become HOW WE LIVE automatically, in every moment, day after day.  

If washing feet is not a practice that helps brings to mind for you Jesus’ command to Love One Another multiple times each and every day, then what is?  What is that mindlessly routine thing you do multiple times each day that you can pair with Jesus’ command to Love One Another?  Maybe it is tying your shoes?  Or stopping at every red light?  Maybe it could be opening the refrigerator door?  Because, by pairing something that you actually do multiple times each day with Jesus’ command to Love One Another, you and I can train our Spirits day by day so that eventually, Loving One Another becomes OUR automatic response to whatever this world throws at us next.  Then, even when our world looks like it is crashing to an end, our automatic response will be… just as Jesus hoped it would be... to Love One Another.   Amen.   

When Christ Calls...

John 11:1-45

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.

A very kindly angel Maître D' showed Lazarus to his table at The Feast That Never Ends.  He slid in his chair and the Maître D' placed his napkin in his lap.  Lazarus looked around at the people seated near him.  He saw one guy just down the table that he knew from the old neighborhood and thought to himself, “Yeah, that makes sense.  He was a decent bloke.”  Then, he saw another guy he knew that made him think, “Wow, God’s Grace really IS Amazing!  Okay.  Alright.”

 

Then Lazarus started to notice the spread.  Rich foods filled with marrow… okay, okay, he thought… being dead is looking up.  Well aged wines, strained clear… nice, nice, good, good.  Then Lazarus went and took a bite and the flavor was… well… so heavenly... that his eyes closed involuntarily.  I mean, you’d expect the food to be that good at The Feast That Never Ends, but to EXPERIENCE it… that was something else entirely.  

As Lazarus opened his eyes, ready for his next bite, there, standing by his chair again was the Angel Maître D'.  “Mr. Lazarus sir, we’ve just received a call from a Mr. Christ… a Mr. Jesus H. Christ… and he would like you to, and I quote, “Come out.”  Lazarus just stared in disbelief at the Maître D'.  He swallowed the last heavenly bite, pushed himself back from the table, set his napkin on the chair, and while the Angel Maître D' folded it into a beautiful swan, Lazarus climbed back down Jacob’s ladder, got back in his body, got himself up from slab, and made his way out of the tomb all wrapped in strips of cloth, where he found friends and family who unbound him and let him go.

That’s how Lazarus did it.  He heard Christ's call, got up, and went.  If it had been me, Jesus would have heard THIS from deep within the tomb:  “NO!    I’m in HEAVEN!     LI-TER-AL HEA-VEN here!  It’s 68 degrees here.  The food is incredible.  Wine… amazing.  Nobody here has dysentery.  The One in charge here isn’t a psychotic narcissist and you want me to go back THERE?  Where it’s 104 in the shade?  Where everyone eats filth and just waits around to get sick and die?  You want me to go back THERE?  The place held hostage by Psycho Caesar?  NO, Jesus!  I'm NOT coming out.  I’m just not.  I don’t care who your dad is!  I’m not coming out.  No.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls us, he bids us come and die” and that is exactly what this story is teaching us.  Lazarus is demonstrating for us the Cost of Discipleship.  Answering Jesus’ call to Discipleship cost him EVERYTHING!  Up to and including the rewards of heaven itself!  Rich food filled with marrow, well aged wines strained clear.  It cost him an eternal existence at a comfortable 68 degrees.  It cost him everything.  In this story, Lazarus leaves heaven.  LITERAL HEAVEN, and all heaven has to offer, in order to follow Jesus as a disciple.

 

Lazarus shows us that a call to discipleship is a call to allow yourself to be unbound from EVERYTHING… ego, fear, attachments… to shed whatever wraps us up and keeps us from becoming who God created us to be.  This story ends up being a lived out parable, because we too have been called by Jesus to “Come Out”!  To give up our obsession with the person we see in the mirror… their wants … their desires.  This story is a call to US, to push back OUR chairs from self indulgence... turn around, leave everything behind and walk toward Jesus until we find ourselves in the same position as Lazarus… standing in front of Christ, bathed in the glory of the Presence of the Divine, ready to follow Jesus into an abundant life lived not for the self, but for the other.

In 1209, our final Lenten Saint, Francis of Assisi composed the first, simple rule for his followers, the Regula Primitiva… the Primitive Rule.  The rule was simple.  To “follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.”  That is precisely what Lazarus did in today’s Gospel.  He followed the teachings of his Lord Jesus Christ, came out of the tomb, and began, once again, to walk in Jesus’ footsteps.  That is the call to Discipleship.  A call no harder than getting up and walking outside.  AND… and… at the same time, a call no easier than leaving heaven behind.  A stunningly simple thing to do on the one hand… and the hardest thing anyone could ever imagine doing on the other!  

May we all be given the vision, faith, understanding, and courage needed each day, to come out from ourselves when Jesus calls.  To allow ourselves to be fully unbound from our certainties, our fears, our ego, and our self indulgence so that we might find ourselves not standing in front of a mirror, but standing the presence of the Divine, fully alive, reflecting God’s infinite love and glory out into the world as we were created to do… and in doing that, become what we are called to be… instruments of God’s peace.  Amen.

You Must Ask the Right Questions

 John 9:1-41

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”

Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “The Sent One”). The man went and washed—and saw.

Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”

Others said, “It’s him all right!”

But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”

He said, “It’s me, the very one.”

