Uncomfortable Awkward Love

Quote:
Me thought I would have been that time with Magdalen, and with other that were Christ's lovers, that I might have seen bodily the passion that our Lord suffered for me, that I might have suffered with him as others did that loved him; and therefore I desired a bodily sight, wherein I might have more knowledge of the bodily pains of our Saviour, and of the compassion of our Lady, and of all his true lovers that were living [at] that time, and saw his pains: for I would have been one of them, and have suffered with them.

JULIAN OF NORWICH, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love

Texts:

Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Today, we share with Peter in the discomfort and awkwardness of God living outside the boundaries we have created.  Part of the point of this day, I think, is the sheer unfcomfortableness of having our feet washed.  What is more, we experience the uncomfortableness of having our feet washed by another.  This is humbling not only for the washer but the washee.  

The truth is, most of us don't really want to have our feet washed.  We might use a practical excuse: it's too difficult to take off one's socks and shoes.  We might use a medical excuse: we have a condition that makes it more uncomfortable for us than it does for others to remove our shoes and socks.  We might use a physical excuse: we cannot bend over to untie our shoes or remove our socks.  I think, though, that for most of us the reason is that it is too humbling to have our feet washed.  This is an intimate moment, and we tend to stray away from these in the church.  We stray away from the reality of Christ disrobing and, rather than preaching a sermon or teaching the disciples about the kingdom of God, he - without saying a word - kneels to wash their feet.  It is humiliating, and it is awkward, but it is also an expression of beauty.  Jesus takes the form of a slave (they were the ones who typically did the footwashing), pointing to the awkwardness and humiliation of the cross.

We might not think this is important.  We might think that an intellectual memory or thinking about what this must have been like is enough, but it - once again - fashions us observers in the events of Holy Week rather than participants.  

Today gets at the discomfort of what it is to have a God, and what it is to have a God that serves.  Today, we come to understand what it is to have a God that comes to us, dwells with us, and saves us despite ourselves.  Today, we experience the humility of having a God that disrobes himself of heavenly splendor in order that we might learn what it is to be loved and that we might learn what it is to love one another.

And so we wash each others' feet, not because it's fun or comfortable or even necessarily needful, but because it reminds us of what it is to have a God whose love breaks the bounds of comfort and whose love is not just for those who have earned it or for those who deserve it, but for those who daily turn away.  This is the love that knows no bounds.