Saint John 13:1-17, 31b-35
The year 1969 was a long time ago but the issues of divisions we faced then are strangely and sadly similar to those we face now.
The Supreme Court had just ruled that “separate was not equal” and that “swimming pools could no longer be segregated by race.” I like to think that few people would disagree with this ruling now but with acceptable discourse now allowing the words “‘vermin’ and ‘poisoning the blood’ to describe migrants”1 without any ramifications at all one has to wonder how far we have progressed from the days early in the 20th Century when signs could be posted in windows saying, “No Irish Need Apply” along with one in highly Protestant England which seemed to cover all the basis by saying: “No Irish. No Blacks. No Dogs.”2
The Poles were discriminated against as were the Italians with no less than a New York Times editorial saying of them:
These sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions, the cut-throat practices, and the oath-bound societies of their native country, are to us a pest without mitigation. Our own rattlesnakes are as good citizens as they…3
If the rhetoric does not change over time our attitudes must and they can be changed in subtle ways.
In the year, 1969, a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and ordained Presbyterian Minister, The Reverend Mr. Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers to the rest of us did something radical.
It was a hot day in the neighbourhood and Mr. Rogers decided to cool off by soaking his feet in a small children’s wading pool when along came Officer Clemmons, a Black police officer who frequently appeared on the program as a friendly, cordial beat officer who patrolled the neighbourhood and befriended Rogers. Mr. Rogers invited Officer Clemmons to share the pool with him.
François Clemmons, who played the officer would say later of this moment. "Everybody in the studio got quiet and I didn't understand that impact. They were all looking at us and he said things a friend would say to another friend.”4
When the officer announced that it was time for him to get back to his beat he realized that he didn’t have a towel, so Mr. Rogers offered the only towel the two had between them and “he used Rogers' towel to dry his feet, as promised. Rogers left the pool directly after Clemmons and proceeded to use the same towel.”
“It was a definite call to social action on Fred’s part,” Clemmons recalls. “That was his way of speaking about race relations in America.”5
Fast forward with me please to the first quarter of this year’s Super Bowl. Some, who see themselves as experts on football and just about everything else in life referred to it as a “super bore” because he didn’t care about either team that was playing probably missed the subtlety of an ad that played during the first quarter that raised the eyebrows and hackles of liberals and conservatives alike.
It was sponsored by the “He Gets Us” project and featured scenes of a young man washing an older man’s (perhaps his father or grandfathers) feet before a dinner in a classic dining room. Another scene showed a police officer washing a homeless person’s feet. A young woman outside of a family planning clinic was seen having her feet washed as protesters gathered in the background. A migrant, just off the bus was having his feet washed while, in another a white neighbor was washing the feet of her Muslim neighbor as both of their husbands looked on.
The tag line: “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet. He gets us. All of us.”
I do believe I cheered as loudly for that commercial as I did when Mecole Hardman caught the game winning touchdown from Patrick Mahomes to give the Kansas City Chiefs a 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49'ers. I didn’t care who won but I did find that the game anything but boring.
Neither was the controversies surrounding the ad.
Who in the world could find fault with an ad that showed people washing other people’s feet? (Except maybe Robin Baumgarten from the WGN Morning News but that is another story!) Or an ad that ended with the words: “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet. He gets us. All of us.”
Apparently some liberal groups could.
Some took issue with the views of who the backers are. There political positions were deemed to be unacceptable. But most like Solomon Missouri, took issue of the money spent. He wrote:
Estimates suggest that 30 seconds of commercial time during Super Bowl LVIII cost $7 million. The two “He Gets Us” ads added up to 75 seconds. Many evangelical Christians are likely to see those millions of dollars as an investment in evangelism — that is, as a fast way to get the Gospel message in front of as many eyes as possible, a low-stakes investment to discuss values not seen as offensive or inflammatory.
Is this a commercial campaign about Christian ministry, or is it marketing?
He then goes on to list a litany of social injustices from inadequate housing to high grocery prices, to the cost of educating children and then asks: In the middle of all these problems, Jesus needs a million {dollar} marketing campaign?6
I’ve heard this song sung in person before by people who wondered why the church spends money on beautiful things when “it could have been given to the poor.”
I know some of these people.
I know that rarely if ever have they attended a church for worship. I know that they have never in their lives spent so much as a minute working at one of the nightly dinners being hosted at any of the downtown Chicago churches or any church in their communities.
I know that they have never taken any time out of their busy days to make, much less, deliver so much as a sandwich to an unhoused person. I know that financially very little, if any, money flows out of their pockets to any social service agency. What’s theirs is theirs and they are going to keep all the while complaining,
Whenever I hear nonsense like this I am reminded of the scene in scripture where a woman who understand that “Jesus gets her” lavishly pours out a vile of expensive oil all over his feet.
