1 Kings 19.9-18                                                                                                                     Carol A. Solovitz and Josh Fite

Psalm 85.8-13                                                                                                                        Pentecost 12A

Romans 10.5-15                                                                                                                  August 7, 2005

Matthew 14.22-33

 

Paul and the Flip-Flop Flap

               

 

 

The Flip-Flop Flap

            Just how much attention do we pay to our feet?  I don’t know about you, but I baby my feet.  I have to soak and smoothen and moisturize them.  I love to go barefoot, and my shoes must fit so that it feels like I’m barefoot. 

How much attention do we pay to other peoples’ feet?  Judging from the number of times that I compliment someone on their shoes or they comment on mine, I’d guess we notice them a lot.  Our feet demand our attention.  I always thought that Americans had a love affair with shoes, but I truly was astonished by the number of shoe stores in Germany;  even in the little village of Wittenberg, there were four shoe stores!

I guess you have heard about the Flip-Flop Flap at the White House.  That is the flap caused by some members of the Northwestern University women’s lacrosse team when they wore flip-flop sandals to the White House.  Apparently, President Bush was not fazed by their footwear, but when the photo was published, Miss Manners, Emily Post and parents of the team were quite upset.  Even though some of the flip-flops cost more than a dress, it was considered an outrage to wear such casual footwear to a visit with the president.  And for awhile, we forgot about Karl Rove and John Bolton and terrorism. 

I wonder how St. Paul would have reacted to that photo.

Paul and Romans

            Paul certainly cared about feet, and he appreciated them.  In Romans 10, he writes of his concern for those who have not heard of and do not believe in Jesus as the Christ.  They may be righteous and live according to the law given to Moses, but they do not know Jesus.

            Paul is concerned that people will mistake doing good works for being saved.  His concern is for the Jews and the Gentiles.  Our reading for today is sandwiched between his words in chapter 9 about the difficulties of being among God’s elect people called to live lives of faith and Paul’s assertion in chapter 11 that God has not rejected the Jews as the chosen people with a divine purpose to serve.  His main concern, however, is that all people would know Jesus, as he says in verse 9, “…because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Paul wants all to be saved through Christ.  He spent most of his life trying to please God by following the law.  Now he understands the grace of God through God’s gift of Jesus.  Paul met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.  The Lord came to him as a blinding light and a longing voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”  He heard Christ’s admonition to let God’s love flow more freely than the judgment of the law.  Not everyone has this type of close encounter with Jesus.  Paul understands this, and he does not want his own people, the Jews, to be persecuted because no one has bothered to share the Gospel – and live it! - with them.  So Paul asks, “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?  And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?  As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

            When he was upon God’s holy mountain, Moses was told to take off his shoes before approaching the presence of the Almighty.  “You are on sacred ground,” he was told.  Before his ears heard the name of God, before his hands touched the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the feet of Moses were sanctified, for they were allowed to stand on God’s sacred ground.  In the same way, God blesses and makes beautiful the feet of all who tell God’s good news.

Matthew and Romans

 

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

In these words to us, St. Paul makes what I think is a remarkable statement about the transforming power of the Gospel.  When the good news grabs ahold of people, it changes them…right down to the two feet that carry them around.  To me at least, those are pretty powerful words, powerful enough even to affect how I read other passages of scripture.  For example, when I hear the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, I understand that act of humility and service as a process of making these disciples into apostles.  It is as though in washing their feet, Jesus is saying to his disciples, “Up to now, you have been followers.  But I’m giving you beautiful feet so that you can go out and spread the good news of what I am about to do.  I’m giving you beautiful feet so you can bear the good news of my death and my resurrection.”

And now these words, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,” have crept into my understanding of the story we hear this morning of Jesus and Peter walking out on the water.  You know the funny thing about walking on water…your feet can’t help but get wet.  By heeding Christ’s invitation to put his faith into action and join him out on the water, Peter’s feet got wet.  Those two dusty, dirty feet of this guy who walked all over the desert following Jesus, well, those feet got clean and beautiful.  His feet were made beautiful so he could go and share the news of what Jesus is doing in the world.

I even sense a connection between our passage from Romans and Peter’s sinking.  When Peter became frightened and began to sink, his feet fell further into the swirling water.  It is almost as though his feet were getting a more thorough cleaning.  His moment of fear becomes an experience that makes his proclamation even bolder when he beholds Christ reaching down, pulling him up, and restoring him to faith.

That’s how faithful Christ is.  In our moments of weakness, doubt, and mistrust, Jesus comes running to our side.  He reaches down and pulls us to himself, back to a life of faith.  And those experiences become our greatest testimonies of Christ’s love and grace.

Romans and the World

            St. Paul did not meet his Roman readers until shortly before his death.  His final journey took him to Rome – not to preach but to appeal to the emperor for a fair trial as a Roman citizen.  He evangelized from prison, and he was heartened to know that there were faithful Christians in Rome.  He encouraged them to stay strong, to build up one another, and to share the Gospel in all that they said and did.  He knew by now that he would never achieve his dream to travel to Spain to tell of Jesus, but even from prison he could encourage others to take their feet to Spain on his behalf.  If enough feet were mobilized, then eventually the entire world would hear about the salvation offered through Christ.

Paul never heard of flip-flops.  Certainly, he wore sandals.  Our Savior and the disciples wore sandals or were barefoot.  No one cared what was on their feet, but they could see how beautiful those feet were.  Because those feet brought the Gospel to all.  “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

 People and the World

 

            Yes, you have beautiful feet.  You might disagree, but too bad.  Jesus says they’re beautiful.  In a few minutes, those beautiful feet are going to carry you up here to receive Jesus’ own body and blood, gifts he himself gives us to strengthen us in faith and strengthen us for mission.  And a few minutes after those beautiful feet of yours bring you to this table, they’re going to take you out those doors and into the world.  Those beautiful feet are going to take you a lot of places this week.  So as you’re walking around this week in your home, in your neighborhood, at your job, stop and think of your feet.  Know that the water that was poured over your head in baptism made even your feet clean.  And those beautiful feet make you just the right person to bear the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that he died and rose again for the sake of all of creation.  That’s a scary job, preaching to a world that is often hard-hearted and hard of hearing.  But Christ has promised to be by your side, giving you all the gifts you need to show those who haven’t seen, and tell those who haven’t heard, what Christ is doing in your life, and what he’s doing in theirs.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.