Really Big Little Things

Maundy Thursday  April 2, 2015     

Ex. 12:1-14a       Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25

1 Cor 11:23-32      John 13:1-15

 Lectionary Link

  Tonight is the night of the mandatum novum or the New Commandment, or the eleventh commandment, from which we derive the English Maundy, in Maundy Thursday.

  Yes, tonight is the night when we commemorate the institution of the weekly feast of the Holy Eucharist but it is ironic that we use John’s Gospel, because in the time sequence of John’s Gospel, it is not certain that the meal presented in John’s Gospel is a Passover Meal.  We also note that John’s Gospel does not have the words of institution which are usually associated with the Holy Eucharist.  And yet John’s Gospel has the most physical expression about partaking of the body and blood of Jesus.  Jesus is quoted as saying in another part of John’s Gospel, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me.”

  But what strikes me most about Maundy Thursday is the stressing of the importance of little things.

  Jesus watched the behavior of his friends; he noticed that no one took the role of being a hospitable host, and so he took the towel and basin and washed feet.  Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, probably thinking that Jesus was too important to do this.   “Jesus, you’re the messiah, you should not be bothering with washing my feet.  That’s not the way the messiah behaves.”

  Yes, Peter, that is exactly how the messiah behaves.  The little things are important.

  What keeps the world and life going are people doing the little things because the little things are important to the well-being of the community.

  Little things, begin with what Woody Allen said, “Eighty per cent of life is showing up.”  One’s intentional presence may seem like something small but it is the most important beginning to everything.  But then, buying groceries, fixing meals, cleaning, doing the laundry, running errands, fixing coffee, attending rehearsal, setting up the altar, taking it down, trimming the trees, acolyting, serving at the altar, singing in the choir, setting up for coffee hour, teaching Sunday School, doing office work, proofing bulletins, on and on the list of unsung little things grows.  And if those little things are not done things don’t happen, the trains don’t run on time, church does not happen.

  For me, Maundy Thursday is about how Jesus isolated the seemingly insignificant act of being a good host and washing dusty feet of the sandal wearers of Palestine.  No big deal; but a really big deal.

  Jesus is the most important person in our tradition and we put him on a pedestal and we make promises to do anything for him.

  But he puts us on the pedestal and asks us to take off our sandals and he washes our feet.  No big deal, but a really big deal because it highlights all of the really small sacrificial stuff that makes life go on and on and on.

   And so I salute those who have discovered the secret of the little things, even without knowing it, because when the little things are done as an expression of one’s character, one does not know that one is even doing it.

  And so tonight Jesus just whispers, “keep doing the little things.”  And if we say, “What little things?” then we are doubly blessed to know that we are in the rhythm of the new commandment, to love one another as Christ loved us.

  Yes, once in a while it may be nice to do something big and excessive and even showy, but the so called big things only have sincere meaning if we have made the little acts of sacrifice the ordinary character expressed in the routines of our community life together.

  So, tonight I say to everyone here, Thanks for the really big little things that you and others have done to make us the Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine.  Amen.