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Washing Feet - Holy Thursday · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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fumccollingswood. Dot org.
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Thanks for listening. The Scripture this evening comes
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to us from the Gospel of John chapter 13, starting in verse
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one. It was just before the Passover
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festival. Jesus knew that the hour had
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come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.
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Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the
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end. The evening meal was in progress
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and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon
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Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had
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put all things under his power and that he had come from God
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and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took
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off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his
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waist. After that he poured water into
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a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with
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the towel that was wrapped around him.
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He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to
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wash my feet? Jesus replied, You do not
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realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.
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No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.
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Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.
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Then Lord Simon Peter replied, Not just my feet, but my hands
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and my head as well. Jesus answered, Those who have
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had a bath need only to wash their feet.
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Their whole body is clean and you are clean, though not
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everyone of you. For he knew who was going to
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betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.
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When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his
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clothes and returned to his place.
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Do you understand what I have done for you?
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He asked them, You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly
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so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and
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Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one
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another's feet. I have set you an example that
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you should do as I have done for you.
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Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his
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master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent
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him. Now that you know these things,
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you will be blessed if you do them.
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This is the word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God. Amen.
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Amen. Well, if you didn't notice,
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Aaron and I don't usually sing those kind of songs together,
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but it's I'm so grateful for him and his willingness.
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He rearranged some things to be here and play tonight because
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Will and his family had a little travel difficulties where they
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were supposed to fly down to Florida with Aria on Sunday and
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their flight got cancelled. So they ended up driving and
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they are driving back even now to be here for the rest of of
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this weekend. And anyway, grateful for Aaron
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and his willingness to jump in. All right, I remember the first
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time I read this story about Jesus washing his disciples feet
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in the Jesus Storybook Bible. It has quite a graphic
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description of 1st century roads and the feet that walked on
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them. And let me just read it for you
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for a moment, OK? It says it was the Passover, the
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time when God's people remembered how God had rescued
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them from being slaves in Egypt. Every year they killed a lamb
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and ate it. The lamb died instead of us,
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they would say. But this Passover, God was
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getting ready for an even greater rescue.
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Jesus and his friends were having the Passover meal
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together in the upstairs room. But Jesus's friends were
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arguing. What about?
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They were arguing about stinky feet.
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Stinky feet, Yes, that's right, stinky feet.
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Now, the thing about feet back then was that people didn't wear
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shoes. They really only wore sandals,
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which might not sound unusual, except that the streets in those
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days were dirty. And I don't mean just dusty
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dirty, I mean really stinky dirty, with all those cows and
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horses everywhere. You can imagine the stuff on the
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street that ended up on their feet.
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So anyway, someone had to wash away the dirt.
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But it was a dreadful job. Who on earth would ever dream of
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volunteering to do it? Only the lowliest servant.
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Sounds lovely, doesn't it? You know, I don't think I really
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understood the depth of what Jesus did that night there in
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the upper room for his disciples until we lived in Uganda, which
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at times was quite similar. I got to experience for myself
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what it was like to to walk on those dusty streets to to get
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into town from our house. If we didn't drive, you had to
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walk on roads that were either dry and dusty or wet and muddy.
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The same roads you would regularly see people driving
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herds of cows, you know, right through the middle of town.
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Or they'd be leading a whole little group of goats or, or
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stray dogs were just wandering about seeing what they could get
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into. So you can imagine, right, what
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ended up on the streets. It was, you know, not even an
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uncommon sight to see someone just standing on the side of the
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road urinating. You know, sorry to be so graphic
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in the middle of a worship service, but but it helps you
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understand a little bit of what was happening today, living in
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in New Jersey, like most of us do, we live in a pretty
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sanitized world, right? It's far from the realities of,
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of, of foot traffic in an agrarian culture.
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There are no animals in the streets, although the geese in
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the area might give you some idea of what it was like if you
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tried walking around one of the lakes here.
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And generally speaking, if we're going to be walking about,
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we'll, we'll put on socks and shoes.
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Unless we're Jeremy, you might have a home where your custom is
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to take off your shoes when you enter into the house.
