By J.D. Walt
Prayer of Consecration
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Scripture
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Romans 10:14–15 (NIV)
Consider This
How do feet become beautiful?
I don’t like feet. I never have. Not my feet. Not your feet. They are inglorious, gangly, grungy, dirty, sweaty, and smelly. They are also important, essential, vital, and necessary. And yet . . .
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Still, the words feet and beautiful don’t readily go together do they?
It turns out feet may play the most important role in the kingdom of Jesus. Feet are the logistics of the gospel. Note the logistical logic of today’s text:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
A person calls on Jesus, BECAUSE
A person believes in Jesus, BECAUSE
A person heard about Jesus, BECAUSE
A person told them about Jesus, BECAUSE
A person was sent to embody and share Jesus, BECAUSE
Feet, THEREFORE
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
So feet become beautiful when they are sent to carry the gospel of Jesus. The gospel moves on foot or it doesn’t move. I love how God sent his Son to the Earth at a time before motorized vehicles. Jesus walked. As he walked the gospel moved, because he was and is and evermore shall be the gospel. There is a phrase in our Sower’s Creed that gets at this and translates it to our lives:
Because Jesus is good news, and Jesus is in me, I am good news.
As we walk, Jesus walks in, with, and through us. As we walk, the gospel moves.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
And maybe, just maybe, this is why Jesus washed those first disciples’ feet. Sure it had to be done, but it was more than that wasn’t it?
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (John 13:6–8)
I think I’m finally beginning to understand; at least more than I did. Jesus, by his cleansing presence, takes the most unseemly part of me and makes it the most beautiful. He consecrates our feet to be sent as the carriers of his presence, power, and love to the world; from our neighborhood to the nations. It is how he has part with us and we with him.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
And that’s how feet become beautiful.
Prayer
Abba Father! We simply marvel at your son, Jesus. He does something so surprising and so unseemly two thousand years ago and we are still growing in our understanding of it all. Lord Jesus, thank you for washing their feet, and in washing their feet you washed the feet of all who would ever follow you. Come Holy Spirit and fill us up to fullness, making us the sent ones of Jesus. Give us beautiful feet to carry the good news of his presence everywhere we go to everyone we meet every single day. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.