"Beautiful Feet"

Romans 10:8-15

Rev. Everett L. Miller

This week I came across the story of a man named Charles Chu. He tells of how, “A few years ago I had a chance to become a hero, but it turned out to be an embarrassing moment. I was in China on a tour group. My tour bus was on the way to a scenic spot with another tour bus in front of us. It was snowing, and the road was muddy.

“Suddenly the bus ahead of us skidded off the road and tipped over on its side in a rice field. I quickly jumped off my tour bus, ran to the overturned bus, and jumped on top. Windows were shattered, and the people inside were obviously hurt. The emergency door was facing upward, so I grabbed the handle of the emergency door and pulled. The door did not open. I kept pulling harder, but it wouldn’t budge.

“By this time, others had come and were pulling people out through the windows, so I gave up on the door and joined them. After I moved away from the door, another man went over to the door. He turned the door handle, and the door easily opened.

I suddenly realized why the door did not open for me: I had been standing on the door as I tried to open it. With good intentions to save lives, I had become the biggest obstacle blocking the door of rescue.”

The Apostle Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7, which says, “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!’” “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,” Paul tells the Romans. The problem for Charles Chu, as he was standing on top of that overturned bus was that his feet weren’t beautiful at all; they were in the way. All he needed to do was to open the door so people could climb through but instead he was unintentionally keeping people from being rescued because he was standing on the door. He was his own worst enemy.

In this section of Romans, Paul is talking about the difference between trying to work for God’s love and trusting in God’s love, which is a free gift of grace. He tells the Christians in Rome that when they have faith in Jesus Christ then their heart will tell them this: “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming.” I want you to repeat after me:

The Word is Near Me.
It is in my mouth and in my heart.

That is as true of you and me as it was of those Christians in the early church.

The Romans seem to have had similar questions to what we have often asked; why are there so many people out there who don’t believe? Why are there so many people right here in our own neighborhood who aren’t a part of what is happening in this community of faith? Man, if they only knew what they were missing. And it is to thoughts similar to that last comment that Paul responds.

Paul asks some biting rhetorical questions, “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?” In other words, How are people supposed to know what they are missing if no one tells them?

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” I may sound funny but this morning I want us to ask ourselves this question, “How beautiful are my feet?”

Today is Evangelism Sunday in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Oh YUCK! Evangelism! Evangelism has become a loaded word for many Presbyterians and other mainline Christians. It has become something that we avoid and something of which we are afraid. The reason I think we are afraid of evangelism is because we only have one concept of what evangelism is and we don’t agree with it.

When Danielle used to work at the University of Texas I would meet her and a friend for lunch sometimes. We would walk through a portion of campus to get from their office to some college eateries. On many days that walk was like running the gauntlet through student groups camped out on corners and crosswalks where you couldn’t get away until the light changed. As you walked down the sidewalk they’d hand you flyers and tracts and every three feet or so someone would ask you, “Are you saved?” or “Do you know where you will spend eternity?” Hopefully not on this street corner, is the answer that came to my mind.

When many of us think of evangelism we picture people showing up on our doorsteps during dinner. We remember times when we felt pressured or offended by someone who didn’t know us at all, let alone did they have any business telling us we’re going to hell. We’ve seen the colorful little brochures that tell you the ABC’s of Salvation as though it was a simple recipe—just add water and poof your ticket is punched for heaven. For many of us these negative images are all we know of evangelism so we say, No way. This is not for me. And I would agree—No way. That is not for me either and if that is the only way to do evangelism then I don’t want anything to do with it.

We as Presbyterians need to view evangelism differently. Does that mean that we do not believe in personal salvation through Jesus Christ? No way. We very much believe as Paul says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” I believe very much in having a personal relationship with God. God is not just something out there that created the world, set down a few ground rules, then left. I trust God. I talk to God. I try my best to listen for God’s Word. Heck, I work for God. I think those of you who know me, know that I love Jesus and I try to share that love with others. I truly believe that Christ pulled me up out of a deep, deep hole and I thank God for that everyday. I believe all that and I am a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA). And I know a lot of other Presbyterians who believe the same thing, who recognize that they would be nothing without God and whose lives have been transformed by Jesus through a community of faith. And I know Presbyterians who believe in evangelism and I am one of them. But, I believe in a different kind of evangelism than what we often think of, an evangelism which I believe is more authentic and more loving. Maybe we shouldn’t even call it evangelism any more, simply because that word carries so much baggage with it for many of us. Maybe we should call it having an inviting faith. Or maybe we should call it having beautiful feet.

