From: John Bade Subject: Maundy Thursday sermon -- What Does Love Look Like? Maundy Thursday John 13 Title: What Does Love Look Like? "What does love look like?" That question startled me that spring morning. I had just finished a chapel service for the day care center at the church where I served my internship in California. The lesson that day was on love and forgiveness, and I was just putting away my notes and my guitar when this beautiful 4 yr old girl with big brown eyes came up to me and asked this marvelously simple, profound question: "What does love look like?" How would you answer a question like this? Tonight we gather at the end of our Lenten journey, and we hear Jesus' new commandment to love one another. And what does that love look like? How do we do that? The first imagery or sign which is before us tonight is that of a towel. During the meal, Jesus got up, took off his outer robe, tied a towel around his waist, and began to wash his disciples' feet. Love looks like a towel -- the towel of servanthood. I had a very dear friend who served over 20 years as campus pastor at the University of Texas in Austin. Pastor Kurt Johnson (or "PJ" as he was known to his students) had a very interesting set of stoles. Every 4-5 years, as the worshiping community of students and faculty changed with the new class coming in, PJ would put out a call for wash cloths. He would ask everyone to bring their old washcloths -- worn, tattered, brightly colored, plain -- all different shapes and styles. He would then take the washcloths, arrange them in the design of a stole, and then have them sewn together. It was a stole he wore every service -- a stole of terry cloth and frayed materials ... a stole as colorful as the persons who brought them and as colorful as the person who wore them. It was the stole in which he was laid to rest after an unexpected, untimely fatal illness. A stole of washcloths .... Pastor Johnson wore that stole, he said, as a reminder of his calling to be a servant and as a reminder of those to whom he was called to serve. Love looks like a towel ... a stole of washcloths. And as followers of one who loves us so much as to put aside his kingly robe and enter into the dirtiness of our world ... As followers of one who stoops down from his power and glory to put on towel of servanthood and wash the disciples' feet ... As followers of one who came not to BE served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many ... ... we are called to put on the stole of servanthood, to love one another as we have been loved by God. We are to do the sometimes stinky work of washing one another's feet -- or, to put it in imagery more familiar to us, to walk in someone else's shoes, to enter someone else's story. We wash ... and forgive .. and love ... because we have been washed and forgiven by the love of Jesus. St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, put it this way: "Have this mind among yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of humanity. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." "Have this mind among yourselves ...." Love looks like a towel -- a sign of God's gracious love which wipes away the stain of sin, which dries our tears. And what else does love look like tonight? Love looks like ... arms extended. Pastor John Westerhoff, in the book A Pilgrim People, tells the story of an informal Communion service which he celebrated during Lent. The gathering was small in numbers, so they stood in a circle around the altar. As they prepared to pray, Pastor Westerhoff asked for prayer concerns. A little girl, standing next to her father, said, "My dad is sad, but he won't tell anyone" -- a response which surprised her father, as children sometimes do in church, especially during children's sermons. While the pastor was thinking of a response, the little girl began to hug her father's leg. In embarrassment, he said, "Oh Beth, stop it; you're hugging me to death." "No dad," she said, "I'm hugging you to life." Love looks like arms -- arms which say like a parent says to a little child, "I love you THIS MUCH" as the arms of Jesus are outstretched and nailed to the cross. This week we are reminded in powerful and dramatic ways, that God so loved the world ... God so loves you and me ... that God embraced death so that we might be hugged to life. And being wrapped in God's embrace, we are then empowered to embrace others ... to cease clenching and clinging to our grudges and resentments, and to offer arms of forgiveness and reconciliation and peace to one another. It's more than just another way to say "Hello" as we share the peace with one another as we gather. It's sharing God's embrace of love and forgiveness. Love looks like outstretched arms. And what does love look like? Love looks like a meal .... A few years ago, a powerful film entitled Babette's Feast won the Oscar for best foreign film. It's a story of a French woman - Babette -- who was a chef during the French Revolution. She seeks shelter from the revolution in a remote, isolated rural village, where she was befriended and welcomed by two sisters. The sisters were good and godly people; their father had been the religious leader of the community; but since their father's death, the community had experienced great divisions among the group. And so, on the anniversary of his death, Babbette, who had just gotten word that she had won the lottery (news which the sisters were sure meant that she would be leaving them), Babbette offers to prepare a meal for the all the villagers. She travels to get exotic foods and wines, and she spends days preparing the meal. As the meal progresses, a holy peace descends upon what was once a conflict-filled group; reconciliation is discovered friendships renewed faith restored. As the sisters come into the kitchen after the meal to thank Babbette for her gift to them, they discover that she had spent all that she had -- all the money she had won - for the sake of that meal. A meal of reconciliation ... A meal where faith is strengthened, friendships renewed ... A meal where the host gives everything for the sake of those who gather there -- such is the meal we celebrate this night. As bread is broken and wine is poured, we see yet again what love looks like -- Love which is given ... love which is shed ... For you ... and for me. What does love look like? I don't remember what I said to that little girl's question. I doubt that it was profound .... But I do remember what happened next. The little girl's teacher came into the chapel, and said to her, "Oh, there you are; I've been looking all over for you. it's time to get something to eat." She led her into the kitchen, where she took a washcloth and washed away the dirt and grime of the day. Then she reached down, gave her a hug, and led her out to get some Kool Aid and brownies. And you know, if I would have had the eyes to see then what I think I'm beginning to see now, I think I could have answered her question, "What does love look like?" It looks like One who comes looking for us to invite us to receive refreshment and nourishment, saying, "Oh, there you are. I've been looking all over for you." It looks like One who takes a towel of servanthood which washes away the dirty grime of sin and offers us the clean scent of sweet forgiveness ... It looks like outstretched arms which embrace death so that we might know God's embrace of life ... It looks like a meal which nourishes and sustains and refreshes, a meal which feeds us sweet peace and reconciliation.... Yes, tonight, Jesus answers the question of that four year old. "What does love look like" As Jesus takes up the towel of servanthood and washes the disciples' feet, and takes upon himself the dirt of our lives -- our brokenness and our load of guilt and sin -- As Jesus opens his arms on the cross and embraces death .... As Jesus gathers us together and feeds us his very body and blood - given and shed for me and for you ... We see what love looks like. A towel ... A meal ... A cross ... Signs of God's gracious love. May the peace of God which passes all human understanding open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes to see what love looks like in the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ our Lord.