During Supper...
John 13: 1-17
A Maundy Thursday Meditation
By the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

A lot can happen “During supper...”
I remember sitting at supper while my mother pretended to eat, and watched to be sure her children did eat.
I remember sitting at supper in the stony silence before violence.
I remember conversations during supper so filled with laughter that we fell off our chairs.
I remember suppers that served up big news, sad news, good news.
I remember, during supper, getting to know someone for the first time.
I remember  -- suppers -- in prison, hospital cafeterias, cafes, shelters, small rooms, banquet halls, weddings, memorials, demonstrations, dates, vacations, supper alone, with family and friends, church suppers, again and again and again... a lot can happen during supper.

Tonight we remember what happened during “the Last Supper” of Jesus.
In John’s gospel the Last Supper of Jesus does not focus on the ritual of the meal itself.  We do not read, “This is my body.”  

In John’s gospel the Last Supper of Jesus is not a Passover meal.
In John’s Gospel, the emphasis is on what Jesus does... “during supper...” because communion with Jesus is about bread for the world.
It is not pain and violence that God desired in the passion of Jesus. Pain and violence are already here in the way things are.  God desires to be God with us.  The passion of Jesus is the compassion of God.

Gratitude for God’s love and compassion leads us to compassion for others...and for ourselves. We take up our suffering, we take up the suffering of others, not as victims, but as vocation.  
Who we are, what we do, what is done to us is all one.  One with God. At one ment.

Earlier today I engaged in an interfaith Holy Season Action -- somewhat against my will.   It was a footwashing ceremony – in front of the Chancellor’s office on the Cal campus.  The East Bay Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice organized this ritual “to show our appreciation for and solidarity with custodians, groundskeepers, food service workers and maintenance workers.”

Didn’t want to go...busy...meetings to go to...knee hurts...it’s Holy Week.  And that’s why I knew I had to go.... The workers asked for our support as they struggle for just and living wage.  (we talk about the cost of housing, the cost of living in the Bay Area ....35%-46% service workers do not earn enough to pay for food, rent, bare necessities for one adult, let alone a family, and are eligible for public assistance...25% below comparable university.)

I went today because the passion and compassion of Christ lead us beyond ourselves against our inclinations.  Thanks be to God.
At noon prayer and song, life stories, and words of solidarity, a Rabbi and I came forward together, as a Cal grounds worker came to sit before us. The rabbi said a blessing, laying hands on this worker, while I knelt and washed her feet. When I saw there was no towel, I used this chasuble to dry her feet. It was a holy moment for me as I remembered the stoles clergy wear are meant to be signs of servant leadership.  There were several other stations of clergy and workers, in shifts!

In the time of Jesus, foot washing was an act of hospitality for travelers.  Servants might wash the feet of guests.  
During supper, Jesus did not hold forth, he did not correct or instruct.  During supper Jesus got up, and, like a servant, he washed the feet of his disciples.  He did not sit at the head of the table.

Jesus is our rabbi. He taught by what he lived.  After he washed their feet, he returned to the supper table.
And, as the last verse of our text tonight reads, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.