A visualization and worship experience.
By Kaye Cooper
One way that worship is defined is this: Looking to the nature of God for the inspiration of service to the many. Out of worship comes our own growth in the family of God—the enrichment of our desire to serve, our energy for service, and our effectiveness at service. I want to share a short visualization with you. It is called “The Parable of Fatherly Service.” At the end of the visualization, I will give you a time of silence to worship as you wish. I will close the worship time with a piece of music. Are there any questions before I begin?
The Parable of Fatherly Service
A visualization and worship experience.
Let me first set the stage for you. On Thursday night, only hours before he was arrested, Jesus took his apostles to the safety of an upper room to enjoy an uninterrupted time with them. He wanted to share with his apostles some last words of caution and encouragement before he departed his mortal life. There they celebrated Passover and Jesus instigated the new sacrament of communion.
Because Jesus wanted privacy with his close associates, no servant was provided that night to wash the dust of the roadway from their feet. Each of the apostles avoided taking the role of servant upon himself, and so their feet remained unwashed as the supper began. Jesus took advantage of this situation to enact a parable for his apostles. To demonstrate for them one last time the nature of his life of loving service, to encourage them to follow his example.
And now relax in your chair. Close your eyes if you wish. And imagine that you are one of those apostles, sharing a last precious evening with your beloved Master. You and the other apostles have been seated around the Passover table with Jesus for some time. Then, without explanation he rises and walks to the door where basins, towels and pitchers of water have been provided for the washing of feet. He removes his outer robe and wraps a long, slender towel around the waist of his tunic. He pours water into a bowl and walks over to kneel at the feet of one of your fellow apostles. All of you are horrified when it becomes evident that Jesus intends to take upon himself the role of servant and wash the feet of the apostle before whom he has knelt. But Jesus insists despite objections.
You watch as he washes the feet of an apostle and gently dries them, then another and another. And now he kneels before you. He removes your sandals and washes your dusty feet in the clean water from the pitcher. He dries them gently.
Then he looks up directly into your eyes, and you see love and understanding…and insight into your life. And with a final, gentle smile he says, “I enact this parable of service so you will remember that he who would be great in my family must become the server of all. If you would follow me, serve my children.”
(allow 4 minutes of meditative music or silence)