Today is Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday, depending on whom you ask. Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum or command. Therefore, on this commemoration of Jesus' great commands we recall his good instructions "Do this in memory of me" and "Love one another." For non-church folks, the fact that washing each other's feet is part of today's worship is plain bizarre. Yet for certain wings in the Christian household, what is odd is that we have bounded this practice and use it only on this day each year.
Now, I've participated in foot washing in three circumstances (on a retreat, on a couple of mission trips, and on Maundy Thursday) and each time it was a very humbling and worthwhile experience. Was it odd, embarrassing, and awkward? Absolutely yes. Do I have "nice looking" feet? I don't think so. Yet I am very glad to have participated. A little embarrassment for Jesus' sake is a good thing, it's both humbling and allows me to be the weak-arched, funny middle toes person that I was created to be. I often wonder what else would happen if church was a safe place to be honestly broken instead of tenuously held together.
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I spent Maundy Thursday helping my Dad get dressed (including putting shoes and socks on his 85-year-old feet) and then taking him to his chemo treatments in Boston. And then making dinner for him (sauteed fish, ex-Catholic that he is) once we got him back to my sister's house and then tucking him into bed and cleaning the kitchen before driving home just prior to midnight.
No symbolism this year. The real thing. He has humbled himself to allow me to serve him, and in that, I am humbled.
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