Abide, Love, Serve

Scriptures:       Acts 17:22-31,  1 Peter 3:13-22,  John 14:15-29

 Our reading from John’s Gospel picks up from last week’s reading, which is part of a really long, long – more than three chapters long - farewell speech given by Jesus at the Last Supper.  On one hand, given that in the church calendar we are now after Easter, it may seem odd to be reading about a speech Jesus gave before his arrest and crucifixion.  On the other hand, in the church calendar, we are rapidly coming up on Christ’s ascension, Christ’s return to the Father – and Jesus’ long farewell speech is all about preparing the disciples for walking into the future without Jesus in the flesh walking beside them.  And so in that way – preparing the disciples to be the church when Jesus is no longer physically walking beside them – reading (or, in effect, listening in on) Jesus’ farewell speech makes perfect sense for us.

There are two points that Jesus keeps telling his disciples over and over in his farewell speech.  Perhaps the most important is that Jesus will not leave the disciples orphaned, will not leave them to their own devices.  Jesus tells the disciples that while he will be going away, going back to the Father, Jesus would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit.  Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.  He also uses a word which in today’s reading was translated Advocate.  The Greek word is paraclete – that’s not parakeet, but paraclete – and the Greek word paraclete, parakletos, is an ambiguous Greek word, with several meanings.  One meaning, captured in our word Advocate, is like a defense attorney, sitting alongside a client defending him from false accusations – or perhaps a prosecuting attorney, sitting alongside someone who was wronged and advocating for justice.  The word paraclete is also sometimes translated Comforter, one who provides reassurance.  This is what Jesus is promising for his disciples.  Jesus tells his disciples that this Holy Spirit will not only be with them, but in them, guiding them, reminding them of all that Jesus taught them, teaching them how to live as Jesus’ disciples in the future.

Another point – and really, it’s a command, not just a talking point – is “keep my commandments”.  From John 14:15 – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  Verse 21:  They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me.  Verse 23:  “Those who love me will keep my word, and the Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that  you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.    Later on, in chapter 15, verse 10:  “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.”  I think you get the idea….Jesus was really big on asking his disciples to keep his commandments, and that somehow this was connected to their love for him.

What are these commandments that Jesus so much wants his disciples to keep? Of course, we think of the Ten Commandments – but Jesus tells the disciples very specifically, “keep my commandments”.  If he meant just the Ten Commandments, he’d have probably said something along the lines of “keep the commandments”.  But he’s very specific – “keep my commandments.”  What are these “my commandments”  of which Jesus speaks?

Actually, within John’s Gospel, there aren’t a lot of them – just three, in fact - but the few there are cover a lot of ground.  The first occurs in John chapter 13, verse 14.  We remember that in John’s Gospel – and only in John’s gospel – at the Last Supper, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, tied a towel around himself, poured water in a basin, and began to wash the disciples feet.  The disciples didn’t know what to make of this, and Peter actually sounds like he’s freaked out as he tells Jesus “You will never wash my feet.” – though the next minute, Peter relents and practically asks Jesus to give him a sponge bath!   Because our context so different from that of Jesus and the disciples, it’s easy for us to miss the full impact of what Jesus is doing.   Of course, in Jesus’ day, there were no planes, trains, and automobiles  ….if someone invited you to dinner, in order to get there, it was generally on foot, in sandals.  If you were going any distance, by the end of your journey, your feet would be sweaty, filthy dirty, and generally disgusting.   And of course, nobody had any Dr. Scholls Odor-Eaters on hand.  So when the dinner guests arrived, they would be invited to sit down, and a servant – a very low-status servant - would come around with a bowl of cool water to wash each person’s feet, so that they would be clean and refreshed from the journey.  But at the Last Supper, it is Jesus himself – the host of the meal – who acts as the lowliest of servants, washing his disciples’ feet.  And then comes Jesus’ commandment:  You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have set an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

What are we to make of this?  In the Roman Catholic tradition – and also in some Baptist traditions, among others, foot washing is part of the liturgy, along with communion. What this would look like,  if we did this, on Maundy Thursday, Millie would have to set up, not only the bread and wine, but also a big basin filled with water, and a towel, and I’d go around and wash all of your feet – and Millie would pray fervently that I don’t spill too much water on the carpet, because if I am anything, I’m a klutz.   That is the practice in a number of Christian traditions – and I still remember like it was yesterday a confirmation class retreat, when I was in my early teens, when the youth minister and his wife washed my feet and those of another of the teens.  We, in turn, were supposed to wash the next person’s feet, but being a bunch of squirmy, bratty teenagers, that didn’t happen….the other kids didn’t want to and I didn’t want to and it just felt too weird,  too close for comfort  But it was memorable…as I said, I remember like it was yesterday….who knows, maybe we can try it here sometime, and you can have an experience to remember for the rest of your life like I do. 

