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[Out of sight, behind the pulpit, pour water into a bowl.]  [Introduction] Did you hear that? It’s the sound of water being poured from a pitcher into a bowl.  [Show the bowl, set it down, and pour more.] That was a common sound in the days before running water. It was common in every bedroom to have a pitcher and basin to wash in before beginning the new day. And the sound of sloshing water had a special significance in the Passion of our Lord. The sound signified a special cleaning ... By washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus made the disciples clean.  Jesus also gave us a washing. He washed us in Baptism. Through the washing of water and the Word of God, he made us clean. So tonight, therefore, listen ... WE HEAR THE SOUND OF SLOSHING WATER TO REMIND US OF OUR CLEANSING 1. To understand the importance of sloshing water, we need to remember the customs in Jesus’ day.  First, anything dealing with the feet was considered dirty and disgusting. Cleaning feet was fit ON...

And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the scroll of the covenant and proclaimed it in the ears of the people. And they said, ‘All that YHWH has spoken, we will do, and we will keep. And [Moses] said, ‘Behold, the blood of the covenant that YHWH cut with you on the basis of all these words’ (vv 6-8). [Introduction] Have you ever thought about how much blood there is in Scripture?  It is amazing how much there really is. It’s not quite everywhere in Scripture, but it’s close. In the Old Testament, we see blood 360 times in 295 verses of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges ... Samuel, Kings, Chronicles ... Job, Psalms, Proverbs ... Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel (... it’s all over Ezekiel ...), Hoshea, Joel, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah. Not to be outdone, the New Testament talks about blood another 90 times: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthi...