When he had finished he explained the reason for his extraordinary action. "Do you know what I have done?" he asked. You call me Teacher and Lord - and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." While the gesture may not seem relevant today, it did serve a useful purpose in a time when dusty roads and sandals were commonplace. What is the equivalent in our modern world? Do we need in some way to discover what it is like to reverse roles? Do we need to cross the gulf between those who serve and those who are served? Between those who rule and those who are ruled? What can reverse the roles for us? How can we learn to walk in another's shoes?

For me it happened in a placement while I was studying theology. I chose to work with street people at the Church of the Holy Trinity. It turned out to be a very different and challenging experience for me. As children growing up in an inner city rectory, it had been our job to feed the street people who came to our door. I never thought of them as being real people. They were "bums". Some of our "regulars" were named. There was Rudolph and Pinhead. You get the idea. But I had no concept that they had real names, that they had been loved, that they had had lives, that they had stories to tell about why they were on the street.

But in my work at Holy Trinity I did come to see them as people. I listened to their stories. I helped them in whatever way I could. Finding them a meal. Getting them into a hostel for the night. Finding them a place to take a shower. But what most changed for me happened through what they did for me. At first they used me. They saw me as a pushover who would go out of her way to help. But when I started to do advocacy work - to try to change how they were treated - they began to view me as a friend. I can still go through downtown Toronto and be greeted by my friends on the street. And I still remember them by name.

Can we, the people of God, be a servant people? Can we live in solidarity with all of humanity? That is the only kind of church that will have any relevance in today's world. We come together to share as family at the Eucharist. We are sent out as servants in the world. May we follow our Lord's example and be the servant of all.