They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”

“A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”

“So where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”

Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.

They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?”

His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don’t know how he came to see—haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.” (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That’s why his parents said, “Ask him. He’s a grown man.”)

They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind—and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor.”

He replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.”

They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

“I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?”

With that they jumped all over him. “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.”

The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!” Then they threw him out in the street.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”

Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”

“Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.

Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”

Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”

In John’s Gospel, Jesus is THE SENT ONE.  (Like the pool in this story is the “Sent One”)  Jesus is SENT by God into the Old Creation to transform it into a New Creation.  There are seven signs in John’s Gospel to continually drive home that point.  Jesus shows his power over nature by turning water into wine.  Shows his authority over disease by healing an official’s child on the other side of town.  Shows he’s the giver of life when he feeds the 5000.  Shows he’s the new boss of nature by walking on water.  He shows himself as the light of the world by giving the man born blind sight and next week, when Jesus raises Lazarus, he will show us that he has power over death itself.  The only trouble with a New Creation, is that it’s… well… NEW.  And “NEW” is hard.  Particularly for those who really love the “OLD”!  Now, the Old Creation wasn’t bad.  In fact, God made it not just Good, but VERY GOOD.  But that only makes letting go of it that much harder. 

So what’s all that got to do with us?  Well, God making Old things New is a never ending, continually unfolding story, isn't it?  When I got here, we were The Church of What’s Happenin’ Now!  The Rectory Remodel, then Rainbow Chairs, Beer and Hymns, Federation, The Appalachian Trail, Sheffield Pride, A Cycling Hospitality Center, Solar Panels, Berkstock, Bake Sales, and Barbecue, the Hilpl House remodel, a new shed, new signs, a Memorial Garden redux.  Not even Covid could stop us!  We innovated online worship, became Bishop Fisher’s Proto Cathedral and video studio, and matched unused restaurants with hungry families with Feeding Friends!  We were "The Church of What’s Happenin’ Now" and it was GOOD.  In fact I would be so bold as to say it was VERY Good.  The Holy Spirit called, as the kids say, we crushed it!  

But the world is changing.  Our church is changing.  A few of us have been trying to prop up the Old Creation.  Personally taking on more, just trying to keep "The Church of What’s Happenin’ Now"… Happenin’…  but that’s just made us grumpy.  I really didn’t realize how grumpy I’d gotten until I saw others getting grumpy for the same reason.  Granted, I’m grumpy even on a good day, but this was well beyond normal grumpy.

 

Then it hit me, like SIGHT given to a man born BLIND… this is what it feels like to try and hold onto an OLD CREATION when God is trying to get you to follow THE SENT ONE into a NEW CREATION!  Grumpy and frustrated are Pharisee feelings!  That’s what it feels like when God’s trying to get you to pull your head out of your… pocket… we’ll just say pocket… and live into a New Creation and you’re resisting!

So, what is this “New Creation” God's calling us into?  THAT is the right question.  When our daughter Eren was getting her degree in Social Work they talked about measuring the amount of energy you have each day in terms of “spoons”.  Everyone gets so many spoons each day.  Doing things throughout the day costs you spoons.  Easy things don’t cost many spoons.  Hard things cost lots of spoons, but either way when you've spent all your spoons for the day, you’re emotionally DONE.  Even if there’s more to do, you’re still just done… and not just done, but done-done.   

So, let me ask you a question.  How many spoons did a normal day cost you back 5 or 7 years ago?  Maybe six or seven out of ten?  Nine on a hard day.  Every once in the while a day would cost you all ten or maybe twelve, putting you in a deficit for the next day.  But that didn’t happen often.  Right?  How many spoons does a normal day cost you today?  For me, ten out of ten every… damn… day, and that’s when everything goes perfectly.  I don’t think I’m alone with that.  I think that for the vast majority of us, a NORMAL day… just getting from today to tomorrow… costs many of us every spoon we have, and all too often, more than we have.   

With the world like that, God no longer needs us to be “The Church of What’s Happening Now” even if we could keep it up… and we can’t!  What God needs us to be now is a New Creation for the world in which we're now living. But what does THAT look like?  The details are still fuzzy to me.  But it somehow involves gathering and fostering a community with a mystic’s willingness to live in uncertainty, with deeply compassionate hearts, and practicing with others how to love one another while holding everything this chaotic world throws at us very loosely.   

Or, as John Arthur puts it… a ministry of More Huggin’ and Less Luggin’!  Honestly through, as far as the details go, it feels to me like we’re in the same spot the man born blind found himself at the end of this story.  He knew the Old Creation no longer worked.  But at the same time, literally everywhere he looked… everything he saw, was something he’d literally never seen before!  Imagine how absolutely overwhelming, totally confusing, and exhausting that would be!  I think "absolutely overwhelmed, totally confused and exhausted" is where we are as a church in this moment.  For the record, I don't like it.  It’s uncomfortable.  And it's also exactly where we are called to be in this moment.         

So what do we do with all that?  First, we give ourselves permission to let the Old Creation go.  Next, like the man born blind, I think we just try to follow Jesus, fumbling and figuring as we go.  You see, I don’t know exactly what this New Creation is asking of us, but I do think following the One who is light in the darkness, turns water into wine, conquers disease, fills the hungry with good things, rewrites rules in favor of compassion, and has the power to raise the dead… following that One… even when our following is filled with confused fumbling… following that One is probably a really good place to start.  Amen.