Musings on the Baltic

Musings on the Baltics:

I have just disembarked in "Wonderful, wonderful " Copenhagen after a seven day cruise around the Baltics visiting Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Russia.  This is an interesting part of the world, and I got to travel with several decedents of immigrants from this region.  Because I still use my married name, which is easily identified as Scandinavian, I was often addressed in Swedish, Finnish or Danish on this trip.  I smiled politely and replied that I merely marred into a Swedish-American family, and only knew the curse words my late husband taught me...he had learned them listening to his great aunts and uncles at family gatherings.  His own grandmother who lived with him spoke to him only in English, and would never use such improper language, but Aunt Tilly and Uncle Olaf certainly would.

On a lark, we took the train across the new suspension bridge to Malmo, Sweden from Copenhagen and spent time tooling around this port town.   Visiting the Swedish Church (Lutheran) was a serendipitous stop; I got to meet some German tourists who gave me some suggestions for our trip to Berlin, and I was able to witness an Armenian Orthodox wedding ceremony that took place at the high altar.  The officiant and assisting deacon were decked out in ornate vestments that made the blushing and beautiful bride look like an "also ran".     

The first stop on the trip was Stockholm, a town we have visited before. 
We opted to walk around on our own and enjoyed Gamla Stan again shopping for Dala horses, watching the changing of the guard, and enjoying a classic Swedish lunch in Sally's Restaurant; it consisted of Swedish meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes, cucumber salad (almost as good as Aunt Eleanor's) and lingen berries served with a nice salad. If you are ever in Stockholm, I would recommend a lunch or dinner stop here. They have fixed price meals and a daily special for each day of the week. The owners are actually Italian, and they have an extensive wine cellar as well.


It  seems odd to be able to freely enter places that were located behind the old "Iron Curtain", and to leisurely stroll the streets of Tallin in Estonia buying items with Euros along the way was a real treat.  I picked up an 18th century Russian icon in a small antique shop haggling a bit with the owner for a better price. At one  point in recent history no one could take older icons out of countries under Soviet domination, so I was pleased to know it was now possible. A fellow traveler got some nice amber jewelry: an antique bracelet and newer earrings to go with a piece bought on a prior visit to Copenhagen.

St Petersburg was another story.  There are still remnants of the old Soviet Union: we had to go thorough a painfully and unnecessarily long passport check complete with unsmiling clerks who issued us the necessary "paper"...literally a visa with our name and passport number written in Cyrillic,  and fierce looking supervisors with big hats and pistols. One can only get off the ship in St Petersburg if one has purchased a shore excursion from the ship or an approved provider.  We opted, with the advise of our travel agent, for a local tour operator; we designed a tour tailored to our sightseeing goals. Since we were only there for one day we hit the hits, so to speak:  Catherine's Palace and the recreated Amber Room; Peterhof's magnificent gardens with wonderful flowers and fountains, the main synagogue and the Hermitage. In addition, our agent arranged for a coin dealer to meet our two collectors at the tour operators' office...we were all happy and exhausted campers at the end of the day.

Helsinki was a rather short stay.  I went on an excursion though Helsinki to Porvoo where I purchased another icon, but was able to convince the owner to ship it to me.  It was written ( remember, icons are not drawn or painted; they are written) by a local woman.  I have seen very few Finnish icons, and this will make a nice addition to my collection...however, I need to re-think the current icon space in my apartment.

We are now sitting at the Central Station Train Station in Copenhagen waiting for a train to Germany.  It will be a seven hour odyssey including a ferry ride from Denmark to Germany and a half an hour layover in Hamburg.


So the adventure continues....more to come.







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The Gift of Hospitality

Moon over Brooklyn

One of the things I like to do is entertain.  In my younger days, I would spend lots of time milling over menus and recipes deciding what I could cook and serve to my guests.  Nowadays, I prefer to either do a prepare ahead simple meal or simply call the caterer. Either way I get to spend more time with my guests.  I have also hosted dinner or lunch at a local restaurant and had dessert at my place.

When I lived in  New Dorp, the house was large enough for hosting up to twenty two people for Thanksgiving dinner which I did on several occasions.  I can remember my husband and father moving tables around to get the maximum number of seats.

Now that I am in a smaller space, I do most of my entertaining in the milder months when I can utilize my outdoor space which overlooks New York's lower bay and the Verrazano Bridge. It is fun watching the ships sailing by, and when the sun sets the moon rises over Brooklyn makes it seem like a magical place.






