John 13:1-17 The Touch Sermon preached June 30, 2013 Opening So five years ago I led a mission

trip to Nicaragua to work with Young Life Nicaragua. And one of the most memorable parts of the trip was, Ive never been so dirty and smelly in my whole life. We spent most of the trip at a camp for youth and coffee plantation owned by Young Life - the coffee plantation helps support the camp, and thats where they put us to work. The coffee trees were on the side of a hill, and although we went in June, it was cold and rainy the entire week - only learned later that June, up in the mountains of Nicaragua, is the cold and rainy season. So wed work fertilizing the plants and would slip and fall on get all muddy, and then come in for a delicious lunch of rice and beans - some days they mixed it up and it was beans and rice - and then go back out and work some more. One day we helped tear up an overgrown garden and patio - busted up concrete, dug up old shrubbery, hacked out tree stumps with axes and picks - and got just as good and dirty. And no matter where you worked, there was no point in getting changed during the day because you were going to get dirty and damp and disgusting all over again - and that seemed to be a badge of honor among the guys - Im dirtier than you, so Im manlier than you! But then - end of the work day, time to clean up. First day there, we found out that all the camp had were cold showers - not just cold water, but cold mountain water - people would jump in the shower and you could hear the screams in Honduras. I didnt tell anyone but I didnt wash my hair all week. And when we left, we left our clothes right there, they pretty much could stand up by themselves. Foolishly brought my favorite pair of shorts and left them there, too - no detergent or bleach known to man would ever have gotten those clean. But when we got back to Managua - the capital city - and stayed the last night in a hotel before our flight in the morning - they had cold beer, and had showers with hot water. And had maybe the best beer, and I know for sure, the best shower of my life and washed off a week of dirt and felt like a new man. This morning you have the opportunity to feel like a new woman, a new man. By letting Jesus Christ come near, and wash off the dirt and grime of the sin that makes us stink.

Setting I understand the plain people around here have the practice of foot washing. Our passage from John tells us where that came from. Its the night of Jesus arrest. The next day hell die on the cross. Jesus is with his disciples in what is known as the Upper Room. He has a lot to say to them - chapters 13, 14, and 15 record Jesus last words to his disciples to prepare them for whats ahead. Imagine you only had a few hours left on earth and you were together with people you loved - what would you say? What would you do? What we have here, is what Jesus did. Because Jesus doesnt start off with words, but with symbolic action. And we know too that if you really want to teach someone, actions are far more powerful than words alone. And so to the astonishment - and to the horror of Peter - Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior of the world, strips down to his skivvies and washes the feet of his disciples. Meaning of foot washing Foot washing back then was as common as brushing your teeth is today. Because everyone wore open-toed sandals and there werent paved roads and sidewalks. Youd walk around in the fields, on dirt tracks and your feet would get covered in dirt and grime, maybe youd step in donkey droppings and by the end of the day your feet were rank, smelly and filthy. So most homes had a wash basin right by the front door. But what is shocking about Jesus washing his disciples feet, is that this was a task usually performed by a servant, or someone intimate - in those days, a wife would wash the feet of a husband. The lower served the higher, the weaker the more powerful. Have to admit, I dont much like foot washing. Every year I go on a retreat in April and as part of the retreat we wash each others feet. Ive tried to be all spiritual and get with the program but I just dont like doing it. I dont like washing other peoples feet - and I dont like other people to wash my feet. Its too close, too personal. Now Susan - sometimes Ill give her a foot massage after a hard day and she says it really relaxes her. That may be more than you want to know - but its a profoundly intimate and personal act. And since shes my wife, thats ok. But - if Phil Bietsch came up to me and kicked off his Rockports and said Hey, Im feeling a little tense, give me a foot massage, will you?, Id run! Id run!

Peters reaction And Peter reacts kind of like that. Hes horrified. Jesus is Lord, he is to be revered and served. Today this would be a little like the President of the United States, at a State Dinner, slipping out of the room and changing out of his tuxedo and into the clothes of a waiter and then coming back and clearing the dishes of the ambassadors and dignitaries at the table. People would be weirded out, wouldnt know how to react. Neither does Peter. Lord, Ill never let you suffer the indignity of washing my dirty fishermans peasant feet! The mans got a point. Johns gospel especially emphasizes the divinity and majesty and authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not an inspired rabbi on a mission to bring some reforms to Judaism - he is the Word of God through whom the universe was created. One should submit to a figure like that and stoop before him, not have him stoop at our feet and do something that seems humiliating, like washing a mans feet. So whats going on here? Jesus came as a servant Jesus is showing us that his greatness means he stoops to serve. Its not that hes great and every once in a while makes a little show of being down with the common man - no, his very greatness is seen in his radical humility. Jesus whole mission, was about humility. Becoming a human being...the eternal Son of God scrunching down and taking onto himself our humanity - born to poor parents in a remote backwater of the Roman empire; grew up in a hometown - Nazareth - that everyone made fun of - and in a district - Galilee - that was the cultural equivalent of backwoods Alabama today. Peter, was good with the concept of a Lord that he would serve. He was good with the truth that following Jesus was hard and strenuous and even dangerous - that he was called to serve, and even to follow Jesus all the way to death. But for Jesus to serve him - it blew his circuit breakers. No, you shall never wash my feet! Jesus words sound harsh - Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Meaning, unless I do this, we have no relationship, Peter. In other words, Jesus is saying that unless you permit me to touch you, and serve you, in this profoundly intimate way, then I can do nothing for you, I can do nothing through you. This, says Jesus, is non-negotiable. We must let Jesus serve us, and touch our tender places

