Those Beautiful Feet - Isaiah 52: 7 (Farewell sermon)

“Those Beautiful Feet”

Isaiah 52:7

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. The text is Isaiah 52: 7: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Laura has been updating all our insurance information. Addresses, policy changes, increase and decrease coverage, price adjustments…it’s a lot. DO you know that you can insure almost anything? Jewelry, firearms, electronics – the list is seemingly endless. The only question is if you are willing to pay for it, and how much to pay. I was half curious if they were going to offer a policy to insure the buttons on my shirt. Do you know some actors insure their body, beyond basic health insurance? Julie Andrews was in the news recently when she sued a doctor, accusing him for ruining her voice. Then I got to thinking… I wonder, if you and I could afford such a luxury, what part of the body would you or I insure?  A surgeon or a painter might insure the hands; a farmer or a mechanic might insure the knees; a physicist or a chemist might insure the brain; a wine or food connoisseur might insure the tongue.  But how many of us would insure our…feet.  Yes, the feet.  You know:  Those foul-smelling, hammer-toed, callous-cracked, bunioned, corned, and flat-arched appendages carry us from place to place with little or no credit.  They look funny, smell worse, and generally go unnoticed until they hurt or something gets dropped upon them.  

I wonder how tired Isaiah’s feet were as he walked among his fellow Israelites, preaching to them, proclaiming God’s message to them as they were exiled among the Babylonians.  Isaiah’s message was, at times, difficult to hear.  He told Israel that their sins against God resulted in their capture, in the slaughter of their fellow Israelites, and the destruction of Jerusalem.  How Isaiah’s feet must have ached, along with his heart, as he called Israel to repentance for their sins. 

In the text that I have chosen for this morning, Isaiah reminds Israel of God’s rich mercy and His promise that people of Israel will not be destroyed.  They will return to Jerusalem, to the Promised Land, and again make it their home.  Isaiah writes, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’.” (Is. 52:7).   

In the days before cell phones and two-way radios, armies would employ men to serve as runners to carry important messages quickly from one unit to another. Even though the runner’s feet are sore, sweaty, dirty, and possibly even cut and bleeding, his feet are beautiful because of the important message the runner was carrying. Isaiah shares the image of such feet running ahead of the returning Israelites to prepare those who were left in Jerusalem for their arrival.  The message of the runners is that of peace, good things, and salvation.  The conclusion of the message announces the reason for the good news.  The messenger declares to those who receive him, “Your God reigns!” God was not abandoning them after all!  The God of Israel would re-establish His reign, delivering His people from their enemies, returning them to their homeland.  The news was so great and so exciting that Isaiah personified the very ruins of Jerusalem as rising up to join in the joyful songs and celebrations as the Children of Israel returned home.  Those beautiful feet carry the Good News that God would deliver Israel from Babylon, destroying her as Babylon had once destroyed Israel.

How beautiful are the feet of him who brings glad tidings of good news.  In the immediate context, the prophet Isaiah was speaking about those feet that would carry this wonderful good news to the Israelites in Babylon, but as a prophet of God, Isaiah was also foreshadowing another set of feet that would walk the face of the earth and proclaim good news, peace, good tidings and salvation: the feet of Jesus Christ.  In His human nature, His feet were just like yours, and those two peripatetic feet carried Jesus many, many miles during the 30 or so years of His life and ministry.  I imagine he stubbed a toe, but without cussing. I imagine he cut his heel on a sharp rock, but without condemning the rock to the pits of hell. Unlike our human feet, which sometimes will literally turn us down the path of unrighteousness, Christ’s feet never once fell into sin.  Unlike those children of Israel who heard Isaiah’s message, or unlike you and I who are here today, Christ was never corrupted by sin: not even his little toes.  Christ, the sinless Son of God, walked the perfect path of righteousness that the Law of God demanded.

Although His feet may have fatigued, Jesus never tired of walking in the path of the will of God for us.  He never stumbled on the way to the cross.  There, spiked to the wooden beam, Christ’s feet bled for you and for me.  As Christ breathed His last, and as the weight of the lifeless body settled onto the pierced feet, the soldier who stood at the foot of the cross declared, “Truly, this Man was the Son of God.”

