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Washing of Feet

23/4/2019

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Easter weekend and, in the interfaith world, the two great religions of Judaism and Christianity have been celebrating their foundational festivals. Both festivals tell stories of liberation and remember the values and beliefs on which their religion is founded. For Judaism the celebrations take place at home and are focussed on the ritual meal eaten on the first of the eight days of Pesach. The story is about how God intervened in their history to free them from slavery and set them on the way to becoming a people. The refrain throughout the story is “on this night…..” because the memory of this saving act is an eternally present reality.

The Christian celebration of Easter takes place in community – in Churches – and over three days enacts the last days in the life of Jesus, from his last supper with his disciples, to his death as  a common criminal and his resurrection on the third day. It too is a festival of remembrance which makes ever present the possibility of liberation from the slavery of selfishness to a life of love and service.      

Because Christianity grew out of Judaism it recalls the liberation of the People of Israel and celebrates God’s presence both in creation and in history.  It goes just that little bit further in that it also celebrates God’s presence in our very humanity and in our very human struggle to live a good and wholesome life. Like Pesach it is a festival of movement and journey from despair to hope, death to life, selfishness to love.  For Christians the story of Jesus’ passage through death to resurrection contains the truth of the continuing power and presence of Jesus and the possibility of new life that’s always a possibility.    

Easter isn’t a story about the past but an insight into a truth about the present. Who can doubt that we live in a world that’s in need of redemption?  Surely it’s obvious from the mess we’re making of the environment, from the violence that so characterises our race, from the growth of isolationist politics, from our growing xenophobia etc. etc. The bombings in Sri Lanka, coming at this particular time, bear witness to that fact. But the Easter story tells us that death and destruction don’t have the last word, that things can change, that peace is possible, that new life can come out of old if we pray for it, are open to it, welcome it and work for it. Northern Ireland is an example of that and there are examples in other parts of the world and in our own individual lives if we look for them. This can give us hope.      
                                             
One of the most moving moments during the Christian celebrations of the last days of Jesus is the washing of the feet. On Holy Thursday the priest presiding at the service washes the feet of 12 members of the congregation to re-enact the washing of the disciples feet by Jesus as they took their last supper together. It was an unusual gesture. Feet were washed on entering a house but never during a meal nor carried out by the master of the household. Peter protested and was told by Jesus that he could have no part with him unless he had his feet washed. It was for Jesus a sign of friendship. Then Jesus said ‘If I your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example,  that you should do as I have done to you”.  In this action Jesus changes the order of things – the master has become the servant. There’s a way through the desire to dominate or the fear of being dominated, a way through competition for resources that leaves some overly wealthy and others impoverished, a way through the xenophobia that divides the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’. And that way is service.

Washing someone’s feet is a very sensual and intimate action. I’ve had my feet washed once during the Easter season and I’ve never forgotten it – because the person doing it did so with such love and tenderness. It creates a bond. This Easter a local school enacted out the last days in the life of Jesus and the young boy taking the role of Jesus washed the feet of  friends but also teachers, parents and parish priest – a change in the order of things. I’m sure he will never forget it.     
When Pope Francis carries out this annual ritual he tenderly kisses the feet of the person whose feet he’s just washed. In many traditions to touch or caress the feet of someone considered inferior is taboo but for Francis no-one is his inferior, all are his brothers and sisters, made in the image and likeness of God, to be reverenced no matter their position in life. Who will forget the moment recently when, having pleaded with his brothers and sisters for peace in Sth. Sudan, he kissed the feet of the opposing elements in the government?  Will it bring about peace? Who knows?  But it certainly is a sign that humility, respect, reverence and service are the way to redemption and not that of domination and violence.  
  

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A Pearl of Great Price?

9/4/2019

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 I was in the town of St Andrews this weekend. It’s a small town dominated by famous golf courses and the University. In fact it’s Scotland’s only university town with medieval colleges giving it an air of history and students giving it an air of youthful energy. While there I was privileged to take part in a rather special event.
 
The Jewish community were welcoming Torah Scrolls that had come from the Synagogue in Dundee which sadly has now closed. A cupboard in the University Chaplaincy had been adapted to house the scrolls and Sunday was the day in which the new Ark was consecrated. It was such a joyous occasion. First of all we sang Yiddish songs and then were reminded of how precious and sacred are the Torah Scrolls in Judaism. The Scrolls were then brought out, read from, passed round and danced with as happens each year at the festival of Simchat Torah. It was a mixed gathering of orthodox and reform Jews and I was privileged to be handed the Scrolls and pass them on – something orthodox women would not be allowed to do. One orthodox woman told me she couldn’t do it as it would be too awesome a happening for her.
  
The Torah is at the centre of Jewish religious life and the Scrolls are seen as a symbol and even sacrament of the Living Torah and the Presence of God. They are not just scripture. While I might have known this in my head it was the delight and love with which the Scrolls were received that helped me experience and gain a deeper insight into their meaning for Jews. I suspect that attendance at synagogue services will not be quite the same for me in the future as I bring this amazing experience into my appreciation of what is going on.

The reason I was in St Andrews was an invitation to preach at the morning service in the University Chapel, a beautiful medieval building that was small, warm and inviting.  The passage from the Bible that I preached on was the story of the Woman Taken in Adultery – a story in which a woman caught, we are told, in the very act of committing adultery, is brought before Jesus by the religious authorities to test his response and hopefully catch him out. Will he forgive this woman and so break the Law of Moses which required death by stoning or will he uphold the Law and so flout the authority of the Romans who forbade the Jews to inflict the death penalty?  They have him in a bind – or so they think.

Jesus response has the touch of genius I think because he doesn’t enter into their games, he refuses to debate the niceties of religious or civil law, he doesn’t argue but waits and disarms them with the suggestion that the one among them who is without sin should be the first to throw a stone. The group disperses – perhaps rather sheepishly.
 Often the title given to stories conditions how we see them.  The story of the woman taken in adultery is about a woman who is shown mercy and forgiveness, something that is at the heart of Jesus’ message, though it’s a mercy and forgiveness that is challenging for the woman is told not to sin again.  And while the woman is central, it seems to me that the spotlight is much more on the men – self-righteous men, presenting themselves as the experts, feeling entitled to question and intimidate people, willing to support a punishment meted out to only one partner in the act.

 It wasn’t possible for me as a Catholic and a woman to read this story and not be aware of the terrible scandals that have hit the Catholic Church in recent times. Now it’s Bishops and priests and Cardinals, who have been exposed as wanting. They have shamed the Church and scandalised believers. Men  who seem to have been addicted to the trappings of authority and power,  who used people for their own satisfaction,  who preached a gospel that they did not live up to, who castigated people for being gay while they themselves were living a gay lifestyle.

It has rocked the Church and led many people, especially young people, to wonder why they stay. What has shocked people is the hypocrisy of it all, the culture of secrecy that allowed it to continue, the ability to point the finger at others while being immune to their own sinfulness.  Of course we are all, to some extent hypocrites, and we mustn’t do to these men what the religious authorities did to the woman in our gospel reading today.
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But the abuse of a power that often demanded obedience and compliance is staggering.  This is an example of the very worst kind of religion and the danger of putting too much trust in institutions.  All religions have their institutional aspects and centres of authority. They are there to protect and hand on the core beliefs of the faith but often they obscure rather than reveal those beliefs which in their essence are about meaning, love and service.  There is at the heart of religion, I believe, a pearl of great price that is worth seeking. But the search is within our own hearts, within our own history. It is a search which leads us to be open to wisdom and truth wherever it reveals itself to us. Then we will be able to recognise the good in religion and distinguish it from the bad.  

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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