"Belonging" - Maundy Thursday

Just last week, I was at Fred Meyer with my son, Jack, loading our groceries into the car when an older man approached me in the parking lot. He said, "Did you see that guy who came up to me just now?" I filled with dread, wondering what had happened and thinking about keeping Jack safe. I said, "No, I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention." The man said, "He just walked up to me and gave me this" and reached into pocket to pull out ... a fat wad of cash. He continued, "'I said 'What's this for?' and the stranger said it was from Jesus". I laughed and said, "Well, I guess you gotta give some thanks to Jesus, then". The man kept talking saying, "I don't understand. You ask someone for a quarter these days and they ask 'why?' and this guy just gave me all this money for nothing." He was completely awestruck, totally confused, and deeply grateful. He ended our conversation saying, "Well I'll let you go. I just don't believe it. Have a good day." We laughed and said something like, "it'll be a better day now". And then the encounter got even brighter for me when I got to explain the whole thing to Jack who didn't quite follow what had happened.

I imagine that today's gospel had some of that same, "What just happened?" awe among Jesus's disciples. Now, I preached on this text just a couple of weeks ago and I talked about the foot washing and how Jesus compels us to tenderly love everyone - even those who will betray and deny us - just as Jesus did. But today I'd like to focus, not on the foot washing per se or even the Great Commandment to love one another as Jesus loves, but on how Jesus defines belonging. When Peter balks at having his feet washed by Jesus, Jesus tells him, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." (John 13: 8, NSRV) The First Nations Version of the New Testament puts Jesus's response to Peter this way, "[He] looked deep into [Peter's] eyes and said, 'If you refuse this, then you have no part in who I am"'. (John 13:8, FNV) Remember that Jesus and all of his disciples were devout Jews. Meaning that belonging was determined by following Torah and being circumcised, by rules that identified the community as God's chosen people. But Jesus challenges that. He demonstrates and teaches how belonging is defined by service in love. And how belonging is formed through both giving and receiving, equally important in community and equally representative in the love Jesus has shown us.

How many of us, when thinking about Zoar's mission "Responding in service to God's love" think of God's call to be the helper. We envision dolling out love to those in the margins, pulling them in, and making their lives just a little bit better. But Jesus reminds us this evening that "responding in service to God's love" also means being on the receiving end of help. It means putting your dirty, tired feet forward to be washed without embarrassment or shame. Jesus clearly tells us that being the recipient of servant love is just as important as being the one to serve. The First Nations Version translates Jesus as saying, "I speak from my heart. The one who serves is not greater than the one who is served." (John 13: 16, FNV). Jesus allows himself to be served in love throughout his ministry. He regularly accepted offers of hospitality from the very people we would consider needing service - he stayed with Zacchaeus the tax collector who was overjoyed to welcome him (Luke 19: 1-10); he ate at Simon the leper's house and was anointed by an anonymous woman (Matt. 26: 6-13, Mark 14:3); and he stayed with the Samaritans for two days after he liberated the woman at the well (John 4:39-42). Let's also not forget that Jesus has his own feet washed twice in our gospels before he washes the feet of his disciples tonight. In Luke, an unnamed woman washes Jesus's feet with her tears and dries them with her hair (Luke 7:3638). And in John, Lazarus's and Martha's sister, Mary, uses expensive perfume to wash Jesus's feet and also dries them with her hair (John 12:1-3). Jesus doesn't refuse the gestures, saying, "Oh no, I'm ok. Don't worry about me. I'm fine". He graciously accepts them, inviting the person serving into sacred belonging with him and the entire community of his disciples. There is no hierarchy in the circle of belonging.

Many of you have heard the term "kin-dom of God" used in place of Kingdom of God. It is such a small change, really, but I think it communicates this kind of expansive belonging that Jesus is teaching tonight. As Jesus heads to the cross, first he makes sure that we know how to serve one another and how to be served in love. How to belong to him and one another so that we may withstand the immense suffering coming our way. Mother Theresa is famously quoted as saying "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other?' The kin-dom of God is radically inclusive and is ruled by love. Not love with a qualifier, like "tough love" or "earned love", but just love that makes sure every person matters, that they know they matter, and that they feel compelled to love the other in the same way. In the kin-dom of belonging, there is no room for judgement. There is no place for isolation or individualism. Instead the kin-dom illuminates how we are all interconnected in the circle of belonging formed through God's love. And each day, each moment holds an invitation to co-create the kin-dam here on Earth. Each moment offers an opportunity for us to showcase how belonging transforms strife to peace. I find this to be irresistibly good news.

I think back to my friend from the grocery store parking lot and can see the kin-dam of God so clearly. I wonder how the encounter he had with the generous stranger changed his day? How did it change his perceptions of strangers and "the other"? I wonder how he told the story to his family when he got home? How his circle of belonging expanded? For me, I got to tell Jack about something wonderful that happened in the regular, old Fred Meyer parking lot. He got to witness for himself how generosity created awe and wonder in the man, so much so that he sought us out to tell us all about it. Jack told our family about it over the dinner table. Just being adjacent to the story echoed the man's joy and reinforced our sense of belonging in our neighborhood and as Jesus-followers. That day in the parking lot, Jesus's words, "If you refuse this, then you have no part in who I am" (John 13:8, FNV) became even more obvious. If the man had refused the money offered, the circle of belonging would have been interrupted by maybe cynicism, pride, or distrust. But by graciously accepting the gift "from Jesus", we all co-created the kin-dam of God right there, right then, and participated in the sacred belonging that Jesus is showing us.

We are heading into the darkest time of the church year. Tomorrow Jesus will be crucified and will die. But he has prepared us to withstand the grief. He showed us how to stay whole in the face of overwhelming tragedy. It is through belonging - both inviting others in and accepting the invitations yourself - that we will realize the kin-dom of God here on Earth. Holy unity comes through relationships, through serving and being served in love. As we move into Good, Friday, let us fall over ourselves like Peter did to be awash with the belonging Jesus insists on. Let us stand in broken-hearted sorrow at Jesus' feet, holding up one another and preparing our collective hearts for the awe and wonder of the resurrection. For we belong to each other and we belong to Jesus. Thanks be to God!

"Belonging" - Maundy Thursday