Saint John’s gospel remember Judas’ reaction: “That perfume was worth a fortune. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.”7
You have to hand it to the good people of the “He Gets Us” project because they have not only managed to incur the ire of liberals but also managed to find themselves targets of conservative wrath as well.
If the liberals through they were spending too much the conservatives thought they were being to inclusive. Jesus washed everybody’s feet they wondered.
As one man wrote on his Facebook page concerning the "He Gets Us" Super Bowl commercials:
Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity."
Enough truth in these commercials to entice and enough distortions to deceive. Be discerning brethren.
Or at least be familiar enough with the foot washing story to know that Jesus washed the feet of every disciple present, including Judas allowing “good and bad to be side by side”. But not only that, Jesus broke bread with his betrayer daily but even shared the last supper with him.
Hours before his death Jesus fed Judas too. Hours before his death Jesus washed Judas’ feet too.
What my Fundamentalist friend missed in scripture is something the “He Gets Us” project saw.
{W}e recalled the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and realized this was the perfect example of how we should treat one another, even those people with whom we don’t see eye to eye. Jesus had washed Peter’s feet, a loyal friend who would publicly deny that he knew Jesus later that very night. And even more astoundingly, Jesus washed Judas Iscariot’s feet, the one who would betray him for 30 pieces of silver.
It was these words and actions of Jesus that inspired us. We began to imagine a world where ideological others were willing to set their differences aside and wash one another’s feet. How would that look? How would our contentious world change if we washed one another’s feet, not literally, but figuratively? Acts of kindness done out of humility and respect for another person could be considered the equivalent of foot washing.8
As someone who has always tried to be a “strong word from the middle of the road” I figure that if you have managed to upset liberals and conservatives you must be doing something right.
So tonight, as we remember in a very real way that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. We may not understand the how or why of it, or even be comfortable with the idea, but sometimes that is the way things are.
Some things don’t require complete theological agreement or even our understanding, but we do them anyway.
Dr. James D. Howell said it best when he wondered:
What do our people think as they amble slowly forward? I invite them into what Martin Sheen said to Krista Tippett in an On Being episode: “How can we understand these great mysteries of the church? I don’t have a clue. I just stand in line and say Here I am, I’m with them, the community of faith. This explains the mystery, all the love. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed, just watching people in line. It’s the most profound thing. You just surrender yourself to it.”8
Tonight, in the washing of the feet and the bread and wine we surrender ourselves, once again to Jesus, our humble Saviour, who really does get us.
________________
1. Peter Wade, “Confronted That His Rhetoric Echoes Nazis, Trump Repeats Racist Attacks on Immigrants,” Rolling Stone, March 17, 2024, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-defends-nazi-rhetoric-immigrants-1234989206/
2. _______, “No Reason to Doubt No Irish, No Blacks Signs,” The Guardian, October 28, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/28/no-reason-to-doubt-no-irish-no-blacks-signs.
3. Chris Wolfe, “A Brief History of America’s Hostility to a Previous Generation of Mediterranean Migrants - Italians,” The World from PRX, November 26, 2015, https://theworld.org/stories/2015-11-26/brief-history-america-s-hostility-previous-generation-mediterranean-migrants.
4. Adrian Pastor, “‘I Put My Foot in the Water and History Was Made’ - Officer Clemmons Actor Looks Back on Iconic Scene,” WPTZ, February 17, 2023, https://www.mynbc5.com/article/francois-clemmons-mister-rogers-neighborhood-pool-scene/42955226.
5. Kevin O’Connor, “Officer Clemmons Carries on Mr. Roger’s Message of Hope,” VTDigger, December 25, 2018, https://vtdigger.org/2018/12/25/officer-clemmons-carries-mr-rogers-message-hope/.
6. Solomon Missouri, “Spending Millions on ‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Ads Doesn’t Honor Jesus,” MSNBC, February 13, 2024, https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/he-gets-us-superbowl-ad-jesus-rcna138435.
7. St. John 12:5. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible (Carol Steam, IL: Tyndale Publishing House, 1971)]
8. James C Howell, “What can we say Maundy Thursday?” James Howell’s Weekly Preaching Notions, accessed March 25, 2024, https://jameshowellsweeklypreachingnotions.blogspot.com/.
8. “What Is Foot Washing and What Does It Symbolize?,” He Gets Us, accessed March 25, 2024, https://hegetsus.com/en/articles/what-is-foot-washing-and-what-does-it-symbolize.
No comments:
Post a Comment