Printable version of today’s devotional guide

Where Do I Begin?

Begin each day with the Prayer of Illumination to help, prepare your heart to hear God’s word for you.  Read “to be formed and transformed rather than to gather information…Read with a vulnerable heart.  Expect to be blessed…Read as one awake, one waiting for the beloved.  Read with reverence.”*

Let us Pray a Prayer of Illumination:

All-Seeing One, above me, around me, within me —
guide my vision as I engage with your sacred words.
Look down upon me, look out from within me, look all around me.
See through my eyes, hear through my ears, feel through my heart.
God of Wisdom, touch me where I need to be touched;
    and when my heart is touched, give me the grace to lay
    down this Holy Book and ask significant questions:
Why has my heart been touched by you?
How am I to be changed through your touch?
All-Seeing One, I need to change, I need to look a little more like You.
May these sacred words change and transform me.
Then I can meet You face to face…when I shall be healed forever.
Your Word and the touch of your Spirit bring healing…
    a healing that will last.
O Eye of God, look not away.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me. Amen.

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SATURDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK – Day 32

 WASH FEET
John 13:12-17

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

MORE THAN SYMBOLIC

What do you think about touching someone’s feet? Perhaps you don’t mind that much if someone bathes daily and you know they change their socks everyday, and that their shoes are dry. But what about a homeless person’s feet that have been walking the streets for days on end. Feet in socks that have not been changed in a week or more. Feet in sweat-soaked socks stiff from being trapped in those shoes for weeks on end. Feet in shoes that have seen more puddles and dirt than even the most playful puppy! What about washing those feet?

My son has spent a fair amount of time drug addicted, homeless, and in shelters. He has a memory of a time when a church visited the Mission where he was staying. He said, “Mom, they washed people’s feet! They brought clean socks and new shoes and they removed our old socks and shoes and put our feet in warm soapy water and washed our feet, dried them and gave us new socks and shoes!” He was astonished that people would ever do that knowing how bad his own feet were at the time. It made an impression on him that he will remember forever – the kindness of those people who cared enough to wash a homeless person’s feet!

Following Jesus is REAL. It’s not theory – it’s PRACTICE. It’s not just preaching it but DOING IT! And the witness it gives to the love and compassion of Christ for those who most people prefer to not even see is the greatest testimony one can give.

If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

PRAYER

Almighty God, help me to see your face in all people. Help me to respond with generosity and a loving and hopeful word. Help me to be your faithful servant always, joyfully serving you always. Amen

 FOR FURTHER REFLECTION

Name a time when you did something you did not want to do simply because Jesus called you to do it.

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Notes:
This week’s devotional resource was written by Rev. Wendy Depew Partelow, President of the American Baptist Churches of New York State Board of Missions, and edited by Rev. Mark H. Breese of Community Missions. The content was created specifically keeping in mind the populations served by Community Missions.

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

Scripture Verses are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), HarpurCollins Publishers, 1989.

The choice of Daily Scripture texts are taken from Lent & Easter, Wisdom from Thomas Merton, Linguori Publications.

*One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., Virginia, 1996, pg. 368-369. [ISBN:0-910034-63-X Large Print]

**James C. Howell, Servants, Misfits, and Martyrs, Upper Room Books, Nashville, 1999. Pg 26-28