Loading...Sermon March 24, 2016
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. John 1:17
Please be seated.
Many of you met my friend, Daniel Welliver, back in February. He’s an Associate Professor of Sociology at Juniata College and came to talk about addressing racism. Well, at least ten years ago, Daniel visited South Africa and I’ve always remembered this story he told.
He and the group he was with were visiting a part of a city. Most people did not have phones there, so friends or family just dropped by with no warning. When that happened, the greeting was, “You have beautiful feet.” Daniel was perplexed by this. I mean don’t most of us cover our feet up and don’t necessarily think they’re our best feature? And especially as we age, or at least speaking for myself, I have bunions and toes about to cross plus calluses! “You have beautiful feet,” is not necessarily something I’d believe if I heard it.
Daniel’s hosts explained the saying…. When a person comes to our homes, we welcome them with “You have beautiful feet.” It’s a short way of saying, “You have beautiful feet, because they brought you here at just the right time.” Imagine, in this day, people just dropping in to see you. Sometimes it’d be an act of grace to say, “You have beautiful feet, because they brought you here at just the right time.”
Tonight we hear about feet quite a bit and we’ll be having a foot washing right after this sermon. I’ve been walking a lot the past few weeks, because it’s been nice outside. I walked a lot when I lived in New York City and in other cities where I’ve lived. However, there is definitely a limit to how far I’ll walk! I can’t even imagine walking from Galilee to Jerusalem. It’s about 100 miles from Mount Tabor, the site of The Transfiguration and just south of the Sea of Galilee, to Jerusalem.
And when I take a walk, I have sturdy shoes with lots of support and I wear socks. I’m also fortunate to get a pedicure once a month and with running water, I can easily take regular showers. I have it so easy taking care of my feet!
But Jesus and his disciples wore sandals or walked in their bare feet. That would make for some dusty and dirty feet at the end of the day, not to mention how tired your feet would feel. Having someone in the home to wash your feet, therefore, was a wonderful gesture of hospitality, usually done by slaves. If there were no slaves, each person washed their own feet.
Imagine the luxury and love of Jesus in taking on this act considered menial and “beneath him.” Yet, he did it and I believe he washed the feet of those he loved, because he did love them so deeply.
It was the disciples’ feet that allowed them to follow Jesus all over the Judean countryside. Jesus knew what was coming. Washing their feet was a gift of thanksgiving for their faithfulness in their very human ways to his teaching and to his ministry. It was Jesus’ way of saying, “You have beautiful feet, because they brought you here at just the right time.”
So we wash each other’s feet tonight, because we are grateful for each other. We are grateful for our fellowship in this church community. We are grateful that each of us arrives here week after week at just the right time to worship together and share our lives. We are grateful that each of us goes out into the world in so many ways, backed by the love of this community, to be Christ to the world: to take care of God’s creatures, to help people have better lives.
You have beautiful feet!
Amen
