The Ministry of the Towel
- davidwperk
- Jun 26
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Thursday, June 26, 2025
Proper 7, the week of the second Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrase for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
(You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 972)
AM Psalm 105:1-22; PM Psalm 105:23-45
1 Samuel 8:1-22; Acts 6:15-7:16; Luke 22:24-30
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Martyrdom of Isabel F. Hapgood. (See below.)
David's Reflections
Richard Foster has said: "In the everlasting kingdom of Christ, low is high, down is up, weak is strong, service is power. . . . The ministry of power functions through the ministry of the towel. * The towel reference alludes to Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet in John 13. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus repudiates the coercive exercise of power and the spirit of competitiveness and control that energizes it. Our values get profoundly reversed in his question, "Who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?" (v. 27). We all would answer, the one who is at table, but Jesus reverses that expectation. He resembles more fully the one who serves.
In the Christian community, another set of values prevails other than getting what we want and getting other people to do what we want. The most basic question sounds more like, "How can I live so as to benefit those around me?" Or, "How can I give myself?”
Those questions will not always have pleasant, "feel-good" answers. It may involve loving confrontation with a brother or sister in the community (See Matthew 5 and 18; Galatians 6:1-5). It may involve letting go of what I would prefer or desire because it does not benefit the community or align with the community’s sense of God’s call. If our core values involve living to build up the community, we will often find ourselves struggling to figure out how to do that while being true to personal values or to a personal vision that differs.
I'm not talking about some sort of self-contempt that martyrs itself for approval or out of some sense of unworthiness. Rather, I am suggesting living with a robust sense of self-love and self-care that can be extended to others; because you value yourself, your feelings, your desires, and because you know that God does, you can extend that sense of valuing and caring to those around you. You can value difference rather than resent or seek to overcome it.
That orientation will make it very difficult to abuse relationships by control, manipulation, and competitiveness. Like Jesus, we will be more like those who serve than those who sit at table. He certainly lived the difference between overdone martyrdom and genuine self giving. He gave us the ministry of the towel. I still free struck by the graduation exercises at The Institute for Ministry at Loyola University, New Orleans, where I taught Scripture. Those receiving Master of Divinity degrees were given their degrees and towels with an image of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. They were being commissioned into the ministry of the towel.
What might be your ministry of the towel?
* Richard J. Foster, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (New York: Harper, 1985), p. 228.
Collect of the Day, Proper 7, the second Sunday after Pentecost.
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 230)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Isabel F. Hapgood, ecumenist, translator, and journalist (died 26 June 1928 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Isabel F. Hapgood
Teach your divided church, O God, so to follow the example of your servant Isabel Florence Hapgood that we might look upon one another with a holy envy, to honor whatever is good and right in our separate traditions, and to continually seek the unity that you desire for all your people. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who prayed that his church might be one. Amen.
A Collect for Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)
For the Parish
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 817)
A Prayer for Light
Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord; and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, Jesus Christ, Amen. (BCP, 111)
A Collect for Mission
O God, you manifest in your servants the signs of your presence: Send forth upon us the spirit of love, that in companionship with one another your abounding grace may increase among us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 125)
Daily Office Gospel, Luke 22:24-30
24A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25But he said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. 27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. 28‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials; 29and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, 30so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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