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I have given you a new model:
as I have done for you, you are to do for one another.
You have heard me mention this book
that the Mental health group have been reading
and now the men's group are reading,
The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
It is a wonderful book.
It holds these eight pillars to move to joy.
The first pillar is that of perspective.
I want to refocus on that tonight
because perspective is what leads,
in a sense, our whole viewpoint of life.
Whatever our perspective is,
it tends to be how you will see things.
That is going to determine how you experienced them.
It is relatively straightforward.
It is not just what you see, but it is more how you see it
because of our own experiences as human beings.
At a purely casual level,
you are viewing the church from over here.
That is quite different than over there, right?
Very different.
Like I could move you around,
and that would be very different indeed.
Let’s run an experiment:
Eli, you normally sit back there.
You are up here to get your feet washed tonight.
Thank you.
How about you come up here?
I am going to show you a different perspective.
I want you to sit in the Presider's seat.
Wow. How does that feel?
It is very different.
You see everything, do you not? Yes.
Now you know what I see, everything!
Look around.
Everybody sees you and you see everybody.
Now here is what is interesting.
I will not humiliate you any further.
You can return to your seat.
That is all right! I think you like it!
You want to stay, okay, sorry!
Here is the thing, the perspective's very different.
You all see us up here, but we see everything.
We see when you go to the bathroom,
we see when you go out, when you come in late.
And yes, we see when you leave early.
You are surprised?
I could tell you all right now, I will not do that.
But I could tell who comes in this side door.
Who comes in that door?
Who comes in this door?
Who comes in that door and goes into the chapel
thinking that we are not seeing them.
We see it all.
But the point is, when you are up here, you see a lot.
But that is not the perspective
that Jesus is asking us to shift to see.
He is asking for a different perspective.
He is asking us for this perspective
down lower and lower and lower.
And when you are down here, on your knees in service,
you have a whole different perspective of the whole world.
Everyone looks down on you
and it is a very different experience.
When you are down on your knees,
you are vulnerable, especially when you are about to wash feet
because someone can kick you in the head!
The purpose of what the Lord is asking us to do,
is asking us to change our perspective.
He wants us to look from the down up,
not from the perch down, my friends.
That takes, a lot because it is not what
our society asks of us or wants from us.
Our society tends to say the powerful are up here.
The further you get up the steps,
the more powerful and the more perspective you have.
Do not think that is what the Lord is asking for.
The Lord is asking for us
to get down on our knees and serve one another.
That requires the second pillar
that the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu talk about,
the humility to serve one another.
Least we think that what we are doing is only a dramatization.
We are not, we are not doing a reenactment.
We are doing a symbolic gesture tonight
to help us to view things differently,
to take a different perspective.
I know it is clumsy and it is awkward.
I know some of you do not want to do it
and never have, really do not want to have your feet washed.
But it is not really that I want you
to wash somebody else's feet
as much as to have the experience of
having your own feet washed first
and then to wash somebody else's feet.
It is vulnerable when you are down there.
You can get a kick in the head.
But that is part of what we are trying to do.
Not get a kick in the head,
but to actually understand
what it means to serve from below.
That is what we are called to do, my friends,
to humbly, to get down on our knees.
It is not comfortable and it is not what society says.
I get that.
But what we do tonight is to restore the dignity of everyone.
The broken, the wounded, the estranged,
the people who feel least part of our church.
People who struggle with mental illness
or with family brokenness.
People who struggle with all sorts of stuff.
People who do not even feel part of our country.
It does not matter.
We are called to get down our knees,
to change our perspective, to be humble,
and to look at life a little differently. Why?
Because we are called to a conversion of heart.
This is not some silly dramatization.
This is the core of our faith, my friends.
We are called to serve.
So what we do here, we do not always understand,
but it is only symbolic gesture of what to do out there.
So as you come forward tonight,
you ponder, will you come forward?
I ask you please everyone, come forward.
We are going to have six stations
and we are going to ask you to come forward
to have your feet washed,
and then to wash the other person's feet.
But here is what we want to do after this,
is we need to take this and live it in our own world.
So to the children present tonight.
You all are served by your parents every day.
What can you do, boys and girls,
to go down and to serve your parents this weekend?
What will that look like?
Can you serve them by doing some small meal
or at the very least, clean up after a meal?
Do something that they have always done for you.
To the men here tonight.
Can we do something for our spouses, for our women?
Because they are always doing something for us.
Can we get down and do something for them?
Something that they always do and
we have taken them maybe too much for granted.
For us who have grandparents,
the gift of grandparents and
the burden I know that comes with age.
Can we do something special knowing
that all their life they have served us
and now in their weakness of body and maybe of mind,
they find it hard to receive
because it is hard to have your feet washed.
It is hard to let people serve you
when you have been serving all your life.
Can we do that gently and love them
by whatever it is that they simply need,
to gently caress their face
or gently hold them and hug them and tell them,
it does not matter what you are mow,
“I have always loved you, and I always will.
It does not matter that you need more.
Now you are mine and I am yours.”
Can we do that for them?
My friends, tonight is about service.
Can we find a way to serve
some other person in our community
who feel completely left out?
Some neighbor who feels estranged,
maybe have lost a spouse, there is nowhere else to go.
They have turned out cranky and difficult
because they do not know how to handle it.
Can we love them where they are
and get down low and serve them and
realize that this is a new perspective for us.
Out of humility, my friends,
we have been given a new model.
It is an ancient model given from Christ,
but it is new every year.
Because guess what?
We forget how to do it.
Tonight we ask you to get down on your knees
on that very uncomfortable position
and wash somebody else's feet
and let them wash your feet equally as uncomfortable.
I know it is hard, it is symbolic,
but it is powerful reminder of what we are called to do out there.
I have given you a new model:
as I have done for you, you are to do for one another.
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