After Hurricane Sandy I often hosted volunteer groups who were sleeping at my church for a final "Thank You" dinner. The meal is usually simple: Swedish meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn and peas, green salad, biscuits and Italian ices and "Black and White" cookies for dessert. If the group is primarily teens, we simply order pizza from the local joint and serve salad and cookies with it...simple and easy to do. Over the past two years I think I have hosted between seven and eight groups from as far as Prince Edward Island in Canada to Texas.  All of them were here to do recovery or restoration work. 

Christ church/New Brighton/ SI, NY

Larger groups, I can only host up to a dozen folks plus my prep and meet crew, usually have a meal at our church prepared by one of our parishioners who is head chef at a local hospital, so they tend to be a bit more upscale than what I do, but the view from here is better than form the church. We will be dong one of those tonight; it should be fun.  The group is from a Lutheran Church in South Carolina, and they have been sleeping in our parish hall for the past week.


At almost the same time, our Second Saturday crew will be preparing a dessert to be served to the guests of the Soup Kitchen in Stapleton. Once a month the parishioners of my church prep, cook and help serve lunch for anywhere between sixty and one hundred patrons.  This week we are welcoming in the summer-like weather with hot dogs, green salad, vegetarian beans and homemade peach cobbler.  The peach cobbler is always a hit with the diners since they usually just get canned fruit doctored up with a squirt of whipped cream.


So, as you can see, hospitality is very much a part of what I do, and I like to extend it to as many as I can. I am always looking for easy meals to prepare, so if you have any suggestions or recipes, shot me an  email and share.

Great American Cities

Without a doubt, I am living in one of the most exciting cities on earth.  New York City has it all: great food, great theater, great vistas and great neighborhoods.  What is happening now in the town of my birth is that folks who come to usually visit the isle of Manhattan are discovering great places in the other boroughs like Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, the wonderful restaurants in Astoria, Queens, the gardens at Wave Hill in the Bronx and Snug Harbor and the Chinese Scholars' Garden in my own borough of Staten Island.  I have always thought of New York as a great international city, which it is, but there are many great American cities that offer much to visitors, and, as usual, I have my list:



Quincy Market



1. Boston: Some of the best seafood and Italian cuisine can be had in Boston, but be warned! It is a walking city.  Driving in Boston should be avoided at all costs! The streets are narrow and meander around willy-nilly making no sense whatsoever. I have gotten lost there in a car more than I would like to remember. But...using the subway is easy and efficient. It will take you wherever you want to go. And do go to Quincy Market! If I go to Boston, I usually take Amtrak.

DuPont Circle





2. Washington, DC is a delight! It is a great museum city and also has an efficient subway system.  Dupont Circle is a fun place to stay and there are nice restaurants nearby. During the week there are mostly government folks milling about, but on the weekends hotel rooms can be had for reasonable money. I have yet to run into Clair or Frank Underwood, but I daresay, "House of Cards" has done more for tourism to the DC area than anything I can think of in my lifetime.

Mall of America

3. Minneapolis-St Paul, I think of them in tandem, although, they each have a different vibe. I would suggest you NOT visit in winter, which can be dicey, but spring and autumn are delightful.  You can see some great regional theater and major league sports in a user friendly city.  Oh, Mall of America is there; a wondrous and wonderful thing in and of itself! 





4. Miami is a tropical delight! There is definitely a Cuban vibe that can't be denied, but there is also a hint of exiled New Yorkers who are into great cheesecake and latkes...and the beaches are lovely. Eating or partying in South Beach is an experience in and of itself.

Pike's Public Market Seattle

                                                                                                              

5. Seattle is a laid back wonder with great salmon, fresh produce and what seems like a coffee shop on every corner.  The  Pike Place Market is not to be missed.  I had one of the best lobster rolls ever in one of the restaurants there.  The ride on Seattle's Great Wheel at  Pier 57 on Elliott Bay is fun and a precursor to the proposed Observation Wheel scheduled to open in two years within walking distance of my apartment.  It is, however, less expensive than the proposed NY Wheel will be, and is a great way to see the city from a different angle.  Try to do this around sunset.

River Walk/San Antonio

6. San Antonio was a great surprise.  I attended a meeting there in March and enjoyed it immensely!  The River Walk was fun, and the city itself is easily walkable with many interesting things to see and do.  I bought a nice piece of art glass from a dealer there which is sitting happily in my living room overlooking NY harbor.





