Many years ago, when my children were small, I can’t remember quite what happened, it wasn’t anything big, but I found myself trapped on the bathroom floor with the little one in my lap. She was screaming and there was a lot of blood all over. My hands were full so I called the older one, who was about 4, and said, “Will, could you come here a minute. Mommy needs some help.”

So he showed up in the door way. I asked, “would you please go to the linen closet and get me a rag?”  “Okay,” he said, and off he went. I could hear him in the hallway talking to himself.  “I need a rag. Where would I find a rag? Oh, here’s one.” Back in he came with one of my best towels. 

I said, “thank you,” and meant it. He grinned and off he went back to whatever he was doing while I bandaged up and washed up and otherwise scrubbed up. That done and calm restored, I left the bathroom and turned to look at the linen closet to see what shape it was in. 

Now, it is important for you to know that when I called my son he had been eating a fudgesicle.  So, everywhere I looked, from the floor to as high as a 4 year old could reach, there were chocolate handprints – on the linens, on the walls, on the door.  I had a little more washing up and scrubbing up yet to do. 

But, you know, if you think about it, when I needed an extra pair of hands he was able to do what I needed him to do and help me in the way I needed to be helped. The rest could be dealt with in its own time.

Tonight, on this holy night, the night our Lord and Savior is betrayed and handed over to suffering and death, Jesus has his hands full and He is calling on us for some help. 

He tells us, “I need you. I need you, to love one another as I have loved you.” 

I think hearing him we often look with our adult eyes on what our 4 year old hands are able to accomplish and respond, “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly. I would just make a mess.” Then we stop and freeze up and refuse to try. Or we turn and we see someone else following through and we see the mess they are making so begin to judge and condemn them and use that as our excuse.

Whenever we find ourselves in one of those places it is important to remember that what he is asking of us is, as the poet Roy Pett has phrased it, affection not perfection. He certainly isn’t saying don’t make a mess. That is not what he is talking about at all. 

As an aside I would add that it is important to pay attention to the results of our actions so we can learn something and our love can grow but that is because love is what he is talking about. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Tidy flawlessness, I don’t know what to do with that, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what is being asked of us tonight.

Okay, how?  Well, fortunately he has given us a couple of examples of how things might look when we manage to follow through on his instructions as we go about our daily lives.

One example was recorded by the gospel writer, John. Foot washing. On the night he was handed over to suffering and death Jesus said, “Sit down, I’m washing your feet.” 

Back then they said, ‘Oh no, not that.’ Many of us still do. First of all it is messy. Well, isn’t it? – There is water and bare feet and somebody ends up with a lot of laundry to do.  Messy. Some of us would add its kind of icky and embarrassing which is messy in its own way.

But what Jesus is doing when he washed the disciples feet then, and tells us to wash each other’s feet now, is teach us about the meaning of the Incarnation and how he needs it, the Incarnation, to be real in our lives. 

For the incarnation to be real we must be willing to seek the face of Christ in those who serve us in whatever way: perhaps the person who gave you your Maundy Thursday pedicure, or a teacher, or a hotel maid, or a flight attendant, or a member of the altar guild, or — you get the idea. 

Whoever it is, Christ is asking us to push aside our own insecurity or anger or frustration or overwhelm or distraction,… push it aside just far enough to be able to peek around it to notice another and see Christ in that person.

That’s half of what Jesus says – you have to let me wash your feet – actually or metaphorically.  

And then the other half – wash each other’s feet. Be willing to let Christ dwell in us – in you, in me.  

Which means like move in and see us as we really are and even the parts we wish we weren’t – see those internal piles of dirty laundry and unwashed floors. “Don’t worry about the mess,” Jesus says. “Just invite me in. I need your active affection, not static perfection.” 

To the extent we can do that, open our hearts and welcome him in just as we are, then wherever we go in the course of our daily lives the face of Christ just might, at least now and then, peak out and be visible for others.

That is the first example. ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ Wash each other’s feet.

And the second, is like unto it. We hear Paul’s recounting of it tonight. Eat together, receive communion, Holy Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving. Share the bread and the wine which for us are the body and blood of Christ. Take it in and let it transform us, and do so all the while knowing that as we share the betrayer is right here among us, indeed is right here within each of us. As are the denier, the doubter, and the runner away.

We are not asked to fix ourselves or anyone else before we show up. What is asked is that we do show up and bring all those broken, bleeding, messed up parts of ourselves to the table, to the altar of God, where, as Bishop Breidenthal of Pub Theology fame has said, in God’s good time they are transformed and given back to us. 

Fed and strengthened we return to the world so that we can be among those through whom the world can see and experience the love God has for all the world; for the creation God made and called good; to help heal this world we so often experience as broken and messy, the world that Christ loves so much and is willing to die for.

That is what is asked of us on this holy night. Affection, not perfection. Show up just as you are and be a fellow worker with God, the Holy Trinity. Love as they love us. Do the best we can and trust that when we bring our hearts to the work we have the ability to do what is needed of us. 

And the rest? Leave the rest to God.

Don’t forget: 

Christ died for us

Even on nights like tonight and days like tomorrow, Christ IS risen

And Christ will come again.