I never feel more appreciative of my feet than the morning after I have been on them all day the day before. When I have danced like we did last evening at our Youth Prom Night, when I have stood on concrete all day in bare feet, when I hiked, when I wore my feet out (or so I think), I begin to appreciate those appendages at the end of my legs and I give thanks that I have them. Our feet are the foundation of our bodies.
On Easter Sunday, I shared a message about the surprise inside at “the moment for all ages”. You might remember from earlier this month. I used the geode to help me tell the story. The secret of a geode is that you either use a hammer to crack it open or swing and bang it on something very, very hard. I had practiced this, and it was the cornerstone of the Wiggly Giggly service; so, I felt great about doing it on Easter Sunday morning at both services. So, at the 8:30 service on Easter Sunday morning, I gathered my cinder block and got my hammer. I was ready with the sock and geode. I felt good about my message.
So, I put my cinder block up on the chancel, the stage, so that all of the congregation would be able to see. When I called the children up, I began telling the Easter story. At the right point in the story, I started to hit the hammer against my geode, tucked carefully in a sock, so the shards would not fly. I hit my geode and I hit my geode and I hit my geode. I kept hitting and I did not hear the sound that I was expecting to hear. There was no split in two. Nothing was happening. Perhaps, I was not hitting hard enough. I used more force and I worked harder. I tried and I tried, until finally it was time for the message to be finished and I had nothing new to show for it. The cinder block had broken in two, but the geode remained intact. I showed the children pieces of a different geode that I had opened previously and went on my way.
After the service, people offered me lots of advice. Maybe I had used the wrong side of the hammer; maybe the geode that I picked up was a dud. Maybe I had not gotten the angle quite right. When I ran into Steve, my husband, the engineer, I asked him what he thought. He wasn’t sure, until I happened to mention that I was on the chancel. Then, he said, you changed your foundation. You don’t have a strong enough foundation. When you are on the ground, you are hitting on a concrete foundation; it will break, no problem. When you are up on the stage, there is not enough foundation below you, so the cinder block took the hit. The foundation that you stand upon matters.
On that Easter morning as we communally found that the tomb was empty and Jesus had risen, like he said; I found myself in my own lesson about foundations. No matter how hard you work; no matter how much you want to stay that it does not matter – the foundation upon which you stand is paramount to your relationship with Christ. I did the geode experiment 3 times. Twice on the floor grounded by concrete and I each time easily opened the geode. The middle time that I sought to accommodate the view and did not understand the importance of foundation, I could not do it. Are not our lives like that?
When we are grounded solidly in faith and in the life and word of Jesus Christ, we are able to do abundantly. However, when we are trying to get by all on our own, we fail each and every time. I tried and I tried to crack that geode on the chancel. I used the same amount of force that I did when it was on the concrete floor, but I could not crack it! Without our feet firmly planted in the foundation of the good news of Jesus Christ, we find ourselves struggling each and every time. We find ourselves each time trying to figure what for others seems effortless.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesus, he introduces a metaphor for the people. He says that your foundation in Christ matter so deeply that it is as if you must get dressed for battle each and every day. A strong statement of what it is like to actively seek the kingdom of God. Paul goes onto write that you need to stand firm in the faith that you have learned and that you know. Keep the truth of God so near to you, that it enwraps you like belt. Wear your desire to like rightly and the fruits thereof as close as a breastplate. May your feet be swift and eager. The feet have a job to do in proclaiming peace. Bring your faith to deflect the jabs of those who would put you down. Wear your salvation and the word of God. The armor of God, the visible reminders and strength that our foundation does not come from ourselves, but for God. The strong foundation that allows us to serve God and others in this world.
Teresa of Avila , mystic of 16th century, was said to have written these words:
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Your strong foundation in Christ indeed informs you, but it also provides for others. In Christ, we are never just for ourselves, it is always a both/and in which God equips us so that we can serve.
Today as we baptize Ariana, we seek to give her a strong foundation. As a church family, we pray for her to know Christ in her little life through the stories and the actions of her family and her church family. We pray that the foundation that she will lean on throughout her life will have begun in the love that she saw in her parents and in her sister, Brielle. In her church family as she runs around the sanctuary and as she explored her world. We pray that she will be taught stories in Sunday School and experiences in Children’s worship. We pray that she will find a home in our youth group and grow up having many adults with whom she feels comfortable telling her moments of pride and disappointment.
So, how will you use your feet this week? Will you run and jump? Will you saunter and slide? Will you shuffle and tiptoe? How will your feet serve others? Christ has no body, but yours to serve the world. Jesus calls you! Jesus calls you to stand firm in your faith – plant your feet in the truth and not to get caught up in the potholes of life. When we plant our feet firmly on the strength of the good news, we will not be moved and even the most difficult tasks are simpler. Without such a strong foundation, we struggle mightily. Where you put your feet?
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
New Testament Lesson: Ephesians 6:13-20
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 52:6-9
Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,
together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.