Café Du Monde

7. Chicago is, in my humble opinion, the quintessential great American city: great steaks, great deep dish pizza, great museums, great urban architecture, and great municipal art! The Navy Pier's conversion into a tourist destination was a masterful idea. I have never had a bad meal in Chicago from high end restaurants to local neighborhood joints...great cuisine!

8. New Orleans....what can one say? I have been there pre- and post-Katrina, and am happy to see that this place is rebounding. And the food???? Excellent! Whether you are having breakfast at Brennan's, where they invented Bananas Foster, or dipping your beignets in chicory coffee at Café du Monde, there is never a disappointing culinary moment. 

Naval Aviation Museum/Pensacola

9. Las Vegas is not high on my favorite lists, but it did have one of the most unusual museums I have ever seen...The Liberace Museum was in a strip mall in Vegas. It contained his collection of pianos, including one owned by George Gershwin, his costumes, cars, photos with other celebrities, including my favorite of the maestro with Pope John Paul II making faces into the camera,and the world's largest rhinestone.  Sad to say, it closed in 2010, but every once in a while the foundation that owns the collection does "Pop Up" exhibits at hotels on the strip.  Keep an eye out for them.



10.  Pensacola is like a bit of the islands on the Florida panhandle. Its sugar white sand beaches are a wonder to behold.  The National Naval Aviation Museum is located on the Naval Aviation Station in Pensacola; it is the largest museum of its type in the world and is a fascinating visit.  I have been there twice and enjoyed it immensely...of course it helped that both times I was with a group of retired Navy guys who had served on the same aircraft carrier.

                                                                                                     







Lee, Jackson, Davis

Oh my, I forgot Atlanta! Wonderful Contemporary Art Museum and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library! ...and an unexpected excellent German restaurant in Cumming where my brother-in-law lives! The rapid transit system is very nice as well. If you are interested in history,  you can go to "Stone Mountain" where one will find a bas relief sculpture of Confederate military leaders...the War of Northern Aggression is memorialized here, and the ironic fact that the granite that forms the Lincoln Memorial was quarried here in Georgia...poetic justice? Perhaps. 


I have been to LA , but am unimpressed.

There are other cities in the USA that I am wont to visit: Charleston, Savannah, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City. Please share your impressions and direct me to your own hidden gems.

Graceful Aging

Next Saturday will be my birthday.  I am not mentioning this because I want a card or a gift or, heaven forfend, a slew of "Facebook" birthday greetings from the vast motley crew whom I have identified as my cyber-space friends and family. It is because I have begun to think about how time has played the bandit and seems to have stolen my youth and middle age and is leading me, slowly I hope, to the final threshold. But I digress.


I am hoping to go gracefully into my twilight years, and there are some things that I have already taken to heart and incorporated into my life.  As I often do, I have a list.


1. Get your stuff in order.  I am setting up an appointment with a family law professional to discuss the best way to make sure those family members and others whom I love will inherit my estate.  I also want to leave some money to various charitable institutions like my church and alma mater. I want to get this done sooner rather than later, so I know it is taken care of.


2. Travel while you can.  My Dad once said to me, "They call these the Golden Years, Ger; they lied." He also told me to travel while I could, and I do.  Last year I went with a friend to Morocco...why?...because she asked me.  This year I was asked to go to Turkey with a local cultural group; I will be paying my airfare and incidentals, so I am going...why?...because they asked me.


3. If you can afford it; go for the good seats in both the theater and on a plane.  I think the best thing that has happened to the airline industry is the introduction of "Economy Plus" seating.  It is well worth the extra cash to be comfortable. In the theater balcony seats just don't cut it anymore.  I do not want to climb stairs to enjoy myself. The orchestra is looking good to me.


4. Don't volunteer for anything you don't really want to do.  You may be qualified to lead the committee to evaluate Sunday School material, but if you really do not want to do it, don't volunteer. The word "NO" exists for a reason. Use it.


5. You don't have to follow fads or watch the hottest new show.  There is nothing new under the entertainment "sun"...watch what you like and when you want to.  Oh, the joy of Netflix (Thank you, Tara Swanson).


