It’s in my deepest memory—those images of that simple meal; plain bread, water, and simple meat. And afterwards the humble submission of follower to follower, servant to servant as one knelt before the other and with warm water, soap (YES! real soap…), and towel performed the sacrament of the kingdom. In the community of my childhood, this LOVEFEAST/FOOTWASHING was the praxiological centering event of this community. It was the way the community enacted Jesus’ very real servant heart: “So if I…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).
And it didn’t end there, in that preciously powerful and liminal space. The once yearly lived witness was taken and practiced on Monday mornings at the farm, and Tuesday afternoons at the office. When I look into the past of my forebears, I see this commitment to serve mirrored in my great-grandfather (a public water district employee in
Of course, this sacramental way of being isn’t Anabaptist. It’s a God thing—hard to wrap our heads around in a world of powers and principalities that lead through power and coercion.
But those of us claimed by the Way are different. We follow a king who reigns from a kingdom where the king is a beggar, a janitor, the street-sweeper. We follow a king who dies to reign rather than killing to do so; who sacrifices himself rather than sacrificing others; who loves and blesses rather than hating and damning.
And so we, the followers of that king, talk about leadership in a different way. We lead from below as the king does. We move communities through the power of an authority born of love and sacrifice and the Spirit of the Living God who goes before us, rather than the coercive arm of power and title and personal agenda, just as Jesus does. We lead not through our own calls, but through the call of the Gospel that has formed us; the Gospel that will gather us, all nations, on the mountain of the Lord where death is swallowed up and the reconciliation of the nations will make the headlines of eternity.
Praise be to Jesus, the janitor King, who washes the feet of the world…
IMAGE: “Footwashing” by Sieger Koder
2 comments:
I may have mentioned this b4, b/c I was on a footwashing kick (no pun intended) back in seminary. But at any rate, I have a secret plan to make footwashing the third sacrament.
Y?
Glad you asked. For two reasons. The first is that footwashing meets the three criteria for a sacrament according to Luther: commanded by Jesus in scripture, earthly element, and God's presence in the promise of the gospel. Secondly, whereas both baptism and eucharist are sacraments of the gathered community, footwashing would be the sacrament of the sent community. It would be the sacrament that every disciple shares in its administration. It ticks me off when churches practice footwashing by having only the pastor wash persons' feet. On the eve of his death, our Lord commands each of us to do it, because it's the WAY of life when one is his disciple.
This is why "leading from below" is such a great emphasis for your blog. It's not about a designated leader leading a church, but rather the church leading lives of discipleship in the world 24/7/365.
I remember us having this conversation Kevan back in sem. You and I have thought in parallel ways on this for a long time.
I remember having an argument with a peer over just this. He maintained that this couldn't be a sacrament. My argument was that from a Lutheran perspective, everything is there. Jesus' command, the physical element, and God's promises.
The first time I experienced a Lutheran footwashing I was appalled at how "anemic" it was made when just the pastor performed the rite. Somehow Jesus' command to do this to one another in John 13 gets washed out and the transformative aspects of it, of both serving and being served, get lost in the translation.
I've felt for a great while we've been impoverished in the church because of the absence of this 3rd sacrament. But where there is the practice...
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