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“[Jesus said] You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Back in 2015, I had the opportunity to go to Ethiopia on a short-term mission. Our team was ministering in the city of Gambella, in the western part of the country, near the Sudan. As a priest, I was invited to attend one of the local Anglican congregations in the city and preach. What first struck me when I arrived at the church was that there was no church building. In fact, the Anglican Church in that part of Ethiopia was growing so rapidly that they didn’t wait to get a building before they started having Sunday worship. They simply started meeting under a large tree and continued to meet there until such a time that they had the money to either rent space or build their own church building. The second thing that happened impressed me even more: as soon as I arrived, they bid me to sit down in a chair, and the leaders of the church brought out a large wash basin and they began to wash my feet. I was deeply moved by this experience for several reasons: First, I understood it to be an act of love and service to me as a fellow Christian. They demonstrated their love and hospitality to me and honored me as their visitor. Second, they demonstrated their humility and love for Jesus Christ by literally following His command. Third, by humbling themselves to wash my feet, they demonstrated true holiness, and their holiness and obedience reminded me of my own sin and brokenness and their washing represented Jesus’ washing away of my sin and shame through His life, death, and resurrection. On this holy night, we gather to worship God and to recall the great and mighty acts that Jesus accomplished for our salvation. Tonight, we remember and participate in two things that Jesus did for us and commands us to practice together. First, we remember Jesus instituting the Sacrament of His Body and Blood at the Last Supper. Using the Passover Feast as His backdrop, Jesus takes the bread and wine of the Passover meal and transforms it by the power of His Word. The Passover meal, which represents God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery and death in Egypt, is now given a newer and deeper meaning. Through the Jesus’ words of institution, Jesus declares that the Bread and the Wine become His Body and Blood, and that His Body and Blood are now the food for the people of God, food for eternal life. Just as the people of Israel celebrate the Passover meal together to remember their deliverance from bondage, so at the Eucharist, the people of God eat the Body and Blood of Christ to celebrate and remember the salvation won by Jesus. Just as the Passover meal sustained the people of Israel during their journey out of Egypt to the Promised Land, so the Sacrament of Jesus’ Body and Blood is to sustain us on our journey to eternal life. You may recall from a few weeks ago, I talked about how Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand with the five loaves and two fishes not only demonstrated love and compassion for the people in need but was also a sign that pointed to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. This sign was a reference back to the Exodus when God fed His people with manna in the desert. Just as the manna in the desert was real food, just as the five loaves and two fish were real food, so the Body and Blood of Jesus is also real food for our souls and spirit. And just as God’s presence sustained the people of God on their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land, so Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist sustains us on our journey toward eternity. God is at work, feeding and saving His people. When we read all of salvation history in the Bible, we understand that that the Exodus foreshadows the Life of Christ, so the Passover meal foreshadows the Eucharist. This understanding is best captured by the painter Marc Chagall, whose work Exodus shows the people of Israel walking through the wilderness to the Promised Land, overshadowed by Christ on the Cross. At great an act as the institution of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood was, Jesus didn’t stop there. John tells us that during the Last Supper, Jesus performed another act of self-giving and humility. He washed the disciples’ feet. Now when we think back to what life was like back then, we know that most people didn’t have horses or wagons to ride on. They walked everywhere. Furthermore, many did not have shoes, so they walked everywhere barefoot. So, when you entered someone’s home, it was customary for a servant to wash your feet. This was considered a menial act, somewhat akin to cleaning garbage cans or bathrooms. Yet, at dinner, Jesus starts washing the disciples’ feet. Peter is offended at Jesus’ taking on of such a menial and degrading task, much like he was offended when Jesus started talking about His coming arrest and crucifixion. Peter declares to Jesus, ‘You shall never wash my feet!” And Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Jesus declares to Peter that only by remaining in Him and by living Jesus’ life of humility and service, can Peter gain eternal life. Through His washing of feet, Jesus demonstrates two things: First, His washing of feet is a physical reminder that Jesus cleans us from all our sin and unworthiness, and that we need this cleansing on a regular basis. Second, Jesus’ washing of feet is a demonstration of His humility and service toward each of us. By commanding us to do the same, Jesus is not declaring that we should literally wash each other’s feet; rather, Jesus is reminding us that we are called to imitate His life of humility and service. Just as Jesus gave all of Himself in service to you and me, so we are to do the same for each other. And just as Jesus’ washing of our feet represents His cleansing us from our sins, so when we serve one another in humility and love, we not only help another, but we ourselves are cleansed from the daily grime of our sin and shame. To “wash each other’s feet” is to be healed of our own pride and self-sufficiency and embrace