6.Volunteer your time for causes and things you feel are important: I still work at the local Soup Kitchen, sit on the Board of Directors of the Association for Episcopal Deacons, attend meetings and do work for the Staten Hunger Taskforce, work part-time for the NYC Department of Education doing adult learning and certification,  and help out on our Grow to Give group, a local group that works with home gardeners, community gardeners and Soup Kitchens/Pantries that distribute excess local produce to hungry families on Staten Island.  I also write grants for my church and oversee an afterschool music program that includes steel drums, a traditional church children's choir and a ukulele group....I kid you not.  I am having fun.


7. Understand that life is short, and you only get one go around. This is important.


8. Family is paramount...Know that  and you know everything.


I have a new appreciation for this song sung by Maurice Chevalier from the movie "Gigi"...one of my Dad's favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RZEj7t1EaA

Sunday Morning Sermon

Third Sunday of Easter   19 April 2015

 Psalm 4:” I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety”

Do you know that there are over 100 million people world-wide who do not have a place to lay their head consistently night after night? The number of homeless people that were in the New York City shelter system last April was 54,667. Nearly a third of those in NYC’s shelter system work and 80 percent live with their spouses or kids….a frightening statistic.  Teachers across the city have commented again and again on the negative effect that homelessness has on children.  Some children travel over two hours each way to return to their old neighborhood schools often hiding the fact that they are homeless from their peers. When I was teaching at a local Intermediate School, we had a student who became homeless and lived with his grandmother in the Bronx travelling two and a half hours each way to go to school with his friends on Staten Island.
Children living in the shelter system in our city do not fare well on the standardized tests that students have been required to take.  These families struggle to just keep each other together and school work often comes in last when they are in search of permanent or temporary housing options.

And we are hearing more and more that many of our local residents are being pushed out of the housing market here on Staten Island. Do you know what the city’s income guidelines are? According to citywide guidelines, "low income" refers to an annual income for a four-person household of $41,951 to $67,120. "Moderate income" ranges from $67,121 to $100,680, and "middle income" reaches up to $138,435. That is mind blowing. To bring this closer to home, the median income on Staten Island was $71,966 in 2011.  In 2013 the median income on the North Shore was $55,272 in comparison to 82,921 in Tottenville. So many of our neighbors are struggling to support their families, buy food and clothing, and pay rent. The median asking rent for a two bedroom apartment on Staten Island has risen to $1817 in 2015 from 1250 just two years ago.

There is some good news on the horizon. For the first time in the last three decades, our city is going through its fastest job growth rate. However, the majority of the jobs that are currently being created and offered are in low-paying industries: hospitality and food services. In the construction trade, once a powerhouse industry in this town, over thousand jobs have been lost.

Many Christians contend that Jesus himself was a homeless person, and certainly, his time as an itinerant preacher would make it seem that he was without permanent residence. And he was laid to rest in a borrowed tomb.

We know that Jesus was interested in feeding both the soul and body of his followers.  One of my favorite stories of the Gospels is the feeding of the 5,000.  As someone who actually prefers to eat fish, the feeding of so many from so few fish is amazing…I often wondered if they were filleted or bone in. (I prefer filleted fish)

Last week I went to the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development from whom we get city council discretionary funding through our Council Member to run our Holiday Basket Program.  I actually had to provide numbers for how many people benefited from this program.  After calculating the numbers and dong the math I came up with the total number of people who benefited from this program: 3,630 in one year. If we also look at the number of folks served at the Trinity Soup Kitchen by Victor and the Second Saturday crew…a total of over 1225 last year alone, the total of meals provided to our community by Christ Church is very close to 5,000 meals. I was blown away by this figure; it is a credit to this congregation that we are able to do this with the support of a dedicated core of volunteers and financial supporters. 

Yesterday at the Soup Kitchen, where we feed 102 people, two very inebriated Mexican day-laborers caused a bit of a scene during which they tossed their lunches into “la basura” (the garbage),  and began storming out. They stopped at the door to inform us that they were homeless and wanted us to feed them and give them another plate. After several bi-lingual moments they finally realized that once you threw out your lunch, it was pretty much gone.  We tried to guide them to the adjacent Food Pantry that does create special bags for unhoused folk with no preparation needed items like crackers, peanut butter, canned fish, dried fruit, fresh apples and bread.  After some resistance, they both signed up and each got a bag of food-to-go.  But I also knew that their homeless condition could not be dealt with until they sobered up.

