The church my family attends is a Brethren Church. Last night we celebrated three-fold communion with them. This experience includes a light meal, footwashing, and the sharing of the cup and bread. The first time I experienced communion this way was during my first time at seminary in the early 80’s. I was deeply moved. During a service in a Nazarene church I pastored in Kansas City, as a gesture aimed at healing and setting the tone for my leadership, I washed the feet of my board members. In my last pastoral position in a Mennonite Church we participated in footwashing on Maundy Thursday.
I will confess, in the past, when I have gone into the room with the women to wash feet, I have looked for someone I knew. It made the experience seem less awkward and uncomfortable. Last night I ended up in a circle of women I didn’t really know. As the deaconess washed the feet of the women to my left, I listened to their conversation. I learned her name and which services she attended. As she then washed my feet, I learned of her love for missions. I then found out she and my husband had been on the same mission trip a couple years back to Chicago. We shared a word of blessing and then I turned to the woman on my right and confessed I couldn’t remember her name. It turned out that her husband had helped us move into our home. We connected and shared a word of blessing. It was a very special time. I don’t think I’ll ever look for people I know again.
I sat at a table with people I knew, but hadn’t been at communion with all of them before. The conversation was good through the meal. Many words of encouragement and support were spoken. After we ate there was a time of worship and praise singing. When we shared the cup and bread, the person to the left would speak a word of blessing on the person to their right. It was very sweet to receive a blessing from my sister to my left. I thought of how she had blessed me several times and she probably didn’t even know it. I felt prompted to write her a note this week. Then I turned and had the blessing of blessing a very dear man. He had been a professor, was advisor on my thesis, and is just one of my favorite people on earth. He nearly blew me away as we parted when he told me how much he appreciated my words of blessing.
What were the last words of blessing you shared with someone? As I thought about this I thought about my friend Pam. I sang at her ordination service last July. At the service she spoke a word of blessing on every person there—individually. It was a powerful and emotional time. In the natural order of things we should have been blessing her. It was her service. But she turned the tables and blessed each of us.
I really love when a worship service ends with a true benediction. I open my hands to receive it. I want to be sent out sensing blessing and commissioning of my life and service for the week ahead. Blessings are important for our children and grandchildren, our friends and our co-workers. Do our lives bless others? How about our words?
Think about all the negatives that people hear in a day. Spirits are so often bruised, if not completely crushed. Just as Abraham was blessed to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2), so are we and so are we to be. So for my reading sisters and brothers, I pray that God will pour into this week a greater sense of wonder, a deeper awareness of the love outpoured, and more grace than you have ever known. As you move through this Holy Week, know that he goes before you and walks right beside you.
Be blessed.
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