John 13:1-17, 31b-35
"Holy Week" Thursday - Years A, B, C
Do you feel something has been done to you by your encounter with Jesus? Why did he have to go and model what he was talking about? Surely it would be sufficient to have a theology of servanthood without needing the praxis of it.
Isn't it enough to have an ecclesiology of evangelism without needing the behavioral change of actually loving one another more than we love being right and in charge, all by our self? Might it actually be true that discipleship is less about making disciples of Jesus Christ and more about simply loving one another?
This loving one another might be seen as the prerequisite to going where Jesus is going. Right now we don't seem to be able to take advantage of being there (much less here) without some practice of what "there" is all about -- the presence of G*O*D -- simply loving.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/april2004.html
What would you do if you knew your time was coming to an end tomorrow? Plant a tree? Go for the gusto? Wash your friends? Finally do something you've been wanting to do all these years? Set some example of being a "servant"?
Whatever your choice remember the way this section ends:
Only to love one another. Only to love those we betray. Only to love those who betray us. Only to love our sister and brother betrayers. Only to love them as we love ourselves. Only to love them as we love Jesus. Only to love them as we love GOD. Only to love . . . .
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
Blood and dust are signs to us. Passover and Baptism are signs to us.
They are signs of needed and continual renewal of community.
We have been enslaved (blood). We have been apart (dust).
We journey together (Passover). We cleanse each other (Baptism).
In such we receive bounty and offer our lives to increase it for others.
In such we are revived with feasting and invite others to more feasting.
We neither cast a glance behind nor peer ahead. We don't need to justify this day by remembering slavery or anticipating resurrection. This day stands within and beyond any past liberation or future death. We simply are in this moment, in this moment, and that is enough.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Washed by Jesus and still unclean.
Jesus' actions are not unilateral. Jesus is constrained.
G*D's actions are not unilateral. G*D is constrained.
My actions are not unilateral. I am constrained.
Your actions are not unilateral. You are constrained.
Our actions are not unilateral. We are constrained.
It appears that not only are servants not greater than their master, but the master is not greater than the servants. Both servants and masters are not unilateral. Both are constrained.
Where G*D is received, creation is also received.
Where Jesus is received, G*D is also received.
Where I am received, Jesus is also received.
Where you are received, I am also received.
Where we are received, all are also received.
It appears that we find our identity in our varying relationships. Each of our varying relationships with every other part of our life is based on having love for one another, recognizing and receiving each other's belovedness.
Washed and still unclean, but washed none-the-less. Washed and still containing every opportunity to express our having been loved.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/04/john-131-35.html
Here is a link to a comment about a First Last Supper for you to bounce off of.
Whether looking at a farewell ritual of food or feet, we have been set an example that will open us to another level of relating — loving one another — passing back and forth what we have received.
Paul (1 Cor. 11:23-32) asks us to examine our participation in ritual. When our participation results in larger community we are keeping the ritual alive. When we forget the passing back and forth and settle for what we already have or what a group in power has developed, the ritual begins to leave those thinking they are participating in something larger while acting in smaller ways.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-131-17-31b-35.html
Once Jesus began washing feet, did he complete the circle? Were Judas’ feet washed as a sign of being loved “to the end”? Presumably so. No one is left out of being loved. Neither before, during, or after any act is one denied love.
Missed communication is par for the course. Not only does Peter get confused, but the rest of the disciples can’t decode the symbols and conversation between Jesus and Judas. There is even a mini-communion time between the two of them before their parting.
Note the brief four-word sentence after this communion variant — “And it was night.”
Night is the beginning of a day’s cycle — and it was night and it was morning, the n-th day.
Night is chaos over the deep, a pre-creation opportunity.
Night is where the church often is. Within the United Methodist Church we are in our 40th year of discriminatory legislation blocking the freedom of G*D to gift and call whom G*D desires for “set-aside” ministry. Perhaps it would be best to discontinue offering regular communion until official discrimination ends. To continue is to tacitly support discrimination with the excuse that it is meaningful to us — forgetting all the folks who cannot participate in offering communion.
The church has betrayed Jesus. And it is night. May General Conference 2012 raise a bit of light by moving away from discriminatory legislation. This would sign we were serious about loving one another as we have been loved by G*D through Jesus.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/04/john-131-35.html
Goal: to love deeply, to the end of time.
Love through dismissal as crazy or irrelevant. Love through threat and abuse. Love through success and pain. Love through betrayal by self and others.
Knowing we are beloved is a starting place for knowing others are beloved. Belovedness takes off its power tie and carries a traveling towel to freshen sweaty brows and soothe tired feet. Whether understood or not, we wash clean both reluctant saint and aggressive betrayer.
Actually living out our goal brings us to a moment of separation. We are all on different stages of journey and model for others how to journey. Everyone will have a different path and so we are not in lockstep, but each following their way to a common goal. We can actually end up at the same place, but our various ways there may make it seem to be unique.
At any rate, the bottom line for disciples is the same as for their mentor, to love deeply, to the end of time. Given the variety of paths, this is all we have in common. By this we and others will know we are all part of a larger project whose nature and name is love. It is enough.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/john-131-17-31b-35-thursday.html