Only a Service Entrance to Heaven

When I was 18 years old,

I came to America on a student work visa

and worked in Dallas, Texas as a waiter.

My main job was at a fancy, upscale restaurant

earning tips from all sorts of rich and famous people.

But also I took a second job to earn more money

at Loews Hotel downtown during the days on weekends.

I remember it with great affection

and met some incredible people who worked in the hotel.

I worked harder in that hotel and earned less money

than I did in the fancy restaurant

but money is money.

Once you work at a hotel you see what most people do not see,

and how hard the staff work in hotels.

There is one golden rule about working in hotels.

If you, as an employee, come through the front door

you are immediately terminated.

No questions asked.

Immediately fired.

And it was written in my contract.

You are only allowed to come through the service entrance.

The service entrance is always at the back of the hotel.

There are no potted plants and beautiful valet drivers at the back.

It is often a nondescript door and entrance with a punch code.

You go in and it is usually through a dark hallway.

Nowadays I often look at hotels and

I observe the state of the service entrance

because it tells you how they treat their staff.

If the service entrance is any way decent

then they think highly of their staff.

If it is just like a goods entrance

then they do not care too much about their staff,

any more than the goods they receive!

When I was a child, I always thought of heaven as a big palace,

like a big hotel, where you had first class service.

You just check in and it’s like luxury service from then on;

you get served from the moment you arrive. Right?

I know it is a childish image but

that was what we were taught in catechism class!

The older I get the more I realize

what the heaven or the kingdom of God is completely.

But the kingdom of God is like a hotel.

then there is only one entrance, the service entrance.

I am more convinced every day that

the only way into the kingdom of heaven is service.

There is no front door in heaven.

That is just a façade.

The only way to get into heaven is through this service entrance.

In today’s gospel, we hear Jesus actually lay out just that case:

His disciples were missing the point constantly about

what the kingdom of God was going to be like.

Today he gives them a model to follow:

washing their feet

And said to wash each other’s feet;

to serve one another

and he demonstrates right before them.

This would have been incredibly uncomfortable for the disciples.

Remember in ancient times that

the people who washed the feet

were the lowest on the totem pole of the household.

It was not just an ordinary servant,

it was the lowest of all the servants;

they got to wash the feet.

And if there were no servants then it was the women of the house;

and if there were no women in the house,

each person would actually wash their own feet

or at least dust them off.

They would never allow the host to wash their feet.

It was considered beneath them.

It would have been too lowly for them.

Jesus obliterates this understanding.

He takes off his outer garment,

he puts on a towel and starts to wash the feet of his disciples.

The disciples are terribly uncomfortable with this.

Jesus shows his disciples what it means to serve,

getting lower than others and humbly,

getting down on our knees serving them.

Peter had his own understanding of the leadership for Jesus,

he wanted him to be strong like a king and he protests by saying,

“No, you are not going to be that to me!”

But Jesus assures Peter there is only a service entrance into his kingdom,

“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

Peter realized his mistake and overcompensates and says,

“Then not just my feet then my hands and my whole body too!”

We, too, often misunderstand what it means to serve as well.

How do we serve? How are we to serve today?

It is different for all of us.

Some of you are already doing it day after day;

parents, you are doing it already,

because you are pouring your life out for our children.

To ask you to serve more, would be absurd

because you have already pouring your life into your children

as long as you really are and not pouring your life into your work or sports.

There is nothing more to give.

For you, the challenge is to allow others to serve you.

That is the challenge for you.

Remember Jesus says, “Serve one another.”

Not that you are the one always pouring out.

To a certain extent when we pour ourselves out,

we are still somewhat in control of the situation.

So for you tonight coming forward to have your feet washed

it is going to be deeply uncomfortable

because you do not like being served.

Mothers in particular.

It is the hardest because you are serving all the time.

Go. Go. Go. Go. Go.

Symbolically let your feet be washed and

allow others to serve you.

Now for the rest of us, we have to step up our game.

There are a lot of children here, and young people.

You cannot go out and earn money. We get that.

You cannot go out and cook all the food. I get it.

You cannot do it all. I get that.

What you can do is recognize Mom or Dad who are cooking

and earning all the money.

You can say to yourself, “Can I help you?”

You can acknowledge the hard work they do  

and stand with them as they do it.

You can be the first one to offer to set the table;

first one to clean the house;

first one to clean out the dishwasher,

whatever the chores of the house are.

You recognize and see that your role is to be grateful in service.

Then all of us are called to open our eyes to those around,

who so desperately need a helping hand.

Think of those women and children refugees in Ukraine right,

or all immigrants at our border seeking new lives

or the homeless broken by their own poor choices or

broken by circumstances beyond their control.

Or maybe someone in our family or our neighbor who we know

who is broken by life itself.

We strive to understand the complex, human stories

behind those human beings and allow their stories into our hearts.

