I wonder what your memory is of the greatest serve ever made? Would it be one of Sampras or Agassi in a final a few years ago, would we have to go back to Boris Becker John Mac the knife Macinroe twenty years ago. 130 mph, an ace on the last ball of a Wimbledon final or what? Of course that’s presuming that I am talking about tennis. I could be talking about squash, badminton, table tennis but then how great are they as spectator sports?

As it happens, I’m not talking about any of those games however great their serves might seem to be. I want to talk about Eton Fives this morning because it is a game that is different from any other game I know, and it’s all bound up in the serve.

When you think about serving it’s all about trying to outdo the opposition isn’t it? Can I put an ace through him right down the line, or can I get it to drop dead right in the corner, or spin wildly of the table. You could extend this to cricket as a bowler – you’re serving a ball down the wicket and you’re hoping for that middle stump to fly out of the ground.

Not so in Eton Fives. There on the top step behind this funny big buttress thing you the server are not trying to outplay the opposition: the very opposite! You’re trying to offer them a ball that he or she will want and be able to play.

-‘Sorry I don’t like that one. Can you serve it nearer the step.’

- ‘Sorry, I’d like the ball higher please and more in the middle.’

Who do you think he is? Telling me what to do with my serve!

Wrong - not my serve – his serve. It’s his serve to him. I’m offering something to him from top step to bottom.

- But that could take all day pleasing the one you’re serving to?

Yes – it could but that’s the game.

- Does the cutter (the one receiving the serve) lose the point if he doesn’t hit it above or below a certain line?

No – the game doesn’t progress until the cutter hits the ball up - he or she has as many goes as they need to return the serve given to them.- That’s taking serving a little too far.

But that’s the game, that’s Eton Fives, that’s what lies at the very heart of the game, this willingness to serve one another and do it in the fairest way.

- I suppose the umpire can decide.

There is no umpire in Fives – there has to be agreement between the players.

- Can you call a let if the server or anyone else is obstructing or getting in the way?

No, you wait to be offered a let – that’s the game: you’re being served and asked, you’re being offered and you’re working things out with your opponents.

The serve lies at the heart of the ethos of the game.

Does your serve lie at the heart of your game, your life, and if so what kind of serve is it?

I’ll give him a fast flashy deal that will soon sort him out! I’ll show who’s boss and serve them one of my specials. I’ll screw a deal to put him in his place. I’ll put forward a story to her that will knock her for six, I’ll deliver a watertight argument that will get me out of any hint of trouble. I’ll show him, I’ll teach her, it will serve them right…..

Serve, serve, serve….

John 13 Reading

Jesus was on the top step serving to those who were on the bottom and he turned power, authority, position upside down. That’s what he demonstrated being born in a cow trough in a dirty stable at birth. That’s what he showed by eating with lepers and tax collectors. That’s what he did in allowing prostitutes to pour ointment on him and that’s what he demonstrated in washing his disciples feet on that first Maundy Thursday which the Christian church will again be celebrating next week. Serving from top step down. But it should be me serving you says Peter! If I don’t serve you, you cannot have any part with me.

If we only had John’s Gospel, the chances are that instead of celebrating communion each week we would be performing the act of foot washing or some derivative Sunday by Sunday. Sadly the communion table can often seem to be exclusive and divisive, and I am very aware that as I stand in my robes being the giver of bread and wine from the top step bending down to those who receive it can be a power thing between giver and taker, much though I hope that does not come across.

Next Thursday week, Maundy Thursday, in Cathedrals and parishes throughout the country this simple act of service – footwashing will take place – first the bishop washing the clergy’s feet and then clergy to congregation – the so called greater serving the less. We were to have the president of the Eton fives Association here with us this morning but sadly the flu has struck. I had hoped to wash his feet and then he would have washed Fives Players’ feet.

However, I am now going to wash two or three people’s feet: I don’t want to do it as a gimmick or as something quirky but to demonstrate it as a sign within this season of passiontide just before Christ’s death on Good Friday. It was Jesus as suffering servant who as victim on the cross was able to triumph as victor, giving his life to set us free. And it was this same attitude that Jesus demonstrated the day before kneeling before disciples’ dirty feet - the ugliest part of the body, showing that he accepted, cared for them as they were and stooped as the servant king. I wonder whether in your mind’s eye each of us could cope with having our feet washed by Christ as he looks us in the eye, and if we did let him, what difference would that have to the way we then treated one another: that might be the biggest serve we ever made.

A.A.

Sermon by the Reverend Alex Aldous, Oakham
Created 14th January 2006 by Mike Fenn
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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