“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’ How beautiful are the feet of the messenger.” (Isaiah 52:7)
My feet hurt. My right knee aches. My left shoulder twinges.
Some of my aches and pains rise from intentional physical activity; others simply because I’m more and more becoming a man of a certain age. And now, like my grandmother, various muscles and joints now serve as veritable biological barometers that foretell the arrival of squalls and other nasty weather.
It is what it is – until it isn’t! Occasionally rheumatism in general and sore feet in particular do become sources of blessing in general and understanding in particular: Like a couple weeks ago, during a Community Conversation here in our Sanctuary, about the challenges at the U.S. southern border.
Scott Boylen, a Decorah middle school science teacher, spent last Christmas volunteering on the U.S. side of the border. Scott and his colleagues from the nonprofit group Human Borders share basic human services – water, warm blankets, and simple first aid – with immigrants who’ve crossed into the United States.
One of Scott’s most-frequently performed mercies was soothing, bandaging, and binding aching, burning, and blistered feet that had just slogged hundreds if not thousands of miles. Facing such injury, with limited training, the only comfort Scott could offer was pouring clean, bottled water over tired, swollen feet, then swaddling them in clean bandages.
If they had shoes, the weary traveler then slipped them on. If not, she or he might be lucky to find a couple discarded squares of carpeting to tie around the feet as makeshift shoes for the long journey that lie ahead.
This is the part where I’m supposed to say that Scott’s experience “really put into perspective” my own foot problems as being not so bad.
And whatever emotions I’m feeling as a result of my stiff and tender state are about as worthless as a $3 bill and are just as well thrown away. Now, there might be a smear of healing balm in such attitude and belief, but that’s not where I’m headed.
No, what’s Scott story did for me was refresh my vision of the immigrant as a human being. A stranger, yes, but someone like me, with sore feet and hopes for a better tomorrow. Someone like me, with fears and doubts, hopes and dreams.
Someone like me – broken, yes, but created in the like-minded spirit of God, to reflect the goodness and love of God in Christ.
Someone like me, for whom Christ died and rose, and to whom Jesus vows to return and wipe away the pain of every tear and make all things fresh and new again!
Someone like me.
I think the word is “empathy” – a message of compassion and understanding, delivered not by hand but by foot.
“How lovely upon the mountains are the feet of the bearer of good news and glad tidings: Word of peace and salvation; word that indeed, ‘Your God reigns!’ How lovely upon the mountains are the feet of the bearer of good news and glad tidings.”
For a preacher searching for fodder, the gaudy spectacle of the Super Bowl is like shooting fish in a barrel.
Antics and performances from pregame to postgame raise the curtain on shenanigans and hijinks sufficient for an entire sermon series. But this year, a quite-blessed message nearly stole the show: A 60-second TV spot that’s among the trove of ads in a series simply titled, “He Gets Us.” Here’s how it plays outs –
Surprisingly some of the ad’s most vocal critics were Christians! Mostly more-liberal Christians, but shots were fired from the Evangelical side of the church aisle, too!
Folks more inclined to share my experience and understanding of faith and belief decried the ad’s $7 million price tag as foolish use of financial resources. That’s a fair critique. $7 million spent for humanitarian purposes could do a world of good! Same goes for the record $17.3 billion we Americans were forecast to spend on tickets, food, drinks, apparel, party decorations, and other Super Bowl trappings.
But what I think really raised the hackles of progressive Christians was the ad’s sponsor – supposedly a kinda-murky group of Evangelicals whose faith and politics often are one and the same. Thus were born grassy-knoll conspiracy theories that the “He Gets Us” ad campaign was part and parcel of some sinister, right-wing plot. Well, maybe. Or maybe not.
Nevertheless, that grim possibility – along with the ad’s $7 million reality – were reasons enough to shun the whole kit and caboodle, some folks said. Yes, “He gets us,” but we’re not going to get got! Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, shame on you.
Problem is, the ad’s messaging is a quite-faithful Gospel witness to the person and work of Jesus Christ!
I’ve reviewed and rewound the ad so many times that the audio and video feel seared into my brain! Regardless, in those 60 seconds, I really don’t see or hear anything that rises to the level of truly cringe-worthy or hair-on-fire crisis of faith. What I see and hear is a cornerstone of Christian faith: Namely, that Jesus is the Son of God who humbled himself to become one of us – tired feet, dirty fingernails, skinned knees, deep emotions, warts, and all!
But the Good News doesn’t end there. Because Father and Son also are One, God knows firsthand how difficult it is to be one of us. Because Jesus experienced firsthand just how persistently hard evil is trying to suck the very life right out of us!
That’s why God showers us with the grace of unconditional love that we surely don’t deserve: Patience, mercy, and tender-heartedness; forgiveness, redemption, and resurrection.
Because God full well knows that evil is always looking for opportune times to trip us up, and if history is any indication – and it is, the Lord full well knows that we’re going to stumble and fall from time to time – sometimes really hard, as with a trainwreck near a Dumpster fire in a sand storm. Fighting by yourself to fend off such deep darkness never ends well. Which is why God’s grace further includes the gift of God’s Holy Spirit in Christ as Guardian, Guide, and Stay for our arduous walk of faith.
I give not a whit who paid to deliver that Super Bowl message, nor am I going to obsess over motivations – theological, political, or otherwise.
What I do care about are my present-day feelings of fragility and vulnerable. So I’m simply going to bask in the Good News that “he gets us.” Even though they didn’t deserve it, he washed their feet in that Upper Room. Though neither you nor I deserve it, he washed our feet in baptism. Because he needed to demonstrate in the flesh how to go and do likewise.
I think the word is “empathy” – a message of compassion and understanding, precious Word of hope in dark and fearful times. Might just turn out to be $7 million well spent.
“How splendid upon on the mountains are the feet of the sinner-saint who brings good news of peace and salvation – words of grace for all the Lord’s people: ‘Your God reigns!’”
“How beautiful are the feet of the messenger!” – surely the stuff of candid Lenten reflection. Perhaps I’ll ponder such great and weighty questions of faith, in deep thought and prayer, while I’m soaking my aching feet. Or better yet, when I’m washing the feet of another.
Listen to the Word that God has spoken. Listen even if you don’t understand.
Amen, and amen!
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during worship on the Third Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA.