Feet...Don't Ask

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Feet...Don't Ask

· Sermon

This sermon was delivered on Sunday, July 13, 2003.

One of my favorite things about counseling CYF camp in KY is the curriculum and the keynotes. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the term, the keynote is a sermon of sorts that describes and sets-up the topic for the day. At CYF at WKDH, the keynotes are always given by Mike Gatton an amazing man who speaks amazing words. I wish I could accurately describe for you the effect Mike has on teenagers, but lets just say that any person who can speak for nearly an hour on any topic and keep the attention of 80 high schoolers must truly have a gift. Why do I bring this up? Because the powerful experience I had this summer was a direct result of a keynote given by Mike. I’d like to give him credit for shaping this sermon and my summer. Most importantly, I’d like to give Mike credit for shaping my faith—he spoke at camp when I was a high-schooler and since I came to know him, I have always credited him as one of my greatest inspirations.

The theme for cyf camp this summer was “The Jesus Files: Stories of Faith in Action.” We studied the “Flesh Files”—stories of the humanity of Jesus, the “miracle files”—stories of the miracles Jesus performed, the “rebel files”—stories of Jesus’ rebellion against human authority, the “foot files” stories of feet—people washing feet, Jesus washing feet, feet carrying the good news, and the “Who? You? Files” stories of Jesus calling us to live out God’s grace and share it with others. While all of these lessons were great, one particular experience sticks out in my head. One day, one message, one activity that will not go away. So, I’d like to share with you some of the “Foot Files”.

Feet. They are stinky, funny looking, and gross. They are feet. People try to disguise them, make them smell better, paint their toenails, buy nice shoes. There are countless infomercials about shoe inserts, arch supports, and foot care products. People spend millions of dollars a year on foot care products, but nothing can hide the fact that feet are feet. Some interesting facts about feet:
• ¼ of all bones in the body are in the feet
• The feet have 250,000 sweat glands that excrete about a cup of sweat a day.
• The average person will walk more than 80,000 miles in a life time.

Yet, they are still feet. Stinky, funny looking, gross feet.

In Jesus’ day, most people wore sandals or went barefoot. Just walking down the street left ones feet caked with crud. It was a customary sign of hospitatlity for a host to wash a guests feet, provide water for the guest to wash their own feet, or have a servant do the foot washing. In fact, feet were probably the only thing people in biblical times washed on a regular basis.

So, if feet are so icky, then why talk about them? Why preach about them? It’s simple, because the way Jesus treated the feet of his disciples gives us a model for how to live our lives as Christians. Jesus provides the ultimate example of servant leadership through the act of washing the feet of his disciples. He showed them and us what true leadership is.

It was Thursday at camp, the week was winding down and we were realizing that soon it would be time to say goodbye. Mike spent the keynote talking about feet. He talked about the types of footprints people leave on other peoples lives. You see, there are two types of footprints we leave when we cross paths with another person—greasy or graceful. Greasy footprints are the worst kind of marks to leave on someone’s life. They are the kind left when someone walks across your life and makes it worse than it was before. What’s worse is that those foot prints won’t fade for a long time—no matter how hard you try. It’s like the cat who walked across tar in your neighbor’s newly paved driveway and then decided to walk across your car. Those paw prints aren’t going anywhere for a while. The bully who tormented you in fourth grade probably left greasy footprints you are still trying to erase. A childhood trauma, your first broken heart, a bad marriage, an accident—all of these things leave greasy footprints. The good news is that there are graceful foot prints too. The kind that walk across your life and leave it better than it was before. The kind of encounter that changes you. These good foot prints are the ones that we see when we talk about people who inspire us. You see the tracks of grace someone leaves on your life when you emulate them and learn to leave the same kinds of prints in others lives. These are footprints of grace.

