Holy Thursday
April 13, 2006


How do you want to be remembered?

It was not going to be a good day for Alfred Nobel. He knew it as soon as started reading the morning paper. You see, there, in the day’s edition of the news, was his obituary. A mistake, obviously. But, according to the world, he was dead. And the only thing they wrote about him was that he was the “dynamite king’ – the man who had invented dynamite. They wrote nothing about his other passions, the things he cared about, the people that mattered to him. Had he really been dead, this is how the world would have remembered him. The inventor of dynamite. It was not a good day. So, he set out to change all that. To figure out how, when the day came that people would read his obituary for real, that they would read something else – something that really mattered.

If there was one thing that you hope people would say about you, one truth that could be captured on a headstone or in the funeral homily or the obituary, what would you want it to be? Have you ever given that much thought?

It seems that Jesus had. And so, on the night before he died, Jesus was very intentional about what he did, and about how he wanted to be remembered. He chose two ways to be remembered, two ‘practices’ to embed themselves into the minds of his disciples.

The first was simple. In the course of a meal that they were sharing, he said: “Do this in memory of me.” Do this gathering, this coming together around the table in my name. However, it was not just any meal he shared – but the PASSOVER – the meal that celebrated God’s saving actions in Israel. And to make sure that they would get it, that they would remember him, he CHANGED the prayers around the Passover. It was the most hallowed of all Jewish traditions, and Jesus was changing even that.

This is MY body, MY blood, broken and poured out FOR YOU. As often as you do this, do it in memory of me. Jesus was telling his disciples: As often as you do “this” – not just the “eating part’, but the saving from bondage, the setting free from sin and oppression, the restoring to people their dignity as humans – as often as you participate in the ongoing work of God to free his people, you are about what I am about, and you do this in memory of me…

And to make sure they made the connection, because the disciples were rather thick headed, he did the second thing. He washed feet. That was the second thing he wanted to be remembered for was. A simple act of service. Though it would take the disciples a little while to recover from the tragedy of the cross, they would remember. They’d make the connection that service is about the simple things, the doable things. What Jesus wanted to be remembered for is that it was not about him. Nor was it about THEM. It was about what happened between them. It was all about the love which they bore to one another. It was all about the acts of service that take their glory and their power from their simplicity and repetition. In the doing of the dishes that someone else left on the sink, you wash their feet in loving kindness. In asking of the roommate how their day was when yours has been so full and busy and difficult, you wash their feet in tender service. In making the choice to listen to someone’s story, you wash their feet in compassionate care. “DO you understand what I have done for you?” Then go and do the same. Go and do the same.

That is why we gather tonight – to do the two things that Jesus asked to be remembered by – our communion and our service. In a few minutes you will have the chance to enter into the service part of that remembrance – the washing of the feet. There are three chairs here. I’ll be manning the one on the east side. Come there if you need your feet washed and your heart loved. –no strings attached. Deacon Paul and Paul Lee will begin at the other stations. And once they have washed your feet, they will hand you the towel and basin to wash the feet of the person after you…

And then in a few minutes after that, you will have the chance to enter into the meal – and so continue the saving love of Jesus. It’s a great night, because we get to do exactly what Jesus asked us to.

Alfred Nobel? – I thought you’d never ask. He went on to use his fortune to establish a little reward – a little way for people to be about the things that matter. To this day, people continue to work hard to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

And you – how do you want to be remembered?