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1/6/08 Rose Park

Happy are the Feet

Romans 10:5-21

Ephesians 3:1-12

OK…  I have a question that’s been bothering me for a while now.  You may think it’s a silly question, but it’s perplexed me for quite some time now.  The question…  What is it with teeth?!?  Let me explain.  Your Dentist would like to brush your teeth two if not three times a day or more.  He’d like to floss at least once a day.  And you don’t have to watch very much television to see an ad about how you could have whiter teeth in just two weeks!  And that’s just the beginning.  There are tongue scrapers, mouthwashes, and 6-month check-ups.  It took me five minutes or more the other day standing in front of the toothpaste at Meijer just to decide which kind we needed.  We seem to be a society obsessed with our mouths.  Can you imagine if we were to spend that much time and money working on every part of our body!?

But it’s not only the health and looks of our mouths that we’re obsessed with.  It’s also what comes out of our mouths, specifically I’m thinking of singing.  Apparently, as a nation, we’re even willing to make idols of those people who are able to sing well… at least that’s why I figure “American Idol” is such a success.  Not to mention all of the money we as Americans spend and CD’s and MP3’s every year.  We love a good song and a good singer, and we’re willing to pay a pretty penny to listen to someone who’s able to make beautiful music come out of their mouths.

But I was watching a video recently which opened my eyes to the apparent fact that this obsession with mouths and singing reaches beyond the human race.  I was watching “Happy Feet”, and penguins have this same fixation.  I could try to explain, but I think this video clip may do it better.

FIRST “HAPPY FEET” CLIP

Did you catch that?  In order to even be a real penguin, you have to have a heart song.  You have to sing.  You have to sing a heart song that’s special, unique to you!  But Mumble didn’t have a heart song.  He couldn’t sing a note.  He was different.  He was special and unique, but not the type of special and unique everyone expected.  He wasn’t the kind of special and unique that everyone wanted.  He was just different.  It was his feet, not his mouth, that sang his heart song.

And believe it or not, that brings us to our first passage for the evening – Romans 10:5-21

Romans 10:5-21 (NRSV)

⁵ Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.”  ⁶ But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’  ”  (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’  ”  (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).  ⁸ But what does it say?

“The word is near you,

on your lips and in your heart”

(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 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.  ¹⁰ For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.  ¹¹ The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”  ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.  ¹³ For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

¹⁴ 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?  ¹⁵ 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!”  ¹⁶ But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”  ¹⁷ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

I don’t think Paul had a problem with an obsession with the mouth, but he also realized there’s more than just the mouth we need to focus on.  The mouth is good and all.  It is with our mouths that we confess that Jesus is Lord, but the feet… it’s the feet that take us to the people who need to hear that Jesus is Lord.

We have to confess with our mouth, but no one would be able to confess with their mouth if it wasn’t for the fact someone first moved their feet.  It is only through confessing with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead that we will be saved, but no one can confess such things if someone’s feet didn’t first take them to bring the good news.

For the emperor penguins in “Happy Feet,” everyone was expected to have the gift of singing… every penguin was supposed to have a heart song.  But they didn’t know what to do when a penguin came along that didn’t have a heart song… worse than that… that didn’t have a voice that could sing a single note!

Watch this next scene as we see what happened at Mumble’s voice lesson.

SECOND “HAPPY FEET” CLIP

Mumble’s teacher was convinced that every penguin could sing!  It was part of being a penguin!  But mumble just couldn’t sing.  It’s not that he didn’t have feelings.  It’s not that his heart didn’t have something to say, but his heart spoke through his feet, not his mouth.  When his emotions welled up, his feet got to moving.  There was nothing he could do to keep his feet from moving.  Mumble may not have had a beautiful singing voice, but he definitely had beautiful feet.  He had happy feet.  Happy are the feet that bring good news!

I wonder if we in the church aren’t sometimes like those emperor penguins.  I wonder if we don’t have this box of what a church going Christian is supposed to do and look like, and when they don’t fit in that box, we try to get them some extra education, and if that extra education doesn’t work, we just don’t know what to do with them.  And much like the emperor penguins, I think we’re often obsessed by those people who have been given gifted mouths.  We like people who can speak.  We like people who can preach and teach.  We like people who can sing.  But people who have been gifted in other ways, we often have a difficult time utilizing… especially people who have been blessed by beautiful feet.

What do I mean?  Well, I don’t necessarily mean dancing (although there are people in the church who have been gifted with dancing), but I’m more thinking of those people may work more behind the scenes with their feet.  These may be people who have the gift of using their feet to bring them to people whom they might not normally interact with.  Maybe these are people who live next door, or whom they work beside, or whom they just bump into on the street.  These people may have been blessed with beautiful feet, but they may not have also been blessed with a beautiful voice.  The passage we read says, “Beautiful are the feet that bring good news.”  But maybe your feet are beautiful, but your voice isn’t.  What I mean is that maybe you’re good at going and talking to other people, but you’re not great at sharing your faith.  Maybe God just wants you to use your feet to bring people to someone else who has been gifted with a voice.  Maybe God blessed your feet so that you could invite someone to church.  Maybe God blessed your feet so that you can lift up someone who’s feeling down.  Maybe God blessed your feet so that you can bring someone to a blessed voice… a blessed voice that may not be embodied in the same person as blessed feet.

