Maundy Thursday

Rosie Mason has one of the world's oddest job titles and is employed for just one day each year. Mrs Mason, 55, from Leicester, is the Queen's supplier of Nosegays - the sweet-smelling bouquets carried by royals as she hands out the Maundy Money today. Monarchs have been handing out gifts on Maundy Thursday since the 13th Century. In centuries past, the sovereign would give money to the poor and wash recipients' feet on. The nosegay's role was to ward off unpleasant smells. Foot-washing ended with James II in the 17th Century but the tradition of making the posies remains "It has to be one of the world's oddest job titles," said Mrs Mason. “The nosegays are only carried at the Maundy service so I only work on them for one day every year," she said, adding that her work as a florist keeps her busy the rest of the time. But her job as the Queen’s Supplier of Nosegays is just for once a year!

Tonight the smell of feet will fill the air and there is no bouquet of flowers in sight to ward off unpleasant smells. How disgusting, how unappetising, how coarse, how common! Why, in the midst of our eating and drinking, would we dare to break with etiquette, why dare to break social norms and acceptable behaviour, and get our feet out? Why? Because on the night he gathered with his friends in an upstairs room, Jesus left the table and taking bowl and water and wearing a towel around his waist, bends to the feet of his disciples and washes their feet in a gesture that is so out of the ordinary it takes even his disciples by surprise. ‘What are you doing?’ ‘You will never wash my feet.’

But this is not a one-off. This is not an isolated gesture, it’s not a party trick, or a novelty, neither is it a once a year event, a gesture to look back on, smile at, gasp about or be lost in melancholy moments. Jesus is very clear about what he is doing and why he is doing it. ‘Do you understand what I have done to you?’ he asks. ‘You call me Master and Lord, and rightly so; so I am. If I, then, the Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have given you an example that you may copy what I have done to you.’

The command is there to continue what he has done, to copy his example, to carry on his work, to fulfil his command. The mandate has been set before us. It’s what we must do! And not just once a year either! The command to wash one another’s feet is one that should characterise our lives, it is one that should fill our lives, so that we become a stooping people: stooping low to serve, showing no partiality, no picking and choosing, no turning of our backs. I can’t decide to wash the feet of someone ‘respectable’ who looks as though their feet are clean but ignore the man I passed on Bute Street today, half cut, looking half human, gobbing in the street, staggering on his way, the smell clinging to his clothes. But that is the challenge, that is where Jesus wants us to be. Serving whoever comes our way. How difficult, how challenging – yet also how wonderful and beautiful it is too. It also means, of course, that there can be no picking and choosing of who serves us. Sometimes it is as difficult to have your feet washed as it is to wash the feet of someone else. Peter discovered that. ‘Not me, Lord.’

There is a story told by a Methodist Minister of fifty years of a dream he once had. He thought he was a tourist in heaven and wandered into the museum of that holy city. There was some old armour there, much bruised with battle. Many things were conspicuous by their absence. I saw nothing of Alexander’s nor of Napoleon’s There was no Pope’s ring, not even the inkpot that Luther is said to have thrown at the Devil, nor Wesley’s seal and keys…I saw a widow’s mite and the feathers of a little bird. I saw some swaddling clothes, a hammer and three nails and a few thorns. I saw a bit of fishing net and the broken oar of a boat. I saw a sponge that had once been dipped in vinegar, and a small piece of silver…Whilst I was turning over a common drinking cup which had a very honourable place, I whispered to the attendant, “have you not got a towel and a basin among your collection?’ ‘No,’ he said. ‘Not here. You see they are in constant use’

Read the gospel of John and you will find no account of the institution of Eucharist: it appears to be substituted by the washing of feet - because in a way, they are the same thing: an example of Jesus’ giving of himself to us. And if we too gather regularly at the Mass, to do as Jesus has commanded us to do – for that is why we do it – then we too should be filled with the courage and compassion to wash the feet of others, willingly, lovingly, regularly. We are servants of one another.

Oh yes, this night is a once in a year event, but the things that happen this evening, and all through the next few days are ‘Through the Year,’ Through our Lives’ things. For yes, there will be times when we will feel so intimate with Jesus, so close, so loving as though reclining at table with him, enjoying his company. There will be times when we will be aghast at the things he says. There will be times when we will want to argue or remonstrate, when we may want to take another way, a different way. There will be times when we will have our Gethsemane moments, when we will struggle like Jesus with what God wants us to do. There will be times when we will like Jesus, be left alone. There will be times, too, when, like the apostles, we will fear and fall away and distance ourselves from Jesus and even, at times, abandon or betray or disown him – God forbid. There will be times when we will feel as if we are put on trial, or like the apostles as though events are running away from us, as though they are out of our control and all we can do is stand by and watch. There will be times when we will experience our Golgotha moments of darkness and destitution, and our Holy Saturday moments too of waiting and waiting and feeling helpless and hopeless and not knowing what to do or where to turn and we will not be able to move on or move anywhere, when we will want to lock ourselves away. And there will be times too when we will be filled with the joy of the resurrection, with the joy of the empty tomb, of the unbelievable joy that Christ brings.

But tonight, tonight, of all nights, we will have our feet washed, and we will watch and wait with Jesus, and we will receive from Jesus’ hands the bread and wine, his body and blood, the gift of himself. And we will be challenged to move on from this night and take what we receive in this Mass, on this night, into our lives. Are you brave enough, foolish enough, are you trusting enough to move on? Are you inquisitive enough and thirsty enough to find out more and experience more and grow closer to Jesus? Do you dare to come close? And do you dare to have your feet washed? And do you dare to wash the feet of others?

On his death bed, St Francis said, ‘Let us now begin to serve the Lord for up to now we have done nothing.’ In serving the Lord we are called to serve one another.

So let us begin.