Here are some differences between what I am talking about and what we all want to avoid doing. As Presbyterians we don’t tend think of salvation as merely an instant in time—that moment when you kneeled down and said a sinners’ prayer and accepted Jesus into your heart. Now I do not mean to say that moments like that are not of great value. I had a moment like that myself, but it didn’t come while someone was accosting me on a street corner. It came several months after I became involved in a community of faith who embodied Christ’s love to me. I had to see it lived out first. I needed visual proof that it made a difference in the lives of real people. I needed to experience the love of Christians for me before I could ever believe that Jesus loves me. If Jesus does not make a difference in our own lives then we are not sharing the good news, we are just trying to recruit people to sit in the pews on Sundays.

As Presbyterians, most of us don’t think “Do you know where you are going to spend eternity?” is the appropriate question to ask people who are just trying to make it through the day. We believe that while we must respond to God’s grace through Jesus Christ, ultimately our salvation lies with God. Salvation isn’t just about where you are going to end up when you die. Salvation is also about how you are going to live your life, not as a better person or a moral person, but as what Paul calls “a new creation.” Salvation is about more than being rescued from hell in the hereafter. Salvation is about being rescued from selfishness and addictions and anger and sadness and hopelessness and loneliness. Salvation is about realizing that the moment you were saved was two thousand years ago on a cross just outside of Jerusalem. Salvation is about what John Calvin calls “being aroused to taste divine goodness” and “being wholly kindled to love God in return.”

Salvation isn’t just a punched ticket. Jesus doesn’t say “Give your life over to me this instant even though you have no idea what that means or what that might look like.” No, he says, “Come and See.” Jesus doesn’t ask, “Have you accepted me as your Lord and Savior?” Instead he says, “Follow me.” Salvation is a pilgrimage, a journey, which we must take as a child of God but that we also take together as a community built on faith in Jesus Christ and the love and grace that come to us through him. We know how the journey will end so we don’t have to be afraid. Salvation is both very personal and a path that we tread together. That is why before Christianity was ever called Christianity it was called The Way.

So what is evangelism for us Presbyterians who aren’t willing to wear sandwich boards reading, “THE END IS NEAR!” while walking up and down Main Street? Evangelism or, I’m sorry, having an inviting faith or having beautiful feet is inviting people to journey with this community of believers on The Way. Having beautiful feet is inviting people not “to get saved” but to experience salvation, to allow God to transform their lives the way that God has transformed ours. It is being so passionate about how God has, is, and will continue to work through this congregation that we have to tell others.

The pastor of Seacoast Church in South Carolina, which is one of the largest, fastest growing churches in the entire country says that 80% of people don’t come there for the first time because of all the TV commercials and billboards. They come because they were personally invited. 80%! Now of course they have everything known to man at Seacoast: a band, programs for all ages, tons of kids and young families. We don’t have that stuff. We cannot be them. We have to be us. But what does stay the same is that the only way new people will come here is for us to invite them, not just through the newspaper or door hangers but person to person.

So be refreshingly honest and candid with people. “No, we don’t have a praise band and we don’t have a huge youth group that takes ski trips every year and we don’t have a ton of kids filling our nursery. But you know what we do have? We have love and it is not just the love that we can muster up. It is the love that has been given by God, that has been poured out by Jesus Christ, that wells up in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you want bells and whistles go somewhere else but if you want authentic, life transforming love, if you want to hear the gospel and journey with this congregation in living it out, then we meet on Sundays at 10:30 am for worship. Give us four weeks in a row, and then make your decision.”

Do not be afraid to talk to people. Be honest with them. We have love to give in abundance. But it will take special people to be a part of this congregation, people who don’t have to walk into something that is already at its peak, but people who want to be a part of something new that is happening, or more accurately, something wonderful that is being renewed.

I, as your pastor, will do anything I can to help you. I will preach my heart out every Sunday. I will meet people who you want me to meet. I will be out in the community so people know who I am. I will do anything I can to provide you with tools to help people get to know what this congregation is all about. I will do anything I can, except I will not do it for you. I was not hired to do ministry for this congregation. I was hired to help this congregation do ministry. You have it in you. We can do everything in the world but unless those of us who worship here are passionate about our faith in Jesus Christ, passionately in love with the Kingdom of God then it won’t matter. I want you to repeat it after me again:

The Word is Near Me.
It is in my mouth and in my heart.

I have been with you in your living rooms, at your dinner tables, in your hospital rooms, at the funeral home. I have come to know you enough to know that your faith in Jesus Christ has gotten you through some deep, dark times. I know you well enough to know that this congregation has been there for you when you needed someone. I know you well enough to know that Jesus Christ does make a difference in your lives and that God has used this community of faith to help you be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I know all of that. But I’m not the one who really needs to know that; I work here. It is those on the outside of these doors who need to know that. “Man, if they only knew what they were missing.” How are people supposed to know what they are missing if no one tells them?