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But generally that's more of a preference thing, right than a
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necessity based on the realities, the daily realities
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of, of what you've just walked through or what your guests have
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just walked through to get to your house.
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The The thing is though, even today, we still need our feet
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washed, at least metaphorically speaking, right?
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Because of the the daily stuff of life that accumulates on us,
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because we live in a world saturated with sin, right?
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The sin we do, the sin that's done to us, the sin that's done
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in the world all around us. Now, if we've turned to Jesus
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for healing and forgiveness, we don't need to take a whole bath
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again, right? That's, that's what Jesus told
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Peter after Peter tried to to keep Jesus from washing his feet
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and then swung completely in the opposite direction, telling
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Jesus that if he's going to wash his feet, he might as well wash
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his hands and his head as well. I don't know if you know any
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people like Peter who swing from zero to 60 all in a moment, but
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we do need our feet washed. We need that ongoing cleansing
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because we've not yet reached the new creation that Jesus
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promises, where there will be no more sin and no more enemy in
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the world will be aligned with the will of God.
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So the surprise shouldn't be that we need our feet washed,
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right? That seems pretty apparent.
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You don't have to live long in the world to recognize that the
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the surprise is who Stoops down to do the washing, right?
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Like the story told us, this was a task that was usually reserved
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for the lowliest of servants. Absent a servant, maybe the
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youngest in the group, no one was fighting for the opportunity
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to be the foot washer. Remember what we said was on
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those feet? But then there's Jesus, the
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rabbi, the teacher, the leader of the crew, the one everyone
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else was following. He's the one who picks up the
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towel and the basin and the pitcher of water.
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He's the one who kneels down in front of each of his
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apprentices. He's the one washing away the
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dirt and the grime and the filth.
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And he did it not because he had some supernatural gift of
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serving, but because he had chosen the way of self denial.
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He was modeling for us, for us all the way we are to live, the
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way we're to serve in the world. And he was showing us the kind
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of leadership that exists in the upside down Kingdom, which is
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the Kingdom of heaven. It looks like serving.
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So denying yourself, As we've been talking about all through
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our Lenten season this year, denying yourself also means
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denying the pride that would resist washing someone else's
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feet, the pride that would look for someone else to do the
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washing. The pride that would deny.
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Maybe we even need to be washed at all.
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And in place of that, denying it means choosing.
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Choosing the kind of humility that Jesus chose.
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The kind of humility that led Jesus into the very deepest
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pains of humanity. Because it's in his humility
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that Jesus took on our nature, and as he's experienced over the
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next 48 hours, the betrayal, torture, death, very deepest,
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darkest point of human experience.
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And because, as Jesus said, that the servant isn't greater than
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the master, the student isn't greater than her teacher, the
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messenger isn't greater than the one who sent him, we should
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expect nothing different. Jesus, our Master and Teacher
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and Lord, he Stoops tonight to wash your feet not with water
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and basin and towel. He Stoops to wash the feet of
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your soul with his body and his blood, which he gave freely for
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you and for me. And he invites us to follow His
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example, to make his way of life, His humility, our way of
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life, to make a practice of serving our brothers and
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sisters, those who deserve it and and those who we may think
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maybe don't deserve it. He invites us to take the low
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sea like we talked about on Sunday, so that we don't have to
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be humbled. Jesus calls you to deny
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yourself, along with your pride, your ego, your dignity and
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honor. He calls you to get your hands
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dirty, washing the feet of the world, knowing that He can wash
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those hands too. Would you pray with me tonight?
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Jesus, we, we thank you and we're amazed that you being not
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just the the teacher, not just the leader of the group, but the
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very God of gods, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords would
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stoop to wash the feet of your disciples, that you would stoop
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to wash even the feet of our souls.
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So Jesus, we want to submit to that washing tonight,
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recognizing that there are things we've done and things
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that have happened to us and around us that have gotten our
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feet a bit dirty. You know those things and you're
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not afraid of them. Would you come and wash us
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tonight? Would you come and and meet us
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in the midst of the dirt and the muck and the bill?
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Would you apply your blood there to our hearts, right where we
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need to be cleaned? We ask.
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This thesis in your name.