Broken

Prior to serving our guest, it is customary for Open Door Community to engage in a time of Bible Study, prayer, and preparation to give hospitality. A week or so ago, as part of this time of preparation, the community was led in a foot-washing experience where the focus was on being a servant -- taking the place of a lowly slave to wash the feet of the guests who would soon arrive for food and hospitality.

During that week several students from Memphis Theological Seminary were present at Open Door Community to work on their final project for their class, entitled, Urban Immersion. Most of these were young people who may have for the first time actually participated in such radical discipleship. As a part of their experience they were asked to create an art project and reflect upon their time at Open Door Community. So my blog today is not the work of my hands or my reflection, I am printing with permission from Open Door Community, a photograph of one of the art projects and the reflections of Camille Bradley.

First, let me describe the project. Its beauty and mystery is not well represented in this photographer's skill. The project is three dimensional. With heavy wire, you are able to see the shape of bare-feet. A towel is placed down the center of a broken bowl and continues to move upward like the flame of the Holy Spirit reaching up to God. A bar of soap rests on the broken shard and a wire hand, placed strategically at the center of the display brings all the parts together. From this image comes the following reflection:

"Jesus come to a broken world full of broken people and surrounds himself with them. Loving his own who were in the world, he loves them to the end. Knowing his time is near and soon he too will be broken; he wraps a towel around his waist and pours water into a bowl to wash the the feet of his beloved community. Jesus lowers himself and washes the feet of all who are present. He washes the feet of Peter who's feeling a little anxious. He washes the feet, as well, of the the one who will betray him. Then Jesus says: 'I have set an example that you also should do as I have done to you."

Jesus calls us to action and so we prepare to wash each others [sic] feet at the Open Door. We circle together, each one of us broken, much like the eve before Passover. Feeling anxious and humble, broken and weary, my feet are immersed in the basin. Ira [a resident volunteer] kneels down and with his strong brown hands gently and lovingly washes my white feet. No words are spoken. Yet, out pours the Spirit and I breathe deep while my eyes well up with water. After drying my feet, Ira rises and so do I. Two broken people embrace for a moment in the peace and wholeness that comes, from being together in a beloved community, right here at the Open Door.

We reflect all together to try to understand what has happened and still I'm not sure if I do. We talk of the poor and homeless outside and we're about to open the house to them. Somehow we're transformed into people of love, hospitality, and mutual respect. We are able to welcome to the beloved community other broken and anxious souls. Who for a moment at least feel the love and the peace that flows back and forth through all our our cracks. Our world is transformed as all of us who are broken come together in a diverse and beautiful whole. All because Jesus said: "For I have set for you an example, that you also should do as I have done." (Adapted, Luke 13:1-19, NRSV)

And so it is the kind of ministry that happens at the Open Door Community. There are no barriers here. there are only broken people picking up the pieces and through radical discipleship strive to bring life, dignity, grace and wholeness together again. And so I babble on with thoughts of the beloved community, the role of the servant leaders, and with renewed hope that peace, justice and humility is possible in our broken and fragmented world.