So footwashing is part of worship in some traditions.  But I think in a more general sense, when Jesus said, “Wash one another’s feet,” he was really saying, “serve one another….and don’t be so dainty or so high and mighty that you’re unwilling to get dirty doing so.”  And sometimes serving one another can involve getting very dirty indeed.  I remember 20 years ago or more, I was part of a group from a congregation that cleaned the house of a longtime member who had MS and over time had become wheelchair-bound – in an electric wheelchair, actually - and immobile except for limited use of her hands.  Her house had several floors, and she had cats, and she was almost entirely unable to care for them beyond putting out their food.  More to the point, she couldn’t clean up after her cats, and on a limited fixed income she couldn’t afford to have anyone come in.  And so we good church folk found ourselves, even before washing the floors and vacuuming the carpet, picking up dried, dust-covered cat droppings from one end of her house to the other, on two floors and a basement.  I think that’s a picture of what Jesus meant in asking us to wash one another’s feet…sometimes it’s as painless as giving somebody a ride, and sometimes it can get really messy….but if we’re disciples of Jesus, it’s part of the package.  Elsewhere in the other Gospels, Jesus tells his disciples – and this is a word for us as Christians, and especially for those in church leadership, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”   So the life of a Christian is a life of service, and Christian leadership is servant leadership….this is why one of the titles of the Pope is “Servant of the Servants of God”, even though some Popes have lived that out more convincingly than others.

So Jesus told his disciples to wash one another’s feet, and more generally to serve one another.  What other commandments did he give?  A little while after washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  And we may find ourselves wincing a bit, because we all have people in our lives that we don’t even like, let alone love….me too.  Fortunately, Jesus didn’t command his disciples to, “Like one another.”  He said “Love one another as I have loved you”….and I don’t think Jesus’ love was so much about he and his disciples sharing warm fuzzies together – actually, they squabbled a lot – but about Jesus caring enough to hang in with his disciples, to teach them when they seemed utterly unable to understand him, to care for them, to go in search of them when they strayed, ultimately to lay down his life for them.  And that’s the kind of love Jesus asks from us for one another.  The old camping song said, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”  Will they? Do they?

So Jesus commanded his disciples to wash one another’s feet – to serve one another – and to love one another as Jesus loved them.   The last of Jesus’ commandments comes in John chapter 15, where Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”  At that point, he commanded his disciples, “Abide in me as I abide in you.  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.  Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  So this commandment to abide is about remaining connected to Christ, being fed and watered and nourished by Christ, and not getting disconnected from Christ.  Jesus tells us that, if we let ourselves get disconnected from Christ – by neglecting worship, prayer, the Scriptures, the community of believers -  our lives will dry up like a branch cut off from a tree.   Not a good place to be.

“Wash one another’s feet”, “Love one another as I have loved you.”, “Abide in Christ as Christ’s abides in us.”  When Jesus says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments,” these three are primarily what he’s talking about – three seemingly simple, yet all-encompassing commands from Christ himself.  Rather than the detailed lists of requirements we find elsewhere in Scripture, in John’s Gospel, Jesus keeps it simple:  Abide, Love, and Serve…..and as the disciples live out these three commandments,  Jesus relies on the Holy Spirit to fill in the details for them.

At this point, especially if we’ve grown up in the Lutheran or Reformed traditions, we may be getting a little impatient right about now.  “What happened to salvation by grace through faith?” we may ask.  “All this rigmarole about following Jesus’ commandments sounds like works righteousness.  We can’t work our way into heaven; we can only get there by God’s grace.”  True enough.  We can’t work our way into heaven.  But in reading Jesus’ words, “If you love me you will keep my commandments”, maybe we, like Jesus, should leave room for the work of the Spirit and read them as descriptions rather than demands.  That is to say, it’s likely Jesus is saying, “If you love me – and you allow the Holy Spirit that I’m sending to work in your life – the Holy Spirit will transform your life so that you will keep my commandments.”  That is, it’s not about us straining and sweating to do some onerous thing Jesus commanded us to do, but allowing the Spirit to work within our lives and transform our lives so that abiding in Christ, loving one another, and serving one another come almost as naturally as breathing.  Indeed, they will become a way of life….and the first believers were called followers of the Way of Jesus.  Far from feeling burdening his disciples with onerous demands, Jesus told them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”   Indeed, Jesus does not give as the world gives…..A life of abiding, loving, and serving is countercultural in a culture that is quick to break off relationships, to cut and run when things get messy, a culture and world system that is about hatred and war and death, a culture that is about dominating rather than serving. 

Jesus told his disciples, “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”  Because he lives, we can live – really live – not the lives our culture pushes on us, where he who dies with the most toys wins – what kind of life is that? - but lives in which we love and are loved, serve and are served, because we abide within the community of believers who abide in Christ.  Because He lives, we can live the abundant lives Christ promised, lives not of material abundance, but of abundant joy and the abundant and lasting peace that comes only from God.  And because He lives, we will not only live lives of abundant peace and joy in this world, but eternal lives in the world to come.   Amen.