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.