But in my experience, there are a lot of people who could have beautiful feet, but rather than using them to bring good news, they prefer to leave them planted at home.

Maybe our feet need a little inspiration, and that’s why I want to look at our second passage this evening: Ephesians 3:1-13.

Ephesians 3:1-13 (NRSV)

¹ This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— ² for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, ³ and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, ⁴ a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.  ⁵ In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: ⁶ that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

⁷ Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.  ⁸ Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, ⁹ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; ¹⁰ so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.  ¹¹ This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹² in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.  ¹³ I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.

We know that Paul had the gift of using his voice, but Paul also was a messenger with beautiful feet.  Paul was commissioned as a prisoner and servant for God.  And as a prisoner, he takes his marching orders from God – and God told him to go to the Gentiles.  He could have stayed at home with his marching orders, but he doesn’t.  Paul going to the Gentiles made him stick out about as much as Mumble stuck out amongst the flock, but he used his beautiful feet nonetheless.

How about you?  Have you been blessed with beautiful feet?  I don’t mean could you be a shoe model, or would you just as soon only take off your socks in a dark room.  What I mean is has God given you the gift of bringing good news to those who need to hear it.  Before you answer too quickly, let’s take a minute to consider whether we may have been blessed with beautiful feet.

I know most people say, no…  I could never go and talk to someone I don’t know…  I could never invite someone to church…  I could never…  But I think some, or maybe even most, people have been blessed with beautiful feet, but they’re afraid, or unwilling, to use them.

I think some people’s beautiful feet are stuck in a block of concrete… in a block of fear.  They can’t take that first step because they’re stuck right where they are.  Many Christians have bought in to the lie that they don’t have the right personality to go to other people… they don’t know what to say… they’re afraid of what might happen.  Fear has trapped their feet and they can’t bring anyone the good news.

I think other people’s beautiful feet are bound by shackles.  They’re so busy at home… at work… having fun, that they don’t have time to talk to someone outside of the people in their circle of friends.  Their feet our bound by obligations, and responsibilities (or just perceived obligations and responsibilities) that they don’t have a chance to use their beautiful feet to bring good news.  Or maybe these people are just content to remain on their couch.  They aren’t necessarily busy, but they don’t take the time to use their beautiful feet.  Their bound to their couch.

Then there may be still other people who are too busy getting a pedicure to actually use their beautiful feet.  These are people with good intentions.  They have intentions to use their beautiful feet to go to talk to someone.  They have all the knowledge they could ever need to make their feet as beautiful as they could possibly be.  But they never get around to actually acting on their intentions.  They know they have the gift of brining good news to others, but they’ve never opened the gift.

Then there may be other people who either are crippled or think their crippled.  By this I mean that they either think they don’t have feet.  They don’t think they could talk to someone.  Or maybe they actually don’t have feet.  Maybe this person would like to go to their neighbor… would like to go to up to a stranger… but they either don’t think they have the gift of going to that person, or they really don’t have the gift.  If you don’t have beautiful feet, but would like to have beautiful feet, I would encourage you to ask God for beautiful feet.  If Jesus could heal the leaper, he can give you beautiful feet… he may just be waiting for you to ask.

And finally, there may be people who wonder what difference it would really make.  Maybe these people went to one or two people in the past and it really didn’t change anything.  Maybe they were rejected by the people they went up to.  Maybe they were accepted for a time, but then after a while everything went back to the way they were before.  Maybe these people’s feet have been stepped on and wounded before, and it makes them afraid to go out and use them again.  To this person I would have a couple things to say.  First, past experience isn’t a necessary indicator of future success.  What I mean is that just because someone rejected the good news before, doesn’t mean that the next person will.  The next person may be waiting for someone like you to come and bring them the good news.  But second, if you start using your beautiful, happy feet, it may start a culture of people who want to use their beautiful, happy feet.

That was the case for Mumble.  Let’s take a look at the end of “Happy Feet.”

THIRD “HAPPY FEET” CLIP

It started with one, and now it’s thousands.  It took courage for Mumble to use his gift because his gift was different from everyone else’s.  Or at least that’s what he thought, but once he started using his happy feet, the whole flock soon discovered that they had happy feet too.

We may just be a few people in a small corner of Holland, Michigan, but if we start using our beautiful, happy feet to bring the good news to those who need so desperately to hear it… who knows… we may just start a dancing craze – and one day we’ll be dancing… not with penguins… but with people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.