When there is a group such as the LGBTQ group

that is ostracized from so many parts of the country and church;

that we are willing to listen to their story

and be willing to acknowledge the humanity

behind their own story and welcome them back into our community.

Or those suffering from mental illness

and be willing to listen to their story and be moved by their plight.

There are so many other ways in which we can be the community

that reaches out with open hands in service to others.

Now more than ever does our community, does our world,

need people who are willing to be servants;

willing to love as Christ loved.

Christ gave us the model.

Wash each other’s feet.

A symbol to serve one another.

Symbol to love one another and allow others to love you.

I know that it is hard.

As we wait in line to have our feet washed

may we think of all those people in our lives that serve us already

and offer thanks to them in our hearts.

Then ask ourselves,

“Can we acknowledge their service,

can we then serve them?

Tonight, may we do for one another as Christ has done for us.

Remember, there is no front entrance to heaven;

there is only the service entrance into the kingdom of God.

The Passion of Christ has so much to reflect upon

and so many different characters that

we are overwhelmed on what to reflect on the most.

Sometimes it is helpful to take one character and

sit with it imagining yourself as that character in this gospel;

then repeat that throughout Holy Week

as we read this narrative multiple times.

For example, if you take the character of Simon the Cyrenian,

a rather obscure character who only appears

this one time in all of scripture.

And we might say,

“What would it have been like to be Simon the Cyrenian?”

He is just in from the country.

He is only after arriving.

We can imagine the confusion of Simon.

He arrives and this huge crowd are about to crucify somebody.

How terrified he must have been

as he was getting caught up in this crowd.

Then suddenly, they put the cross on his shoulders;

and how reluctantly he would have taken up that cross.

Wait…whoa…are they going to crucify me now?

What did I do? What am I doing?

I didn’t do anything.

I just happen to be here at the wrong place.

And got called into service.

Then he carries this cross.

And they take it from him and give it to Christ.

Afterward he watches this Christ, this Jesus Christ, get crucified.

Then it probably only dawned on him that

while he was reluctant to take the cross at the beginning,

he probably afterwards found out, I would imagine,

who this Jesus Christ was; and then realized,

then realized what had happened;

that he had carried the cross of the King of the Jews,

the Savior of the world.

What an awesome privilege it was but at that moment,

but he did not realize it.

At that moment, he was carrying the cross of the Savior

and he did not know it.

How that would have changed his life forever.

There is only one Simon.

Only one Simon the Cyrenian,

who carried the cross of Jesus Christ named in scripture

and we have retold that story for over 2,000 years.

What an awesome privilege it must have been.

And yet, at that moment, he did not realize it.

I look at my own life and I see that there were moments

when I was asked to carry somebody else’s cross.

And there were times when I realized what it was.

For example, my brother and my mother.

You know, my brother, I was with him when he was dying.

I knew what a privileged moment this was.

And when my mother was dying, I was with her often;

I knew that moment as well.

But there have been so many moments in my life

when I did not realize that at that moment,

I was carrying somebody else’s cross

and how much of a privilege it was to do so.

I did not realize how it would change me.

And change me for my life.

I would carry it maybe somewhat reluctantly;

maybe even begrudgingly;

maybe even with resentment,

not realizing how powerful this moment was for me

as well as for the other person who’s cross, I carried.

I wonder if in your life, you have carried somebody else’s cross;

or maybe are carrying somebody’s cross right now.

Maybe you are tending to an elderly person in your life;

maybe it is your parents who are dying;

or some other relative.

Do you realize the power of this moment?

Do you realize the incredible privilege

you have been given to carry their cross for a moment?

For just a moment of relief for them so that

they can continue their way to their death and into eternal life.

I sometimes think that we do not always capture the power of the moment

but that is maybe what the gift of Holy Week can be for us this year.

We can pause and look at all the times in our lives

that we have carried somebody else’s cross and be honest

that sometimes we are resentful,

sometimes we do it reluctantly but we still do it.

And we are changed because of it;

that somehow, something in our life is different

because of that privileged moment of having carried that cross.

Or maybe now we could look in our lives and see

if there is somebody’s cross in our life

that we could actually help to carry?

Could we reach out and allow ourselves

to enter that moment more consciously of being aware

of that privileged moment?

Or maybe, there are some of you who need to allow

somebody else to carry your cross;

and to allow somebody else the privilege to carry it

in this very important moment in your life;

maybe those of you who are at home are not able to be here

and are suffering from different types of illness

that does not allow you to be here.

And this is your moment to allow some Simon in your life

to carry the cross and to be privileged and to walk with you.

The power of the cross can have many different forms in our life.

Maybe this week what we can do is to look in our own lives

and see if there is someone in our own life who’s cross

we can carry with them and be aware of the privileged moment;

or can we allow somebody else to carry our cross if it is too much to bear.

The power of the cross is in sharing it.

Today, we come to carry each other’s crosses.