Beautiful Feet

“I’ll Be A Witness!” (Stewardship Campaign: Service)

John 13:3-15

October 30, 2011

  

A few years ago, a small Methodist church in the eastern part of Mexico felt drawn out of their pews and into the community. As they looked around for the greatest need in their community, they realized there were people in need of God’s love right behind their church.  You see, the railroad ran behind the church. The folks in the church had complained for years about the noise the trains made each Sunday morning as they gathered to worship God – they complained until that day when the Holy Spirit drew them outside and they noticed the stowaways on the train. Weary, hungry stowaways – people traveling from Guatemala or Oaxaca to the United States – in the hopes of finding a better life. This little church was more or less the halfway point in their fifteen hundred mile journey to the land of plenty.

The little church began making bag lunches to toss to the stowaways so they would have something to eat on their long journey. The people on these trains often had nothing but the clothing on their backs and they were appreciative of the food and the prayers. Looking into the eyes of young men away from home for the first time, reaching out to touch terrified women on a journey to be with loved ones who are already in the United States, laughing with children enjoying the adventure of a train ride, the folks in the church saw the face of Christ. They discovered first-hand what it means to love your neighbor.

As God opened their hearts even wider, they discovered that many of the stowaways were wearing cheap flip-flops or had no shoes at all. While they were able to catch a ride on the train through this one section of the country, most would walk a good portion of that fifteen hundred miles.  So they began collecting good walking shoes – closed-toed shoes and sneakers – shoes that brought joy and hope to people who still had such a long way to go.

***

“Emanuel” is a retired Methodist pastor who served churches in Arizona for over thirty years. Now in his late 80’s, he has been working in the desert along the border with Mexico for the past fifteen or twenty years. It’s dangerous work – he can’t help people cross the border because that would land him in jail, but he can try to make their crossing easier. Each day he drives through the desert leaving water in caches where folks on their three-day journey across the desert might take a break.  Each day he picks up dead bodies – those who were unable to make this treacherous journey. And each evening he tends to those who have made it into the United States.

While dehydration and sunburn are common, Emanuel takes care of more sore feet than anything else.  Feet that are covered with raw blisters from ill-fitting shoes, feet that have nasty wounds from the thorns that cover the desert. Often socks have to be cut off because they are practically glued to these sore feet. Sometimes flip-flops have to be peeled away because the hot sand has melted the plastic to the bottom of the person’s foot.

When asked what he thinks of these folks who enter the United States illegally, Emanuel – a third generation Mexican American – visibly sags. After a pause he begins to speak: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).  God calls us to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.  God calls us to bring water to the thirsty, and to bind up sore feet. God does not call us to judge why people would leave their homes and undergo such a dangerous journey.  God just calls us to love.  Each time Emanuel holds a foot in his hand, he knows he holds the foot of a beloved child of God.

***

Jonathan and his family live in Walltown – a poor neighborhood just north of Duke’s campus in Durham. Jonathan was called there by God to serve the poor and to bring hope to a neighborhood fraught with poverty and violence. Jonathan has been there several years - long enough to build relationships and trust with the community, long enough to befriend many of the homeless men who roam the neighborhood.  These homeless men feel comfortable stopping by and talking with Jonathan as he sits on his front porch.

Jonathan has discovered two ways to serve these men: first, he listens as they talk – he listens as they tell their stories; second, he gives them a new pair of socks each time they visit. The men usually pull off their old socks while they sit on the front porch.  The stench is enough to scare anyone away, and yet Jonathan sits and listens and watches as the men delight in putting new socks on. One young man who comes by regularly for new socks lost a brother a few years ago.  His brother’s feet became gangrenous from wearing the same old socks day in and day out – efforts to save his life came too late. The gangrene spread from his feet to his body and killed him. We don’t often think of the homeless wearing the same socks day in and day out. We don’t often think of clean socks as being lifesavers! We don’t often think of serving others in terms of tending to the needs of those with sore, smelly feet.

***

On that night when Jesus gave up his life for us, he gathered with his disciples around the table to share a final meal. During the supper, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He washed feet that had traveled many miles with him over the past three years – feet that had walked all through Galilee, certainly more than once – feet that had traveled across Samaria from Galilee to Judea – feet that walked along the Jordan River – feet that were covered by Judean dust. Feet that were certainly calloused and smelly and sore from all that walking!

And Jesus bent down to wash the disciples’ feet. Jesus washed the feet of Peter who did not understand what Jesus was doing and tried to stop him.  Peter, who would deny him three times later that night. Jesus washed the feet of Judas – the disciple who would betray him only a few hours later. And when Jesus returned to the table he asked: “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:12-14).

***

The apostle Paul quotes Isaiah: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:15, Isaiah 52:7). How beautiful are the feet of the hungry and the homeless who show us Jesus. How beautiful are the feet of the lost and the lonely who open our eyes to the work of Holy Spirit.  How beautiful are the feet of the migrants and the missionaries – people of all races and cultures – who make up the body of Christ.  How beautiful are the feet of those who bring us good news.