Thanks be to God, those holy and pierced feet of Jesus did not remain in the grave for long.  Three days later, the feet of Peter and John raced away from the empty grave with the wonderful news that Jesus wasn’t there!  He was alive!  Later, when Mary saw Jesus in the garden, although she couldn’t touch Him, she fell at His resurrected feet, rejoicing.  Even later that night, Jesus stood in front of the disciples and offered as proof of His resurrection His nail-marked hands and feet.  Oh, what beautiful feet of Jesus!  Because He was standing there – alive, victorious from the grace – He was sharing with them the good news that peace was made between God and man.  Christ earned salvation for us and He now reigns at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

How beautiful are the feet of him who brings glad tidings of good news.  For the last eight years and two weeks, I’ve had the privilege of standing – and sometimes sitting – in this pulpit as your pastor. Some things can be measured objectively. By God’s grace, in that time, 25 people were baptized – including 6 in the last month alone. Most were babies and infants, but a few older children and even a couple of adults were made children of God by water and Word. Twenty children and 18 adults were confirmed in their Baptismal faith, while thirty other adults affirmed their Christian faith to become members of Zion. Twelve couples were united in holy marriage as husband and wife. And, twenty-four saints of God were laid to rest – interestingly, the first funeral I had here was Gilbert Krueger and the last was his wife, Doris. Ballpark, together, we made it through almost 500 sermons, weekly and bi-weekly Bible classes. I have no idea how many steps I did through area hospitals and nursing homes and in your own homes while caring for hurting bodies, souls and troubled consciences. I will never forget my brief and un-illustrious career as a televangelist for 11 weeks while you sat at home, “social distancing.”

Other things are more subjective, harder to measure. I’ve heard many kind things from you about my service here. Thank you, but truly, I believe all of it was God at work in the words spoken, in the messages preached, in the conversations that were had, and in the time spent together. When I arrived, Pastor Judge told me you were if not the most then one of the most loving and caring congregations he had ever seen. I agree. You graciously accepted me and my family. You put up with my quirks, laughed at my jokes, supported me when I was broken and hurting, and through it all demonstrated grace. My first Sunday here, I congratulated you on electing a sinner to be your pastor. I know I sinned against you in things I did and in things I did not do, in some thoughts, in some words, and in some actions. I am sorry for those things. If I have caused offense, please speak with me that I can ask for your mercy and acknowledge what I have done, so that we might part as friends, not as conflicted people.

I’ve said this multiple times, but perhaps not publicly. I want you to know, the very fact that you elected to call me to be your pastor was God’s mercy in action. Without hyperbole, this congregation saved my ministry. It re-energized me. You rejuvenated me. You refilled my heart with joy, my spirit with excitement, and my work with vigor. I have no doubt God led me here in the summer of 2017. And, by the same token, I have no doubt that God is leading me, again, guiding my feet in all of their questionable beauty to Enid, Oklahoma, and St. Paul Lutheran Church and School.

DO me a favor… Move your feet around a bit. Stomp them once or twice. Wiggle your toes. Shuffle them in your pew. Those feet, whether adorned by Prada pumps or Louchesse boots or Reebok tennis shoes, those feet are beautiful. You see, what makes the feet of a child of God beautiful isn’t their intrinsic looks. My dad had feet that would gag a podiatrist and make their office manager clap their hands in glee. His feet were beautiful because of the Good News he carried. My feet, with their absent toes and high arches and thick callouses and aching soles are beautiful because of the Gospel of Jesus. That’s the point: Jesus makes us beautiful. Jesus makes us holy – even our feet. Jesus redeems even those two troublesome appendages that let us boogie and make us stumble. Jesus makes your feet and my feet glorious.

So, what are you going to do with your feet? In a little bit, your feet will take you from this holy hill back to your homes. From there, you – Zion congregation will disperse across the Crossroads. But those feet are not idle. God uses your feet to put you in the path of other feet that also need to hear of Jesus. Let your feet tell the story. Or, at least, let your feet carry you to places where you tell the story of Jesus. Be bold. Speak of Jesus. Tell the Good News that Jesus’ feet carried Him to the cross, that His feet paid the price for the wandering feet of the world, that His nail-marked feet rose on the third day, and you now carry the message of those feet. You carry that message. Don’t wait for your next pastor. Get busy. There’s a neighborhood across the street that needs to hear it. There are people missing from here today who need to hear it. There are people you work with who need to know of Jesus. Remember when the Yellow Pages used the slogan, “Let your fingers do the walking?” Let your beautiful feet do the talking. Let them tell of Jesus and how He makes your feet beautiful.

 

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good news. Don’t give up meeting together. Be here next Sunday and the Sunday after that. I’ll tell you, the next pastor, your vacancy pastor won’t be me. His mannerisms will be different, his way of speaking different, his way of caring for you in his preaching and his visiting will be different. His servant leadership will be different, with different skills, talents and abilities. I guarantee his feet will be different. Those are all good things. Please don’t compare him to me. Instead, rejoice for the feet God gave him and the message he brings to Zion. Like me, he will stand in the stead of Christ and speak glad tidings to you. Bless his feet with prayers, with thanksgiving, with eager ears, with open hearts, thanking God for the message those feet proclaim. Walk together – do you know that’s what “Synod” means? Walk alongside each other, carrying each others burdens. When one is weak, the strong lifts them up. Don’t worry, you’ll have your own turn to be weak, and then someone can help you.