This made me think about the men from Project Hospitality who sleep in our gym every night. Just how many of them were in this very situation?  How many men have slept in our basement over the years? I understand that Christ Church has been a hosting site since 1997. At that time I was a newly ordained Deacon at St. Andrew’s where ten men had begun sleeping in the year before.  I recall that there was some push-back there at the time, and I was not surprised to learn there was also some push-back here as well. Yet today in both places, this has become a long-term commitment and is seen as part of the everyday running of the Church’s community commitment. This is a good and wholesome thing to be doing, but is there more? There always is, but what that might be is not yet evident.  Perhaps we need to put this to prayer and seek some spiritual guidance as to the next chapter of this work at Christ church.  I have no answers; I have no proposal; the answer lies with the whole community discerning in prayer where we are to go.

Foot washing revisited

As a child growing up in post-World War II New York City, specifically in the East Bronx, I learned a whole lot about the individual rituals of Judaism.  My neighborhood was on the cusp between an ethnic Irish and ethnic Ashkenazi   Jewish neighborhood.  The families who lived in the five floor walkup pre-war apartment building I lived in were Irish –American or Jewish American – and that was it.

From an early age I understood that the Sabbath was on Friday night and Saturdays for some folks in the building and on Sunday morning for the rest of us. I knew that Shabbos meant that families had a meal together and good stuff like challah and brisket were often part of the meal.  My father was a Shabbos Goy for two widowed Jewish women on our floor.  Esther Shapario’s family had immigrated from Russia in the 1920’s and Anna Bruns was a recent immigrant from Belgium after the war. Mrs.  Bruns had a numbered tattoo on her arm that indicted she had been in a concentration camp during the war.   Children were told not to ask her about it, but grown-ups spoke about it I hushed tones. My father’s reward for turning lights on and off and checking on the tea kettle was several quarts of extremely good chicken soup that we would happily devour.

I also knew that then men wore long black coats, big beaver hats, and had prayer shawl tassels that hung from under their shirts.  I also understood that they needed at least ten men who had been bar-mitzvahed in order to have prayer time.  This meant that sometimes the younger boys were sent out of the local synagogue to rustle up a few good men.

There were rituals for so many things including ritual washing of both hands and feet.

In the Gospel lesson for Maundy Thursday, we hear the yearly story about Jesus’ washing the feet of the apostles.  In ancient Israel most folks either wore sandals or went shoeless.  This meant that when someone entered your home, they were tracking in lots of dust, dirt and dung from the local village or farm.  It was customary for the host to offer his guests the ability to wash their hands and to have their feet washed.  The host would not be washing the feet of the guest, his servant would do it.  If there were no servants, the wife or daughter would be assigned this task. Men of honor or status would not stoop so low as to wash another’s feet.  In this telling, Jesus turns the tables on his followers, whom, by the way, were playing the “Who is the most important” game, wondering which of them was the top banana…after Jesus of course. 

Jesus silently takes a bowl, pitcher and wraps a towel around himself and begins this menial task to the shock of his followers.  He then instructs them to follow his example and do likewise…to become servants to all.  We will replicated this act of Christ in this community, a replication, I dare say, that is a comfortable re-creation of this act of humanity on the part of Christ. We know each other reasonably well, are comfortable with each other and since we all knew ahead of time that we’d be called upon to do this, I think I can safely say…most have made sure their chosen foot for this ablution, is relatively clean.

So, I want you to think about this scenario: washing the feet of people you do not know.  Just as we have done our own version of “Ashes to Go”, there are several congregations around the nation who have embraced foot washing as a ministry on the streets.

Earlier this month, a group of people from a Methodist Church in Richmond, Virginia, gathered together a collection of latex gloves, nail clippers, and antibacterial soap and opened the church doors to a cadre of street people who were, at first, a bit skeptical about allowing complete strangers to wash, rinse and towel dry their feet and then give them each  a new clean pair of socks to wear.

Last year Samuel Wells, a chaplain at Duke University integrated foot washing into the liturgy and washed the feet of students, the housekeeping staff and colleagues.

Black and white Christians have washed one another's feet as a sign of racial reconciliation at religious conferences in various American cities including Memphis and Birmingham. Last year the spokesman for the Presbyterian Church in Canada spoke about the practice of incorporating foot-washing in marriage ceremonies.

As part of their Maundy Thursday practice, British monarchs have washed the feet of selected peasants as part of a ritual that dates back to the 13^th century.  Curiously, by the 17^th century the royal leader either had the feet of the peasant pre-washed or just had an underling do it.  This practice is no longer in vogue.  Queen Elizabeth II does not have anyone removing their shoes and socks in her presence, at least not on Maundy Thursday.

