The lectionary gives us two types of traditional texts for our Maundy Thursday services over the span of the three cycles. One type is before us tonight: the text of the foot washing, the text of Jesus clearly demonstrating the importance of his love for us and our call to love others. The other is what you and I call the “last supper”: how the ritual, the practice, of our meal together, whether the celebration of a Seder reordered and meaning changed, the gift of the sacrament, or remembrance proclaimed came into being.

In talking with many pastors over the years I am safe in saying that the tradition that is honored in most churches is not of the texts we have tonight. Simply put, modern culture has rendered foot washing only as a symbolic activity in our religious lives, rarely done, a…