Go and do likewise: A call to serve

We often read about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet the Thursday before Good Friday. That day is often called Holy Thursday. I tend to favor the old word: “Maundy Thursday”. Because Maundy comes from mandate. It is about the New Mandate or the New Commandment to love one another. Jesus didn’t just say it, he showed it. He showed how we love by serving. Humbling serving to the point of washing their feet.

Here at Lima UMC we are in our third week of our stewardship campaign. This week’s emphasis is not on giving our money but on giving our time and our service. Lima is very active in so many activities. The mission of the month is an outreach to our community, to our nation, to our world. We are serving those outside these walls.

Some of our service is helping with finances or fellowship, or the building, or the grounds, the worship services, with music, brass, praise team, choir, with prayer, with visiting the sick or homebound, education, watching the children, being a steward of the finances, the list goes on. There is a place for you to serve and this day we remember Jesus showed us the way. Go and do likewise he said in the gospel of Luke and in the gospel of John he said, “I set you an example that you also do as I have done.”

The humility of washing feet is more than just a touching gesture, it is an example of greatness. Why do we spend time with church meetings or church small groups or worship? We do these things because Jesus served and told us to.

When we join the church, we promise to faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by
Our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service.

Next week we will be invited to fill out a pledge card for our commitment of financial gifts.

Today we are focused on our gifts and talents and interests in serving. We are focused on service today because that is a crucial part of stewardship.

This is also All Saints Sunday. We say the name of our loved ones from Lima who have died and we light a candle. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Those who have gone on before us. Others have served and lived and gave gifts and contributed to our lives.

We ring a bells and light a candle for our loved ones who have gone on before us and entered heaven this year. A beautiful symbol of their lives and in memory we offer this to them.

The light, a symbol, of our being the light of the world. Do not hide your light. Let us depart to serve.

Bells – I can’t help but think of John Donne and his “ask not for whom the bell tolls” when talking about the bell sounding the death of someone in church. Here is his meditation:

Meditation XVII
XVII. MEDITATION.

The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.
As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all;

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, …any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.
…affliction is a treasure, … No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels.
Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another’s danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

Literature Network » John Donne » Meditation XVII
John Donne said when one dies, a chapter is not torn out of the book but translated into another language. He says the language is sometimes translated by age. You have learned some things through the years, haven’t you? That is one of my passions, when you have lived a long time, you have some perspective that younger folks need. Let us be about generativity, passing on to the next generation the tools, the translation, the language we have gathered to help them in their journey. And not so much through advice, people often can’t hear it. Through what we do. That is what Jesus did his last day. He served and said, ‘do this also as I have done. Go and do likewise.”

God employs several translations Donne says – some by sickness. We learn our limits. We learn to appreciate and value the time we have together. We learn humility in sickness for someone must help us.

Some translations come through war. During our online service, we filmed at the columbarium and the grave of the unknown soldier. Remember we do not even know which side the soldier was on. Come what may, death is the great equalizer. Slavery was cruel. It was the reason for the battle of the civil war. We need to speak up against hate. So, it does not mean we do not have convictions. Yet, if this unknown soldier fought for the other side, he is honored here in our church still. What service will we be remembered for?

Some translations come through justice. Righting wrongs, speaking and living truth.

Donne goes on to say through the new translations God will gather up the scattered pages of our book, open to all to read. The sermon is not just for the preacher, Donne said. And AMEN to that I hope I am not speaking in an echo chamber. Donne you may know what a pasto , in addition to being a poet, soldier, and lawyer. He was a pastor in the Church of England in the 16th Century.

No man is an island. (Even though I really like Simon and Garfunkle’s song) no one is alone, we are connected. The bells and the lighting of the candles remind us we have a community beyond the grave. We will one day join that community.

Donne speaks of affliction and death as a treasure. He compares it to gold, and that must be exchanged for cash, currency if we are traveling and need to use it. He said the affliction and death others is like gold. The bell applies that to us, be bringing us into contemplation of God, our only security. We do not see suffering and death yet as a treasure, yet God is forming in us meaning and purpose. May the bell and the lights be like a treasure not yet exchanged or translated into the holy. But bring us to God to do just that. And God is the only one who can make sense of the world and of our grief and give us peace that no one else is capable of. Others will try and claim is you vote for them there will be peace. God is the only security.

What an appropriate day to reflect on the service we give to the world. Someday a candle will be lit for us. Someday we will be remembered. What legacy do we want to leave?

When Jesus was about to depart from this world, what did he do? He washed his disciples’ feet. What a reminder of giving and living.

When the roll is called down here, will it be known that we said yes, we want to participate in God’s plans?

We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. How will we honor them? How will we carry on the torch? Let us continue to serve our Lord until our own dying day.

We have an election day coming up this Tuesday I cannot predict what is going to happen. Princes and kings and presidents come and go. The hate that I see seems to linger much too long. I do not see people vying over who is the most loving. Outdo one another in showing honor Paul said in the book of Romans.

We know our time will come when we are counted among the saints. So, in the meantime, whom will you serve? God, or mammon? God, or our ego? Giving time to our church or to our entertainment? The choice is ours. Let us do good while we have breath. We entered to worship, let us depart to serve.

May it be so.