In the summer of 1991, our pastor at Zion, Walburg, Lowell Rossow, left, taking a call to Joplin, MO. I remember the next Sunday, sitting on my bed. Dad fussed at me that I was moving slow and I would be late for church. I told Dad I wasn’t going to go. “Why not,” he sharply asked. Young romantic that I was, even then, I answered, “Because my pastor is gone.” Dad sat next to me on my bed. He said two things. First, he asked if I thought Pastor Rossow would like me skipping church because he wasn’t there. I shook my head. Second, Dad said, “Besides, who is there today?” I don’t remember my answer to that question, but I remember Dad’s answer: “Jesus is there, and He wants you to be there, regardless the man who stands in the pulpit.”

Don’t stop coming to Zion. Let your feet continue to return you to this holy hill. Continue gathering together. This is the body of Christ, hammer toes, bunions, high arches, flat feet, arthritic ankles and ingrown toenails and all. The body of Christ gathers where the head is – where Christ Himself is present. He is here in Word and Sacrament. He is here among the body and He will continue to do so.

Last thing… Goodbyes are hard. I had someone tell me the other day, “I don’t do goodbyes.”  Do you know the etymology of “Goodbye?” It comes out of the Old English phrase, “God be with you.” It’s a blessing, of sorts, praying the presence of God goes with each of you as you part company. That’s the beauty of a goodbye – it invokes the name and promise of God that even if you don’t meet again this side of heaven, you will meet again in the resurrection of all flesh.

So, there will be lots of Goodbyes today. That’s OK. And if you don’t want to say it, that’s ok too because the prayer is the same: God be with you until we meet again.

Christ is Ascended! He is Ascended, Indeed! Alleluia! - Luke 24: 44-53

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Christ is ascended!
He is ascended, indeed! Alleluia!

This past Thursday, the Church celebrated the ascension of Jesus. If you missed it or forgot, don’t feel bad. It’s easy to miss. It lands on a Thursday. We didn’t gather here for worship. Ascension doesn’t have the romance of Christmas or the punch of Easter. Yet and still, as an historical event, it happened. The Holy Spirit saw fit that St. Luke recorded it twice, in Luke 24 and Acts 1. The early church agreed, making sure that it was confessed in not only the Apostle’s Creed, but the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds as well. So, hear again the Ascension Gospel from Luke 24:

“Then Jesus said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for[a] the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” 50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke 24: 44-53)

You’ve probably seen the various artwork of Jesus’ ascension, whether it is one of the classic works by Dali, Rembrandt, or Tissot, or a simpler picture you might remember from your Sunday school lesson. Universally, the pictures shows Him with His hands raised in blessing. That’s all we need on this commemoration of the ascension is to look at the hands of Jesus, raised in blessing, and we can read in them the meaning and blessing of Jesus.

These are the hands, born in infant frailty, that held close to His mother, Mary, while He nursed. These hands learned to hold a pencil and write the words of Scripture that He knew by heart when He challenged the teachers of the Law as a 12 year old. These hands held a hammer or saw or chisel while he worked with Joseph. These are hands that touched the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, and the tongue of the mute. These warm hands took hold of the pale, cold, dead hands of a little girl and restored life to the girl and then delivered the girl to her parents waiting outside.

Read through the Gospels and pay attention to what Jesus hands did – stretching out, touching, grasping – always with personal love, personal contact, and personal attention to the person standing, sitting, lying in front of him. Those hands weren’t afraid to get dirty, to be contaminated, or to touch the unclean. The Savior of the World came to be with sinners, to rescue sinners, and to destroy sin. One by one, Jesus reached into the world of death and destruction, chaos and darkness; one by one, Jesus touched sinners; one by one, Jesus healed – never en masse, in bulk, or by volume.

These are hands that gathered the little children unto Himself, holding, hugging and kissing them. These are hands that reached out, just in time, to snag a doubting and sinking Simon Peter. Those are the hands that reached out to prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners with compassion that was absent in other hands. With these hands, he broke bread and raised the cup and said, “take and eat; take and drink.” These hands were held out for Thomas to see, to touch, and to believe.

Greatest of all, these hands were pinned to the cross by nails. The hands that had done so much for others did nothing to save Himself. Instead, those nails assured Jesus did everything to save others. Those scars, presented to Thomas the week after Easter, those hands, raised in blessing, those hands tell us what we need to know of the blessing of Jesus on Ascension day.

