If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet,

you should wash each other’s feet. 

John 13 v14

Each one of us, perhaps, has his or her favourite story from Scripture, which best encapsulates what it means to be Christ-like.  It was until quite recently a regular custom in some of our great universities to have an annual mission preached to the undergraduates.   Those invited to give the key addresses on such occasions were, more often than not, considered to be the most stimulating and challenging Christians of their day.  At Oxford, for instance, in the 1960s the great scholar and archbishop, Michael Ramsey was followed within just three years by the outspoken missionary bishop, Trevor Huddleston.  Ramsey and Huddleston may have had contrasting personalities and life stories.   Each, though, was united in the passage from the Bible on which he was to base his final, challenging address.  It was that famous passage from Saint John’s Gospel recording how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.

Jesus’ washing of His disciples’ feet certainly has an immediate message.   If the Son of God sees His primary task, even on the eve of His crucifixion, as being one of carrying out the most humble of tasks in the service of other people, there can be no better example for we Christians to follow.  It is the story above all others, that a great Christian bishop like Trevor Huddleston could not only say had inspired him to dedicate his life to the service of the poor and marginalized.  It was also the story of which Huddleston could remind his young listeners as he invited them now to take up that same baton.  Great saints like Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta have said and done something similar.  Jesus as the one who is at the service of others is, without doubt, the inspiration that brings together this day so many who seek to serve as members of the Order of Saint Lazarus.

If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet.

The motivation in caring for others is, it seems for Saint John’s Gospel, to be like Jesus. If, however, you and I read Saint John ‘s Gospel carefully then we soon find that there is something which presents an even greater challenge as we seek to give ourselves up for other people just as Jesus did on the first Maundy Thursday.  It is, after all, in Saint John’s Gospel, that we find those famous words of Jesus:  God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.  God loved the world so much that he gave……  It is the very nature of God, Himself, to be someone who gives out of love.   We Christians believe that every human being is made in the very image of God.   It follows, then, that you and I are most authentically the people that God has created us to be when we are images of God’s self-giving.  Deny human beings the privilege of giving of themselves and we deny them something of what should be at the heart of human nature as God intends it to be.  As all of us present today dedicate ourselves to mirror the charity shown by Jesus then we are taking one more step along that journey towards becoming the persons that God has created each one of us to be.  To answer such a vocation brings with it, then, a great sense of both gratitude and humility for this fact that God has led us more deeply into that true fulfilment.

But, to know that all men and women are made in God’s image, and so called to mirror His generous giving, also says something to you and to me about those who are to be the recipients of our charity.  We can never, then, be content only to be the givers and they the receivers.   Remember how, in that story of the foot washing, Peter is told by Jesus that he, Simon Peter, can have no part in Jesus’ life unless he is prepared to receive a gift from Jesus and not just want to be the one to bestow it.  If a key way for living in the image of God is to be a generous giver then you and I must be sure that every person for whom we care has the opportunity to discover an equal capacity within him or herself to realise that capacity.   At a very simple level, I remember, as a fairly newly ordained curate, being charged to take a substantial Christmas hamper to one of the poorest elderly ladies in the parish.   She was overwhelmed with gratitude.  The very next day, though, that same lady was calling at my home with a bar of chocolate she had immediately purchased as a Christmas gift for me.  The potential for some kind of reciprocity in giving can, paradoxically, be a very important ingredient in our giving; that if we are to give others the opportunity to exercise their God-given capacity for exercising charity.  That does not mean that you and I stop giving unconditionally.  God certainly does not do that and neither should we.  What id does mean is having the graciousness to receive whatever might come back to us in return, be it only the tentative smile from the face of someone terminally ill or from the distracted refugee.  It can even be just accepting the anger and frustration, even the seeming throwing back of the gift in our face, from those poor people who are so hurt and damaged that all they can share with us at a particular moment is their pain, frustration and inadequacy.  People are helped to discover that it is safe to offer a little of themselves might then even move on to find that they can subsequently give us a great deal if only we are prepared to receive it.  William Wordsworth rightly saw that the old Cumberland beggar gave great satisfaction to everyone who ministered to him because of the feeling of worthwhileness he generated in each of them.   Wordsworth’s old beggar, as well as those who fed him and opened gates for him, could all equally enjoy that experience of giving that is to be authentically human.  That destitute widow Zarephath of whom Elijah asked for a share of what seemed to be her very last meal, opened up for her the way to fulfilment.

Thank God, then, for this Order of Saint Lazarus.  Thank God for His vocation to serve within it.  Thank Him for the privilege of being called to be images of the heart of God’s nature, that is, His capacity for generous self-giving.  And, as you exercise that calling, be sure to do all you possibly can to help those among whom and to whom you minister, in their turn, to experience something more of what it truly is to be a human being that is made in the image of God.

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