humility. In so doing, we imitate the life of Christ, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. About a year ago I had the opportunity to visit Washington DC and Capitol Hill with Don Shisler, the President of the Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County for a conference concerning homelessness and public policy. It was a homecoming of sorts for me, as I had once served as a staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives when I was in my 20s. What struck me during my return to Capitol Hill was both continuity and change. The buildings, the furniture, and the office furnishings all looked the same, and everyone who worked there was young, good-looking, and well-dressed in conservative business attire. What was very different was that the place itself seemed more remote; it took longer to get into the buildings and there were more places that were off limits to the public. Indeed, the Capitol building itself was no longer accessible to the public! Thirty years ago, you could go into the Capitol building off the street and walk around. Today, the public must go to a new and very expensive building called the Capitol Visitors Center. There are very nice meeting rooms and exhibits, and lavish gift shops, and Members of Congress will come to meet with you there. But they will no longer meet you in the Capitol Building itself, except under very special circumstances. It appears while we were taught from our childhood that we live in a democratic republic; our leaders are increasingly remote from the people they are supposed to represent. They are unfamiliar with the problems of average citizens. They have surrounded themselves with more people and more power than ever, yet they seem unable and unwilling to address the many serious problems afflicting our Nation. But today is not about these pretend kings. Today is about the one true King, Jesus Christ. On this Palm Sunday, we wave our palm branches and shout “Hosanna!” because we see Jesus exercising true Kingship. Jesus does not put on the trappings of power and authority. He does not ride on a fancy chariot or a magnificent horse. Nor is Jesus surrounded by a retinue of soldiers and officials. Jesus is not dressed in the purple robes of a king, but those of an itinerant preacher. Jesus rides into Jerusalem in triumph, but on a donkey, surrounded a crowd of ordinary people who have come out to welcome Him and hail Him as their true King. Throughout history, when kings have entered their capital city in triumph, it is because they have come to rule; to make speeches, to issue decrees, and to exercise their power and authority. But Jesus has come for a very different purpose; He has come to die. In just a few days, Jesus will be arrested, tried, and then die a painful and shameful death on a Cross. This is Jesus, the Crucified King. It is in His coming Crucifixion that Jesus shows us His true Kingship. Jesus upholds the Law by obeying His Father’s will and going to the Cross on our behalf. Jesus rules not by might nor by power, but by the sacrifice of Himself for us. Jesus does not insist that we try to reach up and grasp salvation on our own. No, Jesus comes to us and lives among us and then goes to the Cross so that the penalty for sin is paid in full and we are restored to complete fellowship with the Father. Jesus, the Crucified King, demonstrates true humility. As St. Paul writes, “Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8) Jesus Christ is the great King and ruler. But He conquers His Kingdom not with armies and weapons, but by going to the Cross to die. Jesus says in John 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” Jesus has conquered and triumphed. Jesus has won for Himself a Kingdom, not of cities and territories, but a Kingdom of the hearts of men and women. This Crucified King bids each one of us to lay down our weapons and open the gates of our hearts so that the King of Glory may come in. He invites us to surrender to His love and life, so that He might reign in our hearts and in our lives for ever and ever. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that He may live in us, and we in Him.
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Back when I was a new priest, serving in Monroe LA as the Curate at Grace Episcopal Church, one of my responsibilities was to be the Chaplain at the parish day school. That meant I got to celebrate and preach at the school masses which were held every Wednesday during the week. One time I used an illustration with the kids that I’m going to share with you today: How many meals have you eaten today? How many this week? How many this month? How many this year? How many meals in your lifetime? I had the kids calculate in their heads the numbers. Many of them came up with some accurate numbers without calculators. My point was that as you start to add up all the numbers, over time that number gets big. As you think about all the meals you have eaten, how many of those meals do you remember? I expect only a few of those meals to be ones that you remember. Now, you might have your list of favorite foods, but you probably cannot remember every time you ate your favorite food. The truth is that all those meals that we ate, starting from the time we were little babies, helped us grow up into healthy adults. We can’t remember every meal, but we do remember fondly those special meals, those special treats and dishes we ate, and who served them to us—maybe it was our mother, our grandmother, or our father or grandfather. Maybe it was something our spouse made for us. Or maybe it was a meal shared with a loved one that we remember. So much of our life is wrapped around food—the preparing of food, eating food, and sharing it with others. Not only does it help keep us strong and healthy, but it is also how people show love and care for each other, and it forms an important part of our relationships. In today’s Gospel lesson from St. John, we read about Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes. In this story, we read not only about Jesus’ love and compassion for people in need, but this incident reveals to