April 9, 2009
Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26;
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Over these past six weeks of Lent the members of the Covenant Committee have been leading the Re-Connect Program in a study and discussion of the Baptismal Rite, looking in particular at the Baptismal Covenant and the five promises that the candidate for Baptism, or in the case of an infant, the godparents, make. The Committee has been charged with producing a Covenant for this parish, and the official Baptismal Covenant to which we all are pledged at some point in our lives, and which we all reaffirm every time we attend a baptism, seemed to us to be an excellent place to start. And I think, all of us, both participants and leaders in the program, have found it to be a very illuminating exercise.
Andy Carpentier mentioned last week how doing this has led him to question our practice of infant baptism. And over the course of these several weeks I, too, have struggled with that question. Like education is it wasted on the young? One evening we did spend considerable time discussing the role of godparents. If we take that role seriously, as indeed we should, it is far more than cards and birthday presents. As I said, I have struggled with this, but the thought of returning to the custom of the early church of the candidate being of an age to speak for him- or her-self does not sit well, because I would still even now want my child baptized ASAP. Why? I think it comes down to wanting them to be part of the community of Christ, to have that seal placed upon the forehead marking them as “Christ’s own forever.”
Those questions in the Baptismal Covenant (and I refer you to p. 304-5 of the BCP) are the foundation of our Christian behavior, how we are to live the Christian life. Tonight our focus was, and still is, on the last one, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” How we might “strive for justice and peace” was the topic of the dinner discussion. “Will you respect the dignity of every human being?” is the final piece of the Covenant and our program. We move from considering the role of pouring water on the head to what it means to be pouring water on the feet!
What does the Prayer Book mean by “dignity?” The word “dignity” comes from the Latin “dignitas” meaning worth, merit. So, to respect the dignity of anyone is to respect their worth, their value, as a human being; it is, however, a worth that has nothing to do with the size of their bank account or the neighborhood they live in or the schools their children attend or where they spend their vacations. It is something entirely invisible, maybe even incomprehensible; it is the sacredness of the human person. It is the fact that they are beloved of God, one no more than another. We are, each one of us, beloved of God, one no more than another.
And Jesus, God’s only and beloved Son, got down on his knees to demonstrate, to prove, that undiscriminating and unconditional love of God by washing his disciples’ feet. He, the Master, became the Servant! To respect the dignity of every human being, the sacredness of every human person, is for each of us to get down and wash each other’s feet, if not literally, because it is not the custom in our society, then figuratively, by remembering and acting accordingly that God loves our neighbor as much as God loves us; that God loves the beggar in the streets of Mumbai as much as God loves us; that God loves the starving child in Ethiopia as much as God loves us; that God loves the CEO’s of the big corporations no more and no less than God loves us; that, as difficult as it may be to believe, God loves the father who shoots his children in their beds as much as he loves us. That last example may bring you up short: how can God love someone who commits such a terrible act as much as God loves me? All I can say is that it is not for us to judge! The issue is not what someone does or says or even thinks or conversely does not do or say or think. God will in God’s own time judge the sin but in the meantime God will love the sinner. And while you think on that, ponder this also: whether God knew what the outcome would be is debatable, but God loved us so much that he sent his only Son to live among us. And who was it that crucified him? And yet we are still beloved of God. So, we, if we are to stand by our pledge, made at our baptisms, to respect the dignity of every human being, the sacredness of every human person, must do no less.
And so on this night in this most Holy Week of our Christian Year, even though it is not our society’s custom, it is, in words from the Prayer Book, a “right, and a good, and joyful thing” to do as Jesus did, to follow his example, and to wash each other’s feet; and in so doing acknowledge our servant hood to one another, our love for one another, our respect of the dignity and sacredness of one another. And may this act, foreign as it is for us, be the start of a new and profound awareness of how much God loves us and how much we are to love one another.
Amen.
Sonia F. G. Stevenson, M. Div.
Church of the Good Shepherd