a sermon on using water to redefine relationships
Maundy Thursday 2018
March 29, 2018by Deacon Student Luke Allgeyer a few weeks agoon ash wednesdayif you received ashesyou probably heard the same thingthat has been saidsince god banished the first humansfrom the garden of eden.for those who didn’t get asheson ash wednesdayi’ll repeat those words for you nowjust so that they’re in the air.they’re important:“remember you are dust,and to dust you shall return.” on ash wednesday this year,with a black cross on my foreheadi went to the aquariumin part because it was a day that illinois residents could get in free,but more so because i needed to be around other, nonhuman living things.creatures of dust like myself. as i walked aroundin the blue glow of the tanksas light filtered through,and i started thinking to myself:yes, okay, i am dust, sure.but am i not also water?i have three facts about wateri want to share with you all today FACT NUMBER ONE:the earth’s surface is 71% water.most of that is salt water,ocean water.about 97% of it. the other 3% is fresh water.and HALF of that is frozen in glaciers and ice caps.all the freshwater lakes in the world,lakes like our own lake michiganmake up only 7 one-thousandths of a percent.and lake michigan is only part of that. there is also what’s called“biological water”which is water that is within you.and me.and all the fish at the aquariumand every other living thing from the biggest blue whalesto the smallest plankton that they munch on.we all contain within us“biological water.”all the water within every living thing you’ve ever encounter in your life.and it only amountsto 0.0001%of all the water in the world.of which youare only part. all of this is to saywe have been given a lot of water.FACT NUMBER TWO:the human body is about 50-60% water.which makes us a little less watery than the planet,but makes it seemat least to methat welike the planet we live onare more waterthan we are dust. FACT NUMBER THREE:the human person can survive for only a few days without water.it is essential to our being,to our thriving.water is necessaryfor all life on earth.even desert plantswhich don’t experience a rainstormfor years on endmust either store up water within themselvesor lay dormant in a state that looks a lot like deathuntil the rain finally comes.even more than food—the stuff of the earth,the other stuff of dust—we require waterin order to prevent ourselvesfrom returning to dust.as important as water isfor our planetand for ourselves,it is just as importantin the pages of the bible.because waterin the bibleis what signifies relationship. it is in the waters of the jordan riverthat we see for the first timeGod appearing together as three persons:the voice of God from heaven, creator of all there is, declaring;Jesus the Messiah, God with us humans, who is then anointed by;the Holy Spirit, taking the form of a dove. it is at the wellthat Jesus meets the Samaritan womanand affirms the potential of relationshipwhere most assume that it is impossible. today we recognizethe very first communion(which, by the way, literally means common participation,being with others,relationship)and we do so with wine,which, as his first miracleJesus once created from water.and this was at a wedding of all placesso, i mean, talk about a relationship, right? later we will learnthat water flows alongside bloodas it pours forth from christ’s woundin the moment of his death—that is,in the moment that God’s relationship with humanityis redeemed.but nowin today’s gospelwe encounter a Jesuswho uses water to redefine what relationships might be. in this reading from the gospel of johnjesus,without warningbegins to wash his disciples’ feet,and eventually makes it to peter.now, in true peter fashion,peter protests this action.“lord,” he says to jesus,“you shouldn’t be washing my feet.this should be the other way around.it is i that should be washing your feet.” but jesus tells him otherwise.in a cryptic way,jesus informs peter thatthere can be no relationship between the two of themunless peter allows his lordto wash his feet. john tells us that jesus recognizes this power within himself—that is, the power to invert and redefinewhat it means to be in relationship—because it has been given to him by god.god has “given all things into his hands,”and because of this,jesus has the freedom“to love his own who were in the world,”and “love them to the end.” and what an act of love we witness.precisely because it is not appropriate for a teacherto wash the feet of his students,jesus’ act of stooping low—to the part of the body that is closest to dirtto filthto hell—this act alonereconfigures what it meansto loveand to be loved. if the roles were reversed,if it was peter washing the feet of jesus,that is, a student washing the feet of a teacher,the sentiment of love would be different.that is an act that is expected,that in other circumstances,we might say the teacher“deserved”to