{"id":586291,"date":"2021-03-08T16:44:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T21:44:06","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:37:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:37:42","slug":"shame-and-wonder-maundy-thursday-april-1-2021","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/shame-and-wonder-maundy-thursday-april-1-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Shame and Wonder, Maundy Thursday \u2013 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>[RCL]: Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-red-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-red-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=DFMS2202070157&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-red-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-red-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Cover-FB-2-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-236308\" style=\"width:512px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHaving loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully,\u201d or, as we\u2019re used to hearing, \u201che loved them to the end.\u201d Though this verse isn\u2019t quoted as often as John 3:16, it conveys the marrow of the Gospel\u2014the Good News of God\u2019s unconditional love for humankind\u2014in a way that burrows into our hearts. \u201cWhat wondrous love is this?\u201d as the old hymn says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This thirteenth chapter of John, like the rest of the Gospel, is a meticulously crafted narrative that reveals a facet of Jesus unfamiliar to the synoptic writers. In John\u2019s perspective, Jesus understands the earthly consequences of his ministry; he knows he will be \u201cglorified,\u201d \u201clifted up\u201d on the cross. And he knows that his disciples are slow to understand what servanthood and divine love look like in the world. So, he shows them by washing their feet: \u201cI have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.\u201d After supper ends, his teaching continues as he assures them that after he is gone, the Holy Spirit, Advocate and Guide, will be with them. He uses the imagery of a vinegrower, a vine, and branches to explain the interdependency and indwelling between the Father, Jesus, and us, his followers. He prays that they may be one, as he and the Father are one. All this teaching and praying goes on as Jesus and the eleven recline around a table after this Last Supper. Meanwhile, Judas is off scene, collecting 30 pieces of silver and guiding a detachment of soldiers to one of the disciples\u2019 regular prayer places, the Garden of Gethsemane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This night begins the three high holy days of the Christian year, the Triduum. We mark this night with a variety of rituals that help us enter the great Paschal Mystery of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection. Some churches offer a simple Mediterranean meal that emulates what Jesus and his disciples would have eaten as they celebrated the Passover. Some conclude the service with the solemn stripping of the altar, rendering our reverently adorned spaces vacant and cavernous. And some of our churches offer hand- or foot-washing as part of the liturgy. This year, as we are in our second Covid-affected Lent, many communities will not physically share communion, much less wash feet, due to the proximity necessarily involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This foot-washing ritual, perhaps more than any other ritual we celebrate, evokes strong feelings in us. At best we feel reluctance: \u201cI feel <em>so<\/em> uncomfortable, but maybe this is good for me.\u201d But some of us just plain skip the service so we can avoid it, or simply opt to pray in our pews instead of coming forward. Rest assured, this discomfort is not a contemporary phenomenon: you could hear it in tonight\u2019s Gospel reading. But the reasons for the discomfort are somewhat different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Jesus\u2019 time, foot washing was an act of hospitality in dusty Palestine, where everyone wore sandals. You\u2019d enter someone\u2019s home, be greeted with a bow, maybe a kiss, and then have a lowly servant bring water to wash your feet. In the Gospel, what Peter and the others are uncomfortable with isn\u2019t the gesture of foot-washing\u2014that was standard practice \u2013 but <em>who <\/em>was washing their feet. Jesus, the Holy One of God, the Lamb of God, the I AM\u2014harkening back to God\u2019s name revealed in the Burning Bush\u2014who is the light of the world, bread of life, the true vine, the good shepherd, the way, the truth, the resurrection and the life. So, it was very disorienting for the disciples to have Jesus, the Son of God, strip down, don a towel, and kneel to wash their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Jesus is showing his disciples\u2013all of them, including the denier Peter and the betrayer Judas \u2013 what it is to love them to the end, to love fully. What wondrous love is this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In our current context, we are disoriented by foot-washing for all kinds of reasons. We might not be used to people washing our feet\u2026 except in the context of getting a pedicure when we pay someone to perform this service. While it can feel great physically to have someone wash your feet and paint your toenails, on an emotional level it feels awkward to watch a woman, generally of lower socioeconomic status, wash our feet, push down our cuticles, and trim our toenails. And yet\u2026 there are many folks reluctant to even wear sandals unless they\u2019ve been to the nail salon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This reluctance to show our feet until we\u2019ve prettied them up gets to the core source of our contemporary discomfort with foot-washing: many of us feel shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We don\u2019t have much control over whether or not our feet stink, or if we have nail fungus, or bunions, or hammertoes. Our feet confront us with the fact that we are vulnerable and limited. Our feet point toward \u201coriginal shame,\u201d as one theologian puts it. Shame tells us that we have some fundamental flaw, that we\u2019re fakes, that we\u2019re unworthy. Shame is a nearly universal experience; only sociopaths don\u2019t feel it, and it has gotten a bit more public attention recently through the research and teaching of social work professor Bren\u00e9 Brown. Understanding how we cope with shame and learning to integrate it, rather than build defense mechanisms to avoid it, is a central task in our Christian pilgrimage to love God, love our neighbor, and love ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once and for all, Christ conquered our shame by entering into it. He died vulnerably, <em>shamefully<\/em> on the cross, but before he did, he offered guilty and shame-filled humanity forgiveness. Three days later, his bodily rising conveyed the infinite worth of the human body, the human person. Jesus\u2019 passion and resurrection are the fullest expressions of Jesus \u201cloving us to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Christians accept this as true and may be able to appreciate cognitively the ultimate healing of shame through the passion and resurrection of Christ, most of us hunger to experience this healing on an affective and personal level. And the good news is that Christ sends his Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to heal our shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is no better night in all of our church year to experience God\u2019s desire to heal our human shame than Maundy Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here we meet Jesus who invites us to his table, who takes the form of a servant, who washes our feet. We look down upon him awkwardly from our chairs, worrying if he smells our feet, or is grossed-out by the calluses. He isn\u2019t. He takes our feet gently, sees them for what they are, and washes them clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here we meet Jesus who breaks bread with us, shares wine with us, and assures us that we are always welcome as we are: frail, vulnerable, sinners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here we meet Jesus who shows us what it is to be blessed, to get down on our knees before others who bear their own shame, who are imperfect, who are embarrassed, who feel unworthy, and wash their feet with the same gentle acceptance and clear-eyed love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here we meet Jesus who washes even Judas\u2019 feet, who shares bread and wine even with Judas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHaving loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.\u201d We, friends, are among \u201chis own.\u201d He loves each one of us \u201cto the end\u201d and bids us love another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What wondrous love is this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This sermon was written by <strong>the Rev. Joslyn Ogden Schaefer<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-44f033e4-6dd1-49cc-9425-c0d189b3683f\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maundy-Thursday-English-Sermon.docx\">Word &#8211; Maundy Thursday Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maundy-Thursday-English-Sermon.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-44f033e4-6dd1-49cc-9425-c0d189b3683f\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-040875a4-eea1-492c-8954-899fc5178acd\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maundy-Thursday-English-Sermon.pdf\">PDF &#8211; Maundy Thursday Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Maundy-Thursday-English-Sermon.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-040875a4-eea1-492c-8954-899fc5178acd\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[RCL]: Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35 \u201cHaving loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully,\u201d or, as we\u2019re used to hearing, \u201che loved them to the end.\u201d Though this verse isn\u2019t quoted as often as John 3:16, it conveys the marrow of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[36,43,52,3],"tags":[136],"class_list":["post-586291","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-week","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-maundy-thursday"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":36,"label":"Holy Week"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":136,"label":"Maundy Thursday"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/586291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/586291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477512,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/586291\/revisions\/3477512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}