I am not asking any of you to start having tent revivals in your front yard. I’m not asking any of you to put bumper stickers on your cars saying, “Are you saved?” I am not asking any one to hand out tracts or brochures. I am not asking anyone to go door to door. I am not asking anyone to stand on a street corner. What I am asking each and every one of us to do is to invite people to experience the love of God through this community of faith, not so they will come to love this church but so that they might come to love God and love others through involvement in this church. If your only motivation for inviting others to First Presbyterian is so that First Presbyterian will be around in twenty years then you have the wrong motivation. Surviving is not our goal. Thriving is our goal. When it comes down to it I don’t care about making church members, Jesus never commanded that anyway. I care about making disciples. After all, if First Presbyterian is not reaching people for Christ then I hope it is not here in 20 years because it would be a stumbling block to those who are actually trying to impact people’s lives for Jesus Christ.

Charles Chu wanted people to come to safety. The people inside the bus wanted to get to safety. All Charles had to do was to open the door and help them through it. But, although he had good intentions, he was standing on the very door that led to their rescue, so they had to find another way. When we don’t share our faith then it is like we are standing on that door and people will find and already have found other ways to get to safety besides First Presbyterian. I came across a great quote this week. “Some of us are sitting on some fabulous churches and just expecting people to show up at the door.” I assure you. That is not going to happen.

Jesus transforms lives. Jesus has transformed many lives through this congregation. This is Good News. “Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,” Paul says. I don’t know about you but I want to have beautiful feet.

“For Kings and All in High Positions”
1 Timothy 2:1-7

Rev. Everett L. Miller

I once did some work for a little church that was having terrible difficulties; the members were divided from one another. Many people quit attending because they didn’t want to get caught up in the battle. One side would call a secret meeting without informing the other side. I’d be invited out for dinner thinking that I was going to get to know some of the parishioners but instead I was used as a sounding board for their hatred of the other side. It was, more than anything, a power struggle. Both sides knew they were right. Neither side would agree to sit down with the other like adults ought to, not to mention Christians.

One Sunday, while all this was going on but before I knew how ugly it could get, one of the elders volunteered to offer the prayer after the sermon. For the next five minutes she prayed, aloud and in front of everyone, that God would make the rest of the congregation stop mistreating her family and that they would come to realize that it was her side who was speaking the truth.

I’m not sure that I have ever felt that awkward during a prayer. I think everyone in the room knew that she wasn’t just praying to God; she was using the prayer as an opportunity to scold her opposition when they could not respond. I don’t think she is any worse than most of the others, though. I could just as easily see them doing the same thing; the division was ugly. I’d seen people get along better in a boxing ring than these people did in worship.

As I told you last week, 1 Timothy is a letter from the Apostle Paul to a young pastor in the city of Ephesus. After Paul has warned Timothy of false teachers and encouraged him through Paul’s own story of God’s grace and the strength which it gives, Paul begins to remind Timothy of what the community should be doing when they gather together. Interestingly enough he does not begin with a command to eat donuts and drink coffee, although I wish he did; that is much easier to do. No, he starts with prayer. At least when the congregation in Ephesus, who was having terrible difficulties at the time, met together the most important action they needed to be taking was to pray. He didn’t bother to go into too much detail of whether they should stand, sit, or kneel, eyes closed or eyes opened, out loud or to themselves. Those things may be important, but they are not the most important. The most important thing for the Ephesian Christians to be doing was to pray, however they did it.

That is why it is so important to stress Paul’s words, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.” Paul goes on to support this command by saying that God wants all to be saved and that Christ died as a ransom for all. If we truly believe these statements of God’s love and care, then the way we pray for others must be transformed from our selfish motives into legitimate love and concern for the other person, whether that person is your precious grandson or Osama Bin Laden.

Now if God cares enough about everyone that God wants them to be saved and if Christ cared enough about them that he died on the cross not just for you and me but for all, then what does that say about how we should think of other people, and consequently how we should pray for them? Of course, we all know that elder who prayed on that Sunday morning was wrong. But how often do we lift up other people in prayer, entreating God to change their hearts and minds so they will agree with us, not necessarily so they will follow God’s plan for their lives or so that God’s Kingdom might reign with their participation.

The prayers you pray will change you more than they will change anyone. Why do you think Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for them”? I would be wrong to think I am supposed to pray that my enemies would come around and adopt my point of view. Who says I’m right? I am to pray that they adopt Christ’s point of view, not Everett’s. I believe Jesus said this because he knew that it is much harder to keep someone as an enemy if you are lifting them up in prayer on a daily basis. The great church father John Chrysostom once wrote, “no one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.” It is with this quote and Paul’s instruction to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions” in mind that I turn our attention to the already tiresome Presidential election of 2008.

It may be a little early in the scheme of things to preach this sermon but as it seems South Carolina and Iowa and New Hampshire keep trying to draw this thing out, I figure today’s lectionary passage from 1 Timothy gives me the opportunity to inject God’s Word into the upcoming presidential election before it gets totally out of hand.

