Saints and Sinners: Washing feet a touching ceremony
I don’t know whether Melanie is a churchgoer or not, but the foot-washing paraphernalia she has in her beauty shop brings to mind the role that foot-washing has played in the Christian church.
I doubt Melanie’s procedure bears any resemblance to the ceremony of foot-washing we read about in the Bible, where Jesus washes Peter’s feet on the Thursday of Holy Week and then instructs the disciples to wash each other’s feet.
Customers at Melanie’s beauty shop often come in for a pedicure to beautify their feet, which involves, among other things, having their feet washed.
Few churches follow Jesus’ command to wash each other’s feet, although some do it once a year on Maundy Thursday. Some go further, such as the Seventh-Day Adventist churches.
Let me tell you of my experience with foot-washing at an Adventist church one Sabbath day.
The service began uneventfully enough. As a matter of fact you might say the beginning dragged. The service was eight minutes late in starting. When it did begin, the first six minutes were given over to announcements by the minister.
But surprises were soon to follow — surprises that would make the service live in my memory to this day.
After the sermon was over, the pastor instructed the men in the congregation to retire to a room downstairs while the women were to go to another room. I followed along with about 30 other men, not knowing what was to happen. When we got to our designated room, we all stood around in a circle.
The man next to me — a burly man who I later learned was a lineman with the local utility company — asked me, “Do you have someone to serve you?” When I said no (not knowing what he was referring to), he said he would be glad to serve me.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“We are going to wash each other’s feet,” he replied.
He knelt down and washed and dried my feet, then I put my socks and shoes back on and I washed and dried his feet.
The other men were doing the same for each other.
When we were finished, we made a circle again and several men gave thanks for what the Lord had done for them in their lives or asked for our prayers for themselves or somebody else in need.
Then we all went back upstairs into the sanctuary where we partook of the “bread of God” and the “wine of God.”
It is something that is done in the Seventh-Day Adventist churches four times a year.
This denomination of half a million members in the United States is orthodox in many of its beliefs but is distinguished from other churches in mainly two ways.
The Adventists worship on Saturday because they feel this is the Sabbath ordained in the Bible. Other Christians believe the Sabbath was changed to Sunday after Christ’s resurrection but Adventists say there is no evidence for this in the Bible.
The other thing that sets Adventists apart is their belief that health is a vital part of religion. They consider it just as wrong to disregard the laws of health as it is to disregard God’s moral law.
I can’t remember when I have been so moved by anything that has gone on in a church service. The simplicity and humility with which the foot-washing act was carried through and the lack of self-consciousness (with the exception of me) brought tears to my eyes.
(George Plagenz is an ordained minister and veteran newsman based in Columbus, Ohio.)