Wont You Be My Neighbor | Go And Wash Feet - John 13:1-17 - Clint Leavitt

In a world marked by division, isolation, and loneliness, we are a people in desperate need of radical love and connection in the ordinary parts of our lives and world. Join us at Midtown for our new teaching series entitled Won’t You Be My Neighbor?: Radically Ordinary Hospitality, as we go on a spiritual journey of exploration, mining the riches of Jesus’ life and teaching to explore the radical practice of neighboring and examining the ways that this ancient and timeless practice can get us caught up in the present work of the Kingdom of God in our own time. Together we’ll challenge the prevalent culture of division by emphasizing the importance of building authentic relationships across societal boundaries, provide practical guidance on fostering a sense of community in our homes and world, examine how to break down walls of hostility that isolate and divide, and ultimately combat the epidemic of loneliness through intentional acts of kindness and inclusion, that all people might come to a knowledge of their identities as beloved children of God and might experience His love and grace in their own lives. Watch/listen as Pastor Clint closes our series by examining Jesus' actions in John 13, and how we become people who get the power to go and wash feet in our own lives Sermon Resources: 1. “I grew up in the ghetto, and I did not have a positive opinion of police officers. Policeman were siccing dogs and water hoses on people.” - François Clemmons, Interview With StoryCorps 2. “He who wraps the heavens in clouds wrapped round himself a towel. He who pours the water into rivers poured water into a basin. And he before whom every knee bends in heaven and on earth and under the earth knelt to wash the feet of his disciples.” -Severian of Gabala 3. “Jesus was well aware that he was about to be betrayed. Such knowledge might so easily have turned him to bitterness and hatred; but it made his heart run out in greater love than ever. The astounding thing was that the more men hurt him, the more Jesus loved them. It is so easy and so natural to resent wrong and to grow bitter under insult and injury; but Jesus met the greatest injury and the supreme disloyalty, with the greatest humility and the supreme love.” -William Barclay, Daily Study Bible on John 4. "A house show feels like a true faith community…The lead singer is less than two feet away from thirty people who are screaming the same thing. Punk rock teaches the same inversion of power as the Gospel. You learn that the coolest thing about having a microphone is turning it away from your own mouth.” -Julien Baker, Interview with the New Yorker 5. “We choose: we follow the dragon and his beasts along their parade route, conspicuous with the worship of splendid images, elaborated in mysterious symbols, fond of statistics, taking on whatever role is necessary to make a good show and get the applause of the crowd in order to access power and become self-important. Or we follow the Lamb along a farmyard route, worshiping the invisible, listening to the foolishness of preaching, practicing a holy life that involves heroically difficult acts that no one will ever notice, in order to become, simply, our eternal selves in an eternal city. It is the difference between wanting to use people around us to become powerful and entering into covenants with the people around us so that the power of salvation extends into every part of the neighborhood, the society, and the world that God loves.” -Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder