I speak to you tonight in the name of God, Father (+), Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

My friends, tonight is all about servant-hood.  Tonight, Maundy Thursday our Lord taught us the greatest lesson that he ever taught.  Tonight Jesus gave us our mandate as Christians.  For that is what the term Maundy means – it is the Latin word for Mandate.

 

Four years ago last June I was blessed to have been ordained as a deacon in the church.  The vows that I took upon myself were those of a servant.  I promised to be a servant to the world but especially to the lonely, the sick, and the friendless.

 

The day after my ordination I was walking in downtown Halifax in a place called Victoria Park.  It is a nice small park across from the Public Gardens.  It also has a pretty bad reputation as a place where the homeless and the addicted hang out.  Many in Halifax call Victoria Park “Crack Alley”.

 

I was walking around Halifax with my newly minted collar on and I found myself in Victoria Park.  That day there was a small group of homeless men sitting on a bench, drinking from a brown paper bag.  They saw me coming along and one of them called out to me, “Father, can I speak with you?”

 

My ordination vow to be a friend to the friendless was all too quickly put to the test.  I found myself face to face with one of the dirtiest, smelliest, drunkest homeless men I had ever found.

 

“Hello Father,” he slurred, “how are you?”  I told him that I was fine and then he began to talk to me.  He did not actually say anything that would be coherent but he spoke to me about some problems with the law and he introduced me to his friends.  I shook all their hands and called them by their names.  The men treated me with as much respect and dignity that they were capable of.  I had a couple of dollars in my pocket and I gave it to them in hopes that they would get something to eat.  And then I left them.

 

These men were drunk, smelly and dirty but underneath all that filth is the child of God that each of them is.  Underneath all that filth is a human being in need of respect, dignity and love.

 

When I was ordained a deacon in the church I promised to be a servant to those who are in need of respect, dignity and love.  I promised to be an outward and visible sign of the ministry that belongs to all of us who are called to be Christians.

 

For the ministry that I strive to live is the ministry that we all are mandated to perform on Maundy Thursday.

 

Jesus says, “For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”  We are all called to serve each other; we are all mandated to wash each other’s feet.

 

Now washing each other’s feet may mean actually cleaning the dirt from another person’s feet.  It also means something deeper, something more powerful, it means to be a servant to those around us at all times.  Helping those who are in need, giving to the poor from our excess, befriending those who no one else will.  All these things are ways to live out our ministry as servants to this world.

 

We give of our selves not just because Jesus asks us to, although that is reason enough.  We give of ourselves because we genuinely want to, because we take our own ministries as Christians seriously and we live what Jesus has mandated.

 

As a symbol of this servant-hood, tonight I have asked twelve people to come forward as representatives so that I may remind myself of my vows as a deacon and so that I may be that outward and visible sign of the ministry that belongs to us all.

 

This servant-hood ministry is to be what underlies everything we do; it is how we are mandated to live our lives.