And it is for us, too. Many of us are like Peter. Were pretty clear that Jesus is Lord of all, the judge of all humankind, the Lord like hes portrayed in the Ascension Window here. But that Lord, is at a safe distance. Hes up there in heaven, on the throne of the universe. This Lord, comes near, and asks us to sit down, and strips down and wants to wash our feet; wants to touch our shameful and dirty places, and clean us and make us whole. And if that is to happen, we have to let ourselves be exposed. And that - can be frightening. What if it came out, what Ive done and been? I am reminded of the story about a priest who was being honored at his retirement dinner after 25 years in the parish. A leading local politician and member of the congregation was chosen to make the presentation and give a little speech at the dinner. However, he was delayed, so the priest decided to say his own few words while they waited: I got my first impression of the parish from the first confession I heard here.. I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first person who entered my confessional told me he had stolen a television set and, when questioned by the police, was able to lie his way out of it. In addition, he had stolen money from his parents, embezzled from his employer, had an affair with his boss's wife and gave her a STD, was using illegal drugs. I was appalled. But as the days went on I learned that my people were not all like that and I had, indeed, come to a fine parish full of good and loving people. Just as the priest finished his talk, the politician arrived full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make the presentation and gave his talk: 'I'll never forget the first day our parish priest arrived,' said the politician. 'In fact, I had the honor of being the first person to go to him for confession.' But heres the thing - to know Jesus Christ, to know salvation, means we let Jesus Christ know us. All of us. The good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Youve got that kind of stuff. We all do. And theres a gender divide on how we try to deal with it.

Men try to compensate by being competent and strong and pretending theyre stronger and better than they are. Women, tend to feel more of a sense of shame over this stuff, and believe they are less than they are. Both are ways of hiding, though, and men and women both end up pulling back from Jesus - men are like Peter - Im supposed to be strong and serve you; women are more likely to quietly shrink back and slip away. But its no wonder that we hide. You show weakness, you admit wrong-doing in this culture and you get hammered. Take whats happening to Paula Deen. She was being deposed for a court case and was under oath, and under oath she admitted using a really bad word, a really foul racial slur. Somehow the transcript of that deposition was leaked to the media, and because she was honest and admitted using a word that just about everyone in America at some point in their life has used, she lost her show on the Food Network, and her sponsors have been dropping her like she went public as an admirer of Adolf Hitler who also likes to cook and eat puppies. The level of hypocrisy in our culture is staggering - someone gets caught doing something that we all agree is bad but most all of us have done (because were all broken and messed up people) and you get jumped on with both feet. And Paula Deen is punished for the racism of us all and we get to feel virtuous for condemning her. The truth is, knowing Jesus and following Jesus means admitting your mess. The kind that sticks to us and we cant get off by ourselves. But the amazing thing about Jesus is that he isnt disgusted by our foulness, he just gets right to it and stoops before us and cleans us, washes us and takes away the stain and guilt of it all. And there is nothing for you here unless you do. You can ...forget being a disciple, forget being a minster, forget the very name of Christ unless you will be touched where you loathe to be touched. We go down with Christ to our most painful secrets, to our ugliest drives, dreams, terrors and sins, to be known there and embraced, to be probed, dealt with and died for, or we are excluded.1 There is nothing you have done, nothing that you can do that is so foul, so wrong, so shameful, that will make Jesus turn away from you. What kind of Lord would wash the feet of a man like Peter? Only one who already loved him and us, knows us more completely inside and outside than well ever know ourselves. And the only thing - the only thing - that will keep Jesus from loving and touching and healing you, is your refusal 5

to admit your mess and let him stoop and wash you clean. And one last point - the only way youre going to be of use to Jesus, is to let him do this for you. We dont serve in Gods kingdom out of strength, out of the phony projection of having it all together, but out of brokenness. Thornton Wilder wrote a one-act play titled The Angel that Troubled the Waters, and the angel tells a doctor who is hurting and ashamed, Without your wounds, where would you power be?...In Loves service, only wounded soldiers can serve.2 So my challenge to you is today, stop the pretending. Stop the hiding. And be honest with Jesus. Show him your wounds, your dirt, your shame. And let him hold the filthiest parts of you - and clean and heal you. During communion this morning, its probably going to take a little while since were celebrating communion by intinction - youll have some extra time for reflection and prayer. While youre in line coming forward, as you take the meal, after you go back to your seat, open yourself up to the Lord Jesus and let him touch and heal you. Closing A Catholic priest, who had become very deaf in his advancing years, had formed the habit of asking those erring members of his flock who came to his enclosed stall to write their confessions on a slip of paper, instead of speaking them to him. The practice worked fairly well until one day when the father heard a heavily-breathing man enter the visitor's side of the confessional and fumble for a few moments as a small, crumpled piece of paper was passed through the curtain into the old cleric's hand. The confession read: Two cans of beans. Quarter pound ham. Cans of Coke. Four fish filets. Bread rolls. Toilet paper. Large coffee. Soap. Butter. The priest studied the note for a puzzled minute or two and then silently passed the slip back. Suddenly, there came an agonized voice from the stall beside him: "Mother of God, I've left my sins at the supermarket! Endnotes

1. Interpretation, October 1995, p. 400. 2. Quoted in Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness, p. 51. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2002.