Maundy Thursday John 13 v 5, 12-14  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.......12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 

 As a baby we will have had an adult wash our feet even if we don’t have the actual memory of the event. But since childhood, can you remember having you had your feet washed by someone else? Have you had your feet washed in public? This year the Maundy Thursday service included foot washing! Rev Jo gave us the opportunity to have our feet washed by her. No pressure; just the opportunity to allow her to do this. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. Could I cope with that and allow it to happen? Would it take more courage than I had, to agree to this? Could I bear for someone to touch my very ticklish feet? I was in danger of over-thinking this. My feet are no longer pretty - they are mis-shapen with age, worn, lumpy and bumpy. In Jesus time, when He washed the disciples feet, He would have been washing off dirt and grime from the tracks/paths they had walked on. Even though my feet were relatively clean, it was still very humbling to have someone else wash my feet. And so the Rector dressed in her priestly robes knelt and gently washed and dried our feet in turn as we sat before her. It was a very tender moment and one in which I felt surrounded by God’s love, humbled and honoured, precious and loved by God who sent His only Son to die on a cross for each one of us.