Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-17, 31b-35
The Earth is fixed, the center of the universe, and all celestial bodies revolve around it….or so we thought…for almost 2,000 years…from the time of Aristotle in 300-400 BCE. And, then, Copernicus came along in the late 1400s. He maintained, in opposition to Aristotle, that the Earth rotates with other planets about a stationary sun…a scientific revolution. Copernicus was a Canon in the Church. His Uncle was a Bishop. However, this scientific revolution was far from well received by the Church, the Church which believed man is superior to nature. Some people listened. In 1548, five years after Copernicus’ death, Giordano Bruno was born. Curious and outspoken from a young age, he furthered Copernican thought in claiming that space is boundless and the sun and planets are just one of many systems. For his beliefs, he was burned at the stake in 1600. Galileo was born in 1564. In 1609, he built a telescope and confirmed Copernicus’ claims. He was imprisoned in 1633 for his beliefs, and remained imprisoned until his death nine years later. This is not a sermon about martyrdom, but it is a sermon about faith, about belief in ideas that turn our world upside down. Goethe, the German writer and philosopher has this to say about Copernicus:
Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of being the center of the universe. Never, perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind – for by this admission so many things vanished in mist and smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the senses; the conviction of a poetic – religious faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its converts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of. http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Copernicus.htm
Jesus invites us to dream, to imagine a wholly new way of living life. Jesus turns our understanding of social dynamics, of position and power, upside down and calls us to come along. In our Gospel lesson this evening from John, Jesus knows that his hour has come, that he will be betrayed by Judas. During supper with the disciples, he gets up from the table and prepares to wash the disciples’ feet. Simon Peter is dismayed at the idea that Jesus, his Lord, would wash his feet. And, Jesus responds, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand” (John 13:7). We are called to have faith, to believe and follow this radical idea of serving one another, even though we might not fully understand. Jesus responds, “Later you will understand.” Later - does that mean, after the resurrection, the disciples will understand? But, it’s not that easy, is it? We know the resurrection. And, yet we continue in being challenged to live a life that at the heart is about service to others. How do we understand?
We pray. Jesus teaches us how to pray. In the next chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us: “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:13-14). In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches us how to pray: “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:9-10). We are called to pray. Richard J. Foster, in his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1992), talks about many different types of prayer. He discusses the Prayer of Tears, the Prayer of Relinquishment, and the Prayer of Adoration. He elaborates on Petitionary Prayer and Intercessory Prayer. He offers the Prayer of Rest. Prayer is for all aspects of our lives. Whether we set aside time for prayer, perhaps in the morning or in the evening, or we pray at any moment during the day, prayer is about living our life with God. Most eloquently, in the Gospel of John, we learn to pray because Jesus prays: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (John 17:1-2). “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:11). In his book on prayer, Richard Foster confronts us: “To pray is to change” (p. 6). Jesus prays that we may be one; that our lives are about each other. When we pray, when we live with God, our lives necessarily become about each other because when we love God, we love one another.
“Later you will understand.” How do we understand? We serve. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. “To pray is to change.” Prayer leads us to service. Catherine of Genoa is a wonderful example of prayer and service. Catherine lived from 1447 to 1510. She is one of the great Christian mystics, a person with an intense spiritual relationship with God. She was born into a wealthy family in Genoa, Italy. Her father died when she was 14 years old and two years later, her brother married her off to a member of another prominent Genoese family in hopes of a reconciliation among feuding families. She had a difficult marriage with a husband who socialized extensively with other women. When she was 26 years old and suffering from a long illness, her sister took her to a convent for a blessing. And, her conversion took place: “For Catherine had just knelt before the man when the floodgates of her heart opened out. She received a ‘wound to the heart’ from God’s ‘immense love’ and, at the same time, full and overwhelming awareness of her own misery and the ‘defects’ in herself that had brought it on; full awareness, too, of the inconceivable goodness of God” (Carol Lee Flinders, Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1993, p. 138). She experienced God’s “limitless love”…“And love did lead Catherine, right out of her privileged place in wealthy Genoese society and into the streets of the city’s most desperately poor quarters, where she cared for syphilitics, lepers, plague victims, and many more” (p. 144). She worked most of her adult life at a large hospital caring for the city’s poorest inhabitants. From the biography of Catherine’s life, we learn of her intense prayer life and her need to serve: “She said…to her Lord: ‘Thou hast commanded me to love my neighbor, and I am unable to love any one but thee, or to admit any partner with thee: how then shall I obey thee?’ And interiorly he responded thus: ‘He who loves me loves also all whom I love. It suffices that for the welfare of the neighbor thou shouldst do all that is necessary for his soul and body. Such a love as this is sure to be without passion; because it is not in himself but in God that the neighbor should be loved’” (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/catherine_g/life.iv/xxi.html).
“Later you will understand.” Perhaps with the knowledge of the resurrection, assuredly after we have prayed and served. Jesus washed the disciple’s feet. Jesus prayed. Jesus served. Catherine of Genoa reminds us: “…not in himself but in God that the neighbor should be loved.” Our call to pray and to serve is not necessarily about our desire to pray and to serve. We do not need to and should not wait until we feel that desire. Rather, we pray and we serve because we are called to. We might not fully understand, but in whatever the shape of our lives, we find the times, places, avenues to pray and to serve. And then, we understand, we know the desire to pray and to serve because we are loving our neighbor for God, not for ourselves. Our understanding of position and power is turned upside down. Without rankings, without status, without boundaries, we love and we serve one another. What greater gift?
