Going to and from the table and back again

That upper room, that table, is where worlds—universes! — meet!

Think about it. When these people, these followers of Jesus gathered in that upper room, these men and women were living in one kind of world—a world of tradition, under military occupation, living on a thread between poverty and getting by, always knowing one way of being faithful—and later on, in that same room they would encounter the Risen Jesus (twice!), and start the work of spreading Jesus’ message and healing to all the known world and beyond. In between, that same room would be their shelter and hiding place as they sat together in their fear, uncertainty, and grief.

That upper room, that table, will have seen it all.

Of all the settings for this great drama of God’s saving work, this simple room, this ordinary table, are almost forgotten backdrops. But everything happens here!

I actually had not thought about that very much until this week when I read a Lenten meditation written by Diana Butler Bass. After noting what I just said, that they came back to the upper room and that same table, she writes,

They never return to the cross. Jesus never takes them back to the site of the execution. He never gathers his followers at Calvary, never points to the blood-stained hill, and never instructs them to meets him there. He never valorizes the events of Friday. He never mentions them. Yes, wounds remain, but how he got them isn’t mentioned. Instead, almost all the post-resurrection appearances — which are joyful and celebratory and conversational — take place at the upper room table or at other tables and meals.

Table -> trial -> cross -> tomb/tomb -> table.

What if the table is the point?

This changes how I’ve tended to view Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet. It’s not just a lesson on servanthood and the particular kind of leadership that Jesus wants his followers to live… and it is that, but more! He is washing their feet because they entering into someplace new. A new way of living and being. A new kind of community. The new reign of God.

But her question is key: what if gathering God people around the table is, in fact, the point? What if the Upper Room isn’t just a convenient meeting room or even a hiding place? What if the Upper Room is in fact the Heavenly Banquet table on earth around which all of God’s people, all of God’s healed creation, gathers together?

And what if instead of a table in an Upper Room, this little table here functions the same way? What if we are in our own little Upper Room from which we disciples come, go, at times hide and other times empowered are sent out?

Those first disciples don’t know it yet, but after they meet the Risen Jesus in this very same room a few days hence, they will go into a whole new world on a whole new mission. For this, they need to be fed—and to feed—and they need to be ready to move, and to serve.

And something else… they need to be open to being served!

I am still new to this community and learning the ways you do stuff, but as I understand it the practice of this parish up until now has been for you to wash each other’s feet. The message was that you all each other’s servants and are also all served by each other, which is in fact a very good message, one that we echo at every Eucharist and also as we pass the peace every week. But listen again to this exchange between Simon Peter and Jesus in the Gospel of John:

[Jesus] got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean….”

Peter would not fully understand what Jesus was up to until after the Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension. We are being ready to walk: walk to the cross, run to the empty tomb, go into all the world. We are going to leave the safety of that upper room, leave the table, and go into God’s world to meet, care for, and welcome all God’s people! For that, we need to walk. And for that Jesus washes his disciple’s feet.

It is important that you we do the vulnerable thing, and allow the one (or ones) in pastoral charge to wash your feet your feet, too. I know. It’s hard. And a little embarrassing. Peter resisted and, still, Jesus insisted. (And don’t worry… I’m not taking names and no one will force anyone else to do what they don’t want to do!)

But, whether come up or if you sit, look around and consider what’s going on.

If you think about it, Earth and Heaven really are meeting up in this Upper Room of ours. We are about to journey from our own Upper Room to the Cross and the Empty Tomb, back to our Upper Room where will meet the Risen Jesus, and from that Upper Room we will again go into the places where God has placed us to communicate Good News and bring healing to the people God has given to us, wherever there is brokenness, pain  to where people look for hope and for healing.

As we come and go from this table tonight, through this Triduum, and every week remember, we who are healed, are called to be healers. We who have been welcomed are being sent to invite. For this, we need to be fed and we need to have our feet washed so that we will be ready to walk.