In our small group time following mike’s keynote, we did our usual activity—pits and peaks. This is an exercise where everyone says something bad—a pit, and something good—a peak. Our version of this activity always involved a specific question regarding the keynote—the pit for that day was someone who walked across your life and left greasy footprints and the peak was someone who left graceful footprints. As the stories flowed out of the group members, I realized that we were all in need of something to help cleanse our lives of those dirty footprints. We needed a symbol of the grace that comes when God walks with us. We needed something to help us remember the graceful footprints in our lives.

As our group gathered again that evening, my co-counselor Joe Seeley met the group and told them that our activity for the evening would be completed in silence. He asked them to remove their shoes, pray with him, and walk silently to the small group shelter. The group walked to the shelter and sat down. No one spoke. In the silence, I slowly began to walk to each person and wash their feet. It was amazing to me to watch their faces as I carefully cleaned and dried each foot. Some wouldn’t meet my gaze, others stared at me in shock, still others sat quietly holding back the obvious tears. When I was finished, I sat down. Still not speaking, 2 of the young women in our group got up walked over to me and washed my feet. I couldn’t hold back the tears or the emotions as I let someone else do for me what I had done for them. In that moment I understood what must have been going through the heads of the disciples that night when Jesus knelt before them. Suddenly I realized the significance of that moment in a way that had never been clear to me before.

I learned that day that it is far easier to wash someone else’s feet than to let someone wash yours. I learned that serving is easy, but being served is much harder. I learned that true leadership is learning to let others take care of you the same way that you are taking care of them. I learned that grace comes in all forms, and that having someone wash your feet really can change your life. But enough about me—10 other people were changed that day too.

I want to share with you some of the things they wrote regarding our experience:

“This is what Jesus did for his disciples. Becca did the same thing—washing our feet. Jesus was speaking to us through her.”

“I once was dirty, then cleansed by God’s messenger, I saw a new light”

“The clouds have gone, and the light is now shining.”

“It felt so strange to be able to accept help, even though I wanted nothing more than to pull my feet away.”

“I can only imagine what the disciples must have felt that night. I have seen Jesus through Becca and I almost couldn’t watch. How could they?”

I realize now that words are a pitiful way to try to describe to you what happened that day. But somehow in that moment, we were all changed. Realizing the vulnerability of one another somehow made us all stronger. This bond became all the clearer the next night as we said goodbye. We did an affirmation circle—where one person gets in the middle and everyone else says good things about them. Usually this activity takes about an hour and usually the comments are things like “you have a nice smile” or “you are a really good friend”—they are surface comments that just barely affirm the person. This was not the case for our group. 2 hours and 45 minutes it took—as each person truly affirmed the life of the person in the middle. Every single person cried that night—everyone was touched by our experiences together. Our strength as a group was evident that night, as we realized how much we were truly changed by our experiences.

I truly believe that the lesson my small group learned is what Jesus was trying to teach the disciples the night he washed their feet—he was trying to teach them the importance of learning to be served by others. He wanted them to understand how to be vulnerable and through that vulnerability comes a greater strength. He wanted to teach them the power of serving others and the grace of accepting help. This scripture is a common one—often discussed on Maundy Thursday,but rarely truly enacted. But when you think about how truly the disciples must have felt that night, and who it was that was doing the washing, then it becomes all the more clear that Jesus was teaching us all a valuable lesson. At the end of the story, Jesus asks the disciples a question. Do you understand what I have done for you? Do what I have done.” Jesus was not telling the disciples to go out and physically wash the feet of everyone in town. Rather, Jesus was telling the disciples that if they wanted to truly be leaders—to truly make a difference in their world—that they had to learn to serve others and allow others to serve them. Jesus was teaching them how to leave graceful footprints on the lives of those who would hear the message. In that moment in the upper room, Jesus taught them and us how to truly be disciples.

So, lets go. Lets go out into the world and lead by example. Showing the love of Christ through service to others and through accepting with grace the service people offer us. Let us walk carefully together being sure to always leave graceful footprints on every life we touch. Lets hold hands, share hugs, and show Gods love. Let our feet be the ones that carry the good news. How beautiful it will be. How beautiful indeed.