What does that mean for us this day? Those scars tell us that Jesus took your sins, your punishment upon Himself and went to the cross for you. Those scars proclaim Jesus was forsaken – alone and abandoned by His disciples, His friends, and His Father in heaven – so you would not be forsaken by God but be forgiven. Those scars declare that because Jesus died for you and rose for you, and because you are baptized into His death and resurrection, you will be made alive as children of God.

Because Jesus hands were once stretched out on the cross, in His ascension, they are stretched out in blessing upon His disciples. The one who ascends and blesses carries the marks of the cross on his hands. No cross, no blessing. Cross, blessing. That is why when I speak the blessing to you, it is done so with the sign of the cross, whether it’s on your forehead or in the air. That is what Jesus means to you at the Ascension this day: life and blessing won and given.

Now… do not ever think that Jesus ascension means He has gone away. Do not think of the cloud that hid Jesus’ departure as an escalator that took Jesus “into heaven,” as if it is a location far, far away. Before Jesus ascended, He promised that He is with us wherever we might be. Could you imagine the chaos had He not ascended; had He remained physically located only in one place at one time? You can hear it, can’t you: “I’ve got Jesus, yes I do. I’ve got Jesus. Why not you?” No…because Jesus has ascended, He is able to be all places at all times. He is with us, here, right now…and with the saints of God in Walburg…and in Indiana…and Boston…and Taiwan…and Pakistan…and St. Petersburg…and anywhere else on earth (or outer space, for that matter) His children gather. He promised it. How He does it, we cannot fully fathom. And we don’t need to. He promised it, and that is enough.

With His hands held high, Jesus ascends into the cloud. This was a special cloud, I think – one which had appeared before in Scripture. We saw the cloud at the Transfiguration. We saw it in the Old Testament when the cloud was above the two angels on the ark of the covenant and when the people of God journeyed by day through the wilderness to the promised land. The cloud was the guarantee of the presence of God. So, at the Ascension, the cloud marks Jesus physically leaving behind the world of man and returning to the realm of God. Jesus is no longer with us in our ordinary way of thinking. Jesus is now present and does things in God’s way, also no longer constrained to earthly ways of doing things. He is still a man, but a resurrected, glorified and ascended man who is also fully God.  

Jesus has not gone away. He is with us now, more powerfully than ever before. He is with us more powerfully than when the disciples saw him. He is among us. And we live, then, in the presence of our ascended and ever-present Lord. He is with us. We cannot be destroyed. Easter lives in us. Christ is risen! We are risen! He paves the way to victory for us. He leads us, giving us strength and courage for each day – whatever it might bring us – and leaving us anticipating, yearning for, looking forward to the consummation of the promise of His bodily return, soon, as well.

We are here today as the disciples were – with great joy. We’re not wringing our hands in fear – Christ is with us. We’re not tapping our fingers in worry or hurry – Christ is here. We are here with hands that make the sign of the cross, reminding us that we are baptized into Christ. We are here with that are open, ready to receive the gifts of God in His Supper. Our hands are so full of the blessings of God, if we stopped to ponder them all – if we used our hands to write them all down – we would be stunned at the good and gracious gifts God gives to us. Our hands pick up the food God gives to nourish us. Our hands open the door to our homes that give us shelter. Our hands button shirts, zip up pants, and tie shoes to clothe us. Our hands put on glasses so we can see, insert hearing aids so we can hear, open medication bottles to keep our bodies healthy and strong. Our hands are sore from working outside yesterday in the yard, our hands still sting from applauding a grandson who hit his first little-league home run. Our hands…gifts from God.

And, our Ascended Lord uses your hands, filled with His blessings, to leave this Holy House and share those blessings with others. You serve others as the hands of Christ. That means that when you reach out to shake a hurting hand, you show them Christs hands of compassion. When you change a stinky diaper, you do it with the servant-hands of Christ. When you call your parents or your kids, you dial with the hands of Christ who spoke to his mother with love.  When you buy a bottle of water from the little league team, you pay for it with the hands of Christ that summoned children to come to him. When you buy a sandwich for a man on the street-corner, your hands echo Jesus’ hands as He once fed 5000. When you fold your hands and pray with your neighbor who struggles from depression, your hands imitate Jesus’ hands who prayed for the women of Jerusalem. When you reach out and touch the sick or the dying, you share the touch of Jesus who once raised the dead. When you hold the hand of a child who has been bullied, you share the gentle touch of the Shepherd. When you touch your spouse’s cheek, you touch with the hands of the One who is Love.  In those moments, the love of Christ is present in you and through you. He has ascended, but He is still very much here.

And soon, He will return. Watch. Wait. Anticipate.

Amen.