It’s Holy Week, every day filled with ritual and remembrance
as Christians everywhere prepare for the Feast of the Resurrection on
Sunday. Today is Maunday Thursday, a day
that causes me to remember and to reflect. I no longer identify with
evangelical, fundamentalist Christianity, but it is my faith of origin and
there are things that I do miss from time to time. First and foremost, I miss
the music associated with Christianity, and more specifically, the hymns and
spiritual songs of my youth and young adulthood. Lots of emotion and feeling
and imagery tied up in these songs of faith. I have a collection of hymnals in
my possession. I’ve always thought that you could learn so much about a
religious group through their selections of spiritual songs and hymns. My own denomination,
Church of God, has a rich heritage that is expressed in song. I still know
these songs by heart; they were important guides in my own religious education
and instruction. Don’t ask me to name a favorite, I love so many of these
songs, and I’ll continue to come up with favorites. Let’s just say that I KNOW
my own group’s music and I still love it.
But let me return to Maunday Thursday. "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut
dilexi vos" – a new commandment I give you, love one another as I
have loved you. THIS is what I think of when I remember today’s events in my
church of origin. For my denomination, it was customary to have a service on
this Holy Thursday and we would take communion together as a congregation and
we would also wash one another’s feet.
Communion is something that most
folks can identify with and understand. Jesus himself is said to have taken
this act from Passover Seder and transformed it and the meaning associated with
it for his disciples. As I have said elsewhere, the Seder plate and story is
something that I wish that Christians as a whole would continue to celebrate
and observe. It reminds us all that our own faith was dependent upon an older
faith, and since we are all “People of the Book”, it serves to remind us where
we came from spiritually. The lessons taught in this rite can still speak to us
today.
Foot washing, however, is not
something that many people practice or observe. My church considered it as
important as repentance, baptism, and communion. In fact they believed this
praxis was for all believers and should be carried out in all denominational
faith practices. In our church, when preparing to wash one another’s feet, men
and women were separated. We would go into our respective rooms and in the case
of the men – we would remove our shoes and socks, roll up our pantlegs and take
turns washing one another’s feet. All the while, there was usually singing and
some praying going on. I cannot think of
a more humbling experience to be in, and perhaps this is exactly the point of
this exercise. We don’t give much attention
to our feet, for most of us we don’t see much of them unless we are bathing. I
don’t think there is much beauty in the foot, and then there’s the smell and
also the care of the feet. As a diabetic, my feet are covered at all times, and
I am horrified if others see my feet and the condition they are in, due in part
to my disease. The skin is cracked, and
nails are discolored and are funky in their growth pattern. I have nerve damage
and I don’t want anyone touching my feet. Hell, I don’t want anyone near my
feet.
But the act itself, I think the act
is a teaching tool. It forces us to humble ourselves before one another. Not
just in thought, but in our action. To kneel before someone else and wash their
feet, well, this is something that perhaps in Biblical times that slaves did
for their masters. It more than implies
submission to others, and the physical positioning of the body places us in a
vulnerable position. When I think of this, it reminds me of the physical
practice that Muslim men and women repeat every day. They submit to God not
only in thought and prayer, but also in the practice of daily prayers. They
physically submit themselves by prostrating themselves before God. The head,
feet, and hands of Muslims touch the ground during prayer. It is also here that
the heart is literally above the head. It as praxis is a real reminder to them
that they are to submit to God. I think that the ordinance of washing someone
else’s feet is similar. It teaches us,
that we are to serve each other and it (if only temporarily) negates socio
economic status, position, gender roles, and racial and ethnic differences. If he
who for many was God incarnate can humble himself to wash the dirty feet of his
subordinates, who then are we to not do the same? I still find this act to be of value. Although
I am not one to believe as my faith of origin dictates, I still think that this
is an act that should be practiced. It would serve to remind me that I should
be in service to others and that I should deal with others in a spirit of
humility. It’s not about always being “top dog” and there are times where I
should submit to others.
Let me add one more thing, I’ve been
reading Elaine Pagel’s book on the Gnostic Gospels as of late. Through her
research I have stumbled upon something that I find incredibly touching and
beautiful. In the book “Acts of John” there is a story that picks up right
after John’s Gospel on Holy Thursday.
After eating the Passover meal, Jesus, in this story, taught his
disciples a song. This song was to be sung during a group liturgical dance. He
taught this to his disciples’ right before he was taken and crucified. He instructed them to “respond to me with Amen.”
And so he began to sing:
Glory to you Father
Amen
Glory to you word, glory to you grace
Amen
I have no temple and I have temples
Amen
I am a lamp to you who see me
Amen
I am a mirror to you who recognize me
Amen
I am a door to you who knock on me
Amen
I am a way to you, passerby
Amen
I don’t know if this account is true.
I don’t know this anymore than I know that the sanctioned canon texts are
written by those who they are attributed to and that they are true (in the
literal absolutist sense of the word). Personally, there’s no way to prove this
and so I long ago stopped looking at this and other religious texts as a
roadmap and definitive guide for my life. But it doesn’t mean that there’s not “truth”
in there. Again, I understand life to be transient and for the most part, it is
all subjective. There are things that can be known empirically and it is those things
I trust. But religious verse is not one of them. These are narratives. They are
stories and stories that I can read symbolically and figuratively. Therein (for
me) is where the value and richness of these words lie, that is, what does it
say to me? What can it teach me? What can I learn about myself and others here?
I really like thinking that Jesus
could have done this with his disciples, and that they participated in this act
of praise and dance. I like the idea of a dancing Jesus. I definitely could see
this as something he would do. Now whether that says more about what I think of
Jesus or perhaps what it says about me, I’ll let you all pass judgment on that.
Namaste’
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