have his feet washed.this kind of action, though,doesn’t necessarily show love as jesus loves—that kind of action,of following the status quo,shows conditioning.it betrays presumptions.it depends on an economyor who “deserves” what. but jesus,as he explains after washing peter’s feet,does so not out of conditioning,not out of expectation,and not because peter deserved it,but instead out of the oppositeof all those things:love.a love that is unconditional,unexpected,undeserved.by washing the feet of his disciplesjesus is showing themand usthat love—god’s love—doesn’t need to be basedon how obedient you are,how great a servant or student you are,whether you say the right things,whether your feet are clean,whether you have poweror authorityand command love and respect—as jesus could have,as god could also. no,jesus inverts thisand shows us that lovehis lovegod’s lovehas no requirements,it doesn’t recognize relationshipsas hierarchies of power.it doesn’t define relationshipsthrough an economy of give and take.it doesn’t require relationshipsto be clean or spotlessin order to be filled with love, because it is precisely this kind of lovethat washes us clean to begin with.it is this unconditional love that cleanses usof the stains that pop upwhen we try to prove ourselves worthyof being loved.this love of god—a love that can wipe clean our relationships,clean from fear, from embarrassment, from shame—this love sets us freeto love all those around us,to trust in the example that jesus set,to love one anotheras god loves us—with a love that is unconditionalvulnerableand displays that lovefor all to see.this example that jesus has setbecomes further proofthat by showing radical love,love that inverts the status quowe can truly show the love of god.for “servants are not greater than their master,”jesus reminds the disciples,which makes it sound like he is tryingto remind them of their place in the world.but then:“if you know these things,”things that the world would have us know,that servants are not greater than their masters, or,that the voices of teenagersare not strong enoughto change policy in america;or,that undocumented immigrantsdo not deserve to have the same human rightsas the people who employ them;or,that those who liveon the south side of our own cityshould live in expectation of being shot,while elsewhere in the citypeople can walk without fear;or,that certain black families do not deserve greatnesslike the law enforcement officerswho unjustly kill their loved ones on the street;officers who,in another time in this nation’s history,could have been consideredthe masters of those families.“servants are not greater than their masters”jesus says.and if we,those who follow his example,know these things,we are blessed,—we are blessed—whenin the knowledge that we are transforming what it means to lovewe kneel to the groundto those who society considersits dirt and grimewhere they are forced to liveby those who have the power to be their masters,and we wash them cleanwith the waters of our love. god has already chosen to love us,and shows us that loveas jesus washing peter’s feet.and because god chooses to love us,unconditionally,god gives us a new commandmentthat we can choose to follow:love.love in a way that is unexpected,that defies the status quo,that has people saying to you,“you will never love me that way,i don’t believe you,to love me that way is beneath you,you would never give up the thingsyou need to give upin order to love me in such a way.”do it.love in a way that opens you upto the love of others,that by washing their feet,you are also ableto allow them to wash yours.forming a relationshipbuilt on love,not on exchange or commodity who deserves what.love in a way that cleansesall those who struggle in the faceof a world that would rather have them remaincovered in dust and dirt.love in a waythat has the powerto transform relationships,to transform the world. we have been given so much water—whether it is salty, fresh, biological,it is around us,it is within us,jesus has shown ussimply by washing the feet of his disciplesthat we have been freed to love.and we have been freed not only to givebut to accept love.we have been freed to share the deepest parts of ourselveswith those who eat and drink beside us.we have been freed to allow ourselves to be vulnerable—to stoop and wash the feet of others without fear,but also to let others wash our feet,knowing what it meansto have such a powerful relationship. we are free to center our relationshipson unconditional lovebecause we have already been washed cleanof the dirt and grimethat stains the love we so wish to show.“just as i have loved you,” jesus says to us,“so you should love one another.” remember, yes,that you are dust.but as we wash each others’ feet tonight,as we turn to face the horror of the cross,as we sit the vigil before the mystery of easter,remember thateven more than dustyou are water.