us who Jesus truly is: that He is the Son of God. Furthermore, we get an understanding of how Jesus intends to build and strengthen His divine life in each of us. In his Gospel, St. John gives us seven miracles, or signs, that Jesus performed. One was at the wedding at Cana when Jesus turned the water into wine. This morning, John shares with us another sign, the feeding of the five thousand, where Jesus uses bread and fish to feed the multitude. The use of bread is significant, as it points back to what God did for the people of Israel in wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. There, God fed the people, with manna that fell from the sky like rain. Bread from heaven. God miraculously feeds his hungry people with bread in the desert. Now we read about Jesus miraculously feeding the people with bread again, this time through the miracle of multiplication. And you will notice that Jesus doesn’t just meet their need, He does it generously, to overflowing. Starting with five loaves of bread and two fishes, Jesus feeds a crowd of five thousand, with twelve baskets full of leftovers! John tells us that the people recognize the miracle that has taken place, and they understand that only God can miraculously provide food for His people in a desolate place like this. They recognize that Jesus is a prophet, but more than a prophet, and they want to make Him their king! Jesus is the King, but He is not to be the kind of king they want Him to be, so John tells us that Jesus went away up to the mountain to be by Himself. What John wants us to understand is that this incident, while miraculous and wonderful, points us to something bigger about Jesus and what He intends to do with us and through us. Jesus, the Son of God and Messiah, has come not just to meet our needs, but He has come to do a deeper work of transformation. Later in John 6, Jesus explains the deeper meaning behind the multiplication of the bread and fishes. Beginning in verse 22, we read about how the crowd started looking for Jesus, but he was on the other side of the lake. The disciples catch up to Him, and Jesus tells them, “Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” (John 6:26) Jesus goes on to explain that it was not Moses who fed the people manna in the desert, but God. Jesus then says, “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33) When the disciples ask for this bread, Jesus replies, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35). These statements cause more confusion among the disciples, who are wondering how Jesus is going to give them this bread to eat. Jesus then says, “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” (John 6:54-55) These statements remain a mystery and a source of speculation for the disciples. It is not until the Last Supper, when Jesus institutes the Eucharist, that they begin to understand. It is here that we discover that in leaving us the Eucharist, Jesus intends to feed us with Himself. And it is His food, His bread, that will feed our souls and our spirits so that we may gain eternal life and live His divine life through us. St. Paul expounds on the meaning of Jesus’ feeding of our souls and spirits in our Epistle reading for today. When we feed on Jesus in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, something real and tangible is given to us. It is spiritual nourishment for eternal life. Another name for it is grace—God’s unmerited favor! But it’s more than simply God doing something “nice” for us. Grace is God’s eternal life being given to us and infused into us. Paul says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-6). Paul goes on to says that this eternal life that we have been given is not the result of the works that we do, because none of us could ever earn or deserve this grace, this gift of the divine life of God imparted to us. Good works cannot save us. We are simply the recipients of God’s grace and love, given to us through Jesus Christ, by His death, resurrection, and ascension, and by His divine life imparted to us through the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Good works cannot save us. Rather, we are saved to do good works! Again, Paul says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) Jesus gives us His Body and Blood as food for our souls and spirits so that we can live out the divine life He has given to us. Most of us cannot remember how many times we have received the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. But we know that because we have received it, that the life of Jesus is growing in us. Just as all the meals that we have eaten in the course of our life made us grow healthy and strong, so the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation enable us to grow strong and healthy in the life of God. Through it, we can do the things Jesus commanded us to do, love those He commands us to love, and experience His joy and presence in our lives. And just as we fondly remember those special meals and the special people who served them or shared them with us, so we remember Jesus each time we partake of His Body and Blood. This Jesus we love and serve is not an abstraction, nor a nostalgic memory from the past. We serve and living Savior and Friend who loves us and has given all of Himself so that we might give ourselves away that the Life of Jesus would be spread throughout the whole world for the life of the world. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “And [Jesus] told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade.’ And His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Just recently I watched an interview with George Barna. George Barna is a Christian and a researcher and is the founder of the Barna Group, a market research firm that specializes in studying the religious beliefs and practices of Americans and the intersection of faith and culture in the United States. In his video he made an astounding assertion—that only 4% of Americans make decisions based on a Christian worldview and that only 25% of Americans even believe in a Christian worldview. Now what is a Christian worldview? Fundamentally, a Christian worldview is one that views the world through the lens of the Scriptures and the teaching of the Church. Barna’s statement, backed by market research, says that American society in general is one that has turned away from God and no longer thinks in Christian terms. I want you to keep that in mind as we consider today’s Gospel lesson from St. John. Today’s passage is St. John’s account of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem. What is interesting about John’s version is that it takes place very early in his Gospel account, right after the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle or sign. John tells us that Jesus returned to Capernaum after being at Cana, and then went to Jerusalem for the Passover. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, on the other hand, record the incident as taking place during Holy Week, after Palm Sunday and before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. We can resolve this problem in two ways, both of which are valid: First, Origen (one of the Church Fathers) reminds us that the Gospels are not exact biographical accounts but are accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus to proclaim to us that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah. And St. John himself tells us that if he had tried to include all the things that Jesus said and did, that there would not be enough books to contain it all (see John 21:25). John reminds us, “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name.”(John 20:31) Second, St. Augustine (another Church Father) asserts that there is textual evidence to conclude that Jesus performed the act of cleansing the Temple not once, but twice: the first time recorded by John, the second time recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. When we consider this event, we’re a little taken aback, because we don’t see Jesus acting very warm and fuzzy for people. Last week Jesus called Peter, Satan. This week, He is driving people out of the Temple courts and overturning tables. But we understand (we think) why Jesus is angry. Jesus is angry because of the corrupt spiritual practices of the Jewish people at that time. He’s angry that the Temple, which is a place reserved exclusively for the worship of God, is being used as a market. Jesus, being the Son of God, is rightly consumed with the idea of the right worship of God, that the holy place is not to be contaminated by corrupt beliefs and practices. We get that, and we’re appalled right along with Jesus. And we ask ourselves, “How could the Jews have allowed things to get so bad?” But that’s the wrong way to look at it. Because the truth is that spiritual corruption is built in all of us because of sin. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, explains to us the problem in considerable detail. Paul says that that God gave us a perfect Law, highlighted in the Ten Commandments, which we read for our Old Testament lesson this morning. God laid out for us the path to have a relationship with Him and to live a life that was both pleasing to Him and intended to bring us joy and satisfaction. But just as the Jews failed to keep the covenant they made with God, so have we. We know what is right and we don’t do it. Instead, we keep on doing the things that we know are wrong. That is why we have no cause for self-satisfaction when it comes to the spiritually corrupt Jewish religious practices found in the New Testament. Because we’re spiritually corrupt too. If we’re honest with ourselves, when we come to church, we’re not always focused on worshipping God, we’re focused on something else. We’re focused on ourselves. Another thing that George Barna talked about in his interview is that his market research has revealed that many American Christians have a hard time staying faithful to what they profess to believe. Barna says that we have a conversion experience, and we fall in love with Jesus, and we’re really growing spiritually—for a time. Then we start to get distracted. We start focusing on other things. We begin to demote Jesus in the order of our life’s priorities. Generally, the reason for this is that we don’t want to surrender ourselves completely to Jesus. We won’t yield to Him, and say, okay, Jesus, you’re in charge of my life. Lead me to where you want me to go, and I will follow You. No, we want to stay in control. “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Jesus came and cleansed the Temple because He insists that we are to worship God in spirit and in truth. And Jesus is determined that we should be right with God, no matter what it takes. C. S. Lewis wrote, “God has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense.” He will not leave us alone until He has accomplished His purposes within us. And we read further that when Jesus cleansed the Temple, he was challenged by members of the Jewish religious establishment, demanding to know by what authority He did these things. And Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They are incredulous because they know that it took decades to build the Temple. But, as John explains, Jesus was talking about the temple of His body. What is Jesus talking about? His coming death and resurrection! Jesus’ death and resurrection is the solution to the problem of our spiritual corruption. There’s nothing wrong with God’s law and God’s plans for us. The problem is that we need transformation, not reformation. We need hearts of flesh to replace our hearts of stone. We need the Holy Spirit living and working in us so that we can follow God and live a life that gives glory to Him. The Jews in Jesus’ time had to go to the Temple to worship God. Because the Temple of Jesus’ Body died on the Cross on Good Friday and was raised to life on Easter Sunday, then we no longer need to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship God. God the Holy Spirit now makes His home in us. Therefore, we can turn away from sin and spiritual corruption and worship and serve God the way we were meant to. +In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. |
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