But is this sudden interest in reviving a religious ritual in so intimate and familiar a style does raise some interesting questions for modern Christians. Can this ritual be used as a symbol of reconciliation?  Two years ago a group of Hutus and    Tutsis, enemies during the war in Rwanda washed each other’s feet in as a symbol of reconciliation. Can it be a symbol of humility? In 1998 a senator from Kansas washed the feet of one retiring from his office.  He claims this was a symbol of “servant leadership.”

But what do recipients of foot washing feel about this practice?  In a recent article in the Washington Post, a woman who routinely gets her feet washed by the group in Richmond has said, “At first it was weird. Because you have corns and bunions, you know, and you don’t want anybody handling your feet.  When they put your feet into that hot water, whew! It sure feels like heaven.”

And just maybe, that is what it is meant to remind us of…heaven… a fore taste of what is to come in a little space and time.

Musings on Maundy Thursdays past.

Maundy Thursday

 

Over the years I have preached more often then not on Maundy Thursday. In that process I have learned many interesting factoids about how it is observed in various places and unique rites, rituals and menus that have sprung around its commemoration.

In the Scandinavian countries, Maundy Thursday is a national holiday, as it is in the Philippines, Spain, Columbia, Venezuela and Uruguay.

In Germany, it is known as Grundonnerstag or Green Thursday and the main meal consists of green vegetable soup and salads. In Bulgaria it is the day children color their Easter eggs and adults clean the houses. In other Slovak regions a pastry called Judases (yu da ses) which are reminiscently shaped like nooses ( a bit creepy, I must say) and served with coffee and honey are consumed for breakfast or for dessert on Maundy Thursday. In most parts of Europe the tradition of the “silent bells” is followed where it is said, the bells fly to Rome for confession, and children roam the streets with wooden clappers or rattles collecting treats and coins from friends and neighbors.

In Southern Europe, Italy and Malta for example, there is a tradition of visiting seven neighboring churches after the Maundy Thursday Eucharist at your home church in a mini-pilgrimage stopping at the altar of repose at the various sites to sit and pray for a while. I have to say I do remember this ritual growing up in post World War II NYC especially in the Irish-Italian neighborhood of my Brooklyn childhood. The number “seven” is said to represent the “Last Seven Words of Christ” from the passion Gospels which were not “words” at all but phrases that include the familiar “Father forgive them”, “ Son, Behold thy Mother”, and "It is finished”.

But my favorite new fact is from England.  My first interesting factoid from Great Britain was the “Maundy Money” ritual by which the British monarch currently honors local citizens who work to improve life in their communities.  It derives from the custom of medieval monarch washing the feet of paupers and distributing alms. 

I learned that in some parts of the British Isles this day was called Sheer Thursday, as in cutting sheers because it is when men trimmed beards and hair and all the folks, men and women, boys and girls, took an actual bath to clean up for the upcoming Easter following the model of the washing of the feet and Peter’s declaration that Jesus could wash is head and hands also.

But I always go back to the meaning of “maundy” itself which is connected to the Latin word “mandatum” which refers to the command from Jesus that his followers “love one another as I have loved you.”

Yet I also think it should refer to another one of his statements in the Gospel:

“For I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you.”

This command is more difficult than one might think. It is one thing to wash the feet of those we know.  One comment that I heard as we recruited Washees for foot washing was “Remember, you have to come in to church with feet already washed.” On Facebook a deacon I know from Alabama sent around a posting of preparing for Maundy Thursday with a photo of a woman getting a pedicure before having her feet re-washed in church. The deacon who posted this and I both found this somewhat amusing, but also shocking.

It made me think of the phrase: “How does what we do here affect or involve those living in poverty?”

Who in our present society washes the feet of others?  Usually young struggling immigrant women, either Asian or Hispanic who toil for low wages and tips at the local nail salon. Aides and orderlies in local hospitals, rehab centers and nursing homes work with the ill for low wages.  Home health care givers who work with our elderly family members who also are mostly immigrant women from third world nations struggling to live a decent life and send money home to loved ones.

So, how should we approach this ritual of foot washing? Reverently and humbly…remembering that we are following the example that Jesus sets before us and that as participants, we are carrying on an ancient tradition from his first disciples. They had big shoes to fill, those first followers of Jesus, and we can look to their example to try to do the same.