A house bonding experience

As Don already mentioned we led worship on Sunday. It was really great to work together as a house to plan our worship service. And much to our surprise, we gave three very different meditations, but all were grounded in service. Each meditation showed the individuals personality, processing style. The other reoccurring theme that stuck out to me was not only were all of the meditations about service, they were also all about love.

  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Matthew 25:40

This is a perfect transition to the Children's story that I led. After working at the local church camp for many years, as well as being the advisor on a number of trips I have really gotten to know the youth of the district, some of which attend the church. So I had an idea to reinvent the good Samaritan, into something that the children could understand, a new kid at school. This skit showed the new kid being made fun of, and then there was one kid, who decided to stand up and be nice, and the others soon did the same. It was funny after the worship service, Clara and I were talking and she said, that her dad had always told her to be nice to the new kid at school, even if she did not want to. I thought that this was an interesting connection.

 

 

1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

 

4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:1-17 

After this scripture was read, I shared my reflection, which brought several in the church to tears, as well as me. It was one of those funny, things I did not think that I would get emotional, but when I read those words again, I could not help myself.                       READ WITH CAUTION :)

 

 

We commonly here this scripture at the very brethren gathering commonly known as Love Feast. We are all to familiar with this act of service. Jesus takes on the role of a servant and rises from the table to wash his disciples feet. In biblical days, your feet were the dirtiest part of the body, from walking everyone that you go on dirt roads.

In the brethren tradition, only baptized members are invited to the Lord’s table. Each year, as you partake in communion and wash your brothers and sisters feet, in appreciation of Jesus ultimate act of servant hood. Every time that I kneel to wash my brother or sisters feet I am reminded of my own baptism, as well as the other times that I have kneeled to serve someone else.

On father’s day in 2002, I entered the waters of baptism at the Polo Church of the Brethren. Already in the baptistery was a man that I knew quite well. A man that was getting weaker with each passing day, even though I did not want to admit to it, that man was my father. It was the best father’s day present that we both ever got. I was the last person that my dad ever baptized on that day, and more importantly ever. I will never forget the tears gathered in his eyes as he said the prayer of blessing, before I left the waters of baptism. I know that I will never forget this moment.

While I was a student at Manchester, we would regularly have Love Feast services. Many of the non Church of the Brethren students had never participated in this service before, so we would often include a teaching element, in which some of us would share what the various elements mean to us. A friend of mine, once said while explaining foot washing, “it is a powerful feeling to fully serve someone else, by washing away the dirt of the world away, so that they can start all over again, in our hurting world.” I think that this is the kind of example that Jesus was giving to a world that was hurting 2,000 years ago and is still hurting today. What kind of example are we sharing with our world.

During the summer of 2008, I was able to join my brothers and sisters that gathered in Schwarzenau, Germany on that August morning on the banks of the Eder River. To me that was truly what faith is all about. Rising early in the morning, while it was still dark out to go about two miles to a river that runs through the town. It was at this spot that they went against the state church and were baptized for the first time by choice. They wanted to enter the waters of baptism. After fleeing their homeland because of their faith they moved around a lot until they finally were safe in the United States, one of the first thing that they did, as a way to celebrate their religious freedom was to kneel down and wash one another’s feet. We no longer have to worry about being chastised for our faith, but we need to remember the innocence and strength of the early Anabaptist's every time that we join the Lord’s table.

Fast forward, several years to 2010, I am leading a workcamp in Richmond, Virginia. As I was planning the closing worship service I wanted to include something that would be meaningful for everyone, I had no idea that it would have the most effect on me. It was our fun day, so we were hanging out on the James River and the other leader and I decided that it would be the perfect backdrop for this worship service. At the close of the service we talked about water, and the power in the bible that is held in this important liquid. It was then that we talked about foot washing, much like I am doing now, and I invited my junior highs to enter the river and wash one another’s feet. They all rushed to the water, I have never seen it happen so quickly. Then as the last feet were being washed the sky opened up and it began to pour down ran. It was such a beautiful event.

At the closing of my BVS orientation this October, there was a foot washing service. This was a new experience for some of the people in our orientation and for others it was an old friend.

I have often found a special inner power in songs. Rather than simply saying the words I really try to think about the words that I am saying. Earlier we sang a song that I believe has a true power in its words, listen as I remind you of the words. “Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you, pray that I may have the strength to let you be my servant too. I will hold the Christ light for you, in the night time of your fear…” Isn’t this what its all about, holding up our brothers and sisters and being servants to everyone that we meet? It may be as simple as listening to a friend that just needs to talk, or working side by side with everyone that we meet on the road of life.