March 23, 2008
Y’all
So much! So much, the past few weeks. Cold, dark, slowly moving into warmer light. On Thursday evening, our little church choir attempted John Rutter’s Requiem. And you know? We held our own with it. It is a gorgeous and difficult piece. Pick it up and set 35 or so minutes aside to listen to it uninterrupted. Last [Maundy] Thursday, before we sang it, I attended the “foot-washing service.” There were only eight who attended out of a couple hundred members. Now, I inwardly debated and debated whether I’d attend, and in the end decided it was most at the root of what I feel is the root of my purpose. That being, I am here to be of service. Make of that what you might, I believe it is at the root of why I move in the world in the way I do. [Here, in later years, after working it through to some extent. I know there are many wounded and abandoned alongside the path I trod.]
Today, we ended our service with the Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah. It seemed the perfect ending for the past few weeks of Lent. [Which, being raised a Baptist, I had never before participated in, and didn't this time in as much as giving up "something" for the 40 days of Lent.] You know? Whatever you might call Easter, you might call it Spring, it is, at root, the rebirth of the world.
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thank you, Rick. this is beautiful. in my high school years I attended the foot washing services at my episcopal church and was always moved by the gesture. a lot of what you say here resonates with me.
Deron, there was something delicious in that moment . (It still hangs with me.) I’m glad I went. So many blessings are ours to have if we just “show up.”
You think?
Thanks for sharing this, Rick.
Years ago back in Austin, when I served on my church’s council, our pastor called each of on the council a couple of weeks before Maundy Thursday and asked how we’d feel if he called us to the front to wash our feet. We giggled nervously and said we wouldn’t mind, scrubbed our feet well that day, and then went forward at the appointed time.
To see this man kneeling in front of us, repeating Jesus’ new commandment as he washed our feet, was a profoundly moving experience. I felt devastated inside, but in a good way.
Maybe that makes sense.
John. Yes.