I made a decision when I first decided to become a pastor that I wasn’t going to align myself with either side, but instead I was going to do my best to vote on the basis of what I believe to be God’s platform of grace, love, peace, justice, equality, and dignity, which I most certainly interpret differently than many other people and that’s okay; this is America after all.
During the presidential campaign of 1932, Will Rogers wrote:

There should be a moratorium called on candidates’ speeches. They have both called each other everything in the world they can think of. From now on they are just talking themselves out of votes. The high office of President of the United States has degenerated into two ordinarily fine men being goaded on by their political leeches into saying things that if they were in their right minds they wouldn’t think of saying…. This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it.

In this article he addressed the candidates, Republican Herbert Hoover and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, “Both of you claim you like to fish, now instead of calling each other names till next Tuesday, why you can do everybody a big favor by going fishing, and you will be surprised but the old U.S. will keep right on running while you boys are sitting on the bank.”

Will Rogers wrote that article the week before the election. We’re not even in the year of the election yet and I already agree with his comments. I’m not going to get into who I think God wants to be the next president because I haven’t the slightest clue who that is. But I do think that 1 Timothy 2:1-4 has something to say about how we, as Christians, act during this whole election 2008 process which seems to have started sometime just after God said “Let there be light.”

I know this next statement may get me in trouble with some of you but so be it. Here it goes: political parties weren’t God’s idea, they were our idea so there is nothing more holy about being a Republican or a Democrat than there is in preferring Pepsi over Coke or vice versa. God’s Word is God’s Word independent of human institutions. One party may be able to say, “We are the party of Abraham Lincoln” while the other can say, “We are the party of FDR,” but neither can say, “We are the party of Jesus.” Heck, neither one can even say they are the party of George Washington, because he used his final address while in office to oppose the formation of any political parties at all.

So what might Paul’s words to Timothy and his congregation have to say about how we behave over the next 14 months? What am I getting at? Well we may not have kings anymore but we do have people who are in high positions and I would count anyone who has millions of supporters and who has the ability to influence their lives and who could possibly be President of the United States someday as someone in a high position. So we must pray for them, not just the ones we like but all of them, by name preferably. We do well to remember that Paul is saying this in a time when those in authority were most certainly not Christians and more than likely viewed Christians as atheists and traitors to the empire because of their refusal to participate in Roman civil religion. So he certainly does not mean praying for only those leaders with whom we agree.

The reason that Paul gives in making these prayers is “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” The first word, translated “quiet” has connotations of inward peace, the second, “peaceable,” of outward peace. “Godliness” can also be rendered as piety. It has to do with living the good Christian life, a life of faith and devotion to God. “Dignity” can also be given as proper conduct or respectability or respectfulness. There is a connection between our prayers for everyone, and even more specifically for those in positions of authority, and the state of our own lives.

There are two ways one contributes to the other. First, if we are people who truly lift up others, especially those in authority, whether we like them or not, then our prayer lives will lead to lives of inward and outward peace, of proper reverence for God, of respectability and respectfulness, and will finally be pleasing to God. Secondly, if we pray that those in authority would lead both their campaigns and eventually their potential office with wisdom, civility, cooperation, peace, integrity, and godliness then our government will be run better, people’s rights will be protected, and ultimately you and I, and hopefully everyone else, can lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

To truly pray for someone is to declare that person your equal before God. It is to assert that they, just like you and me, were created in the image of God. It is to celebrate the fact that God knew them before they were in the womb and that they were fearfully and wonderfully made. It is to remember what Paul said, that God wants all to be saved and Christ died for all. It is to strip away the titles of presidential candidate, of Republican, of Democrat, of Senator, of Governor, of Mayor and to lift them up to God as a fellow human being, as a creation of God’s own love and imagination. Then Hillary Clinton becomes my sister and Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, and Barak Obama are all my brothers. And this goes for our current President as well, whether you like him or not. And who knows, maybe it will open our minds so that we can actually listen to what they have to say instead of simply dismissing them because of what we think we know about them.

Please do not misinterpret what I am saying. I am not advocating the abandoning of political parties. I am simply trying to remind all members of political parties that it is they who are the members, not Jesus and not his Church. So over the next 14 months or so, remember what has been said this morning and every now and then pick up the remote and turn off CNN or MSNBC or CSPAN or Fox News and lift these people up before God’s throne of grace. Stand, sit, or kneel, open or close your eyes, say it out loud or in your own head, I don’t care but remember that before you are a Republican or a Democrat and even before you are an American you are a member of the human race and a disciple of Jesus Christ who died and rose just as much for Rudy Giuliani as he did for Hillary Clinton as he did for you and me. And then may supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

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