How Beautiful are the Feet
Romans 10:8-15
The start of our text today is what some theologians would call the ground work for a creed. A creed is a
statement of belief and faith. Paul is telling the Romans and us today in the first part of this passage of
the work of God on our behalf with the coming of Christ into our world. This faith which we claim is
not something that we gain because of something we have done; it is a gift of God through the life, death
and resurrection of Christ. Yes, we have to make a response of faith, but if God had not offered, there
would be nothing to respond to.
God is inviting us into a covenant relationship, God extends the offer of relationship and we pledge to
God that we will live the best life we can in the example of Christ.
Our scripture continues by telling us that the gospel is open to Jews and Gentiles, this is another way of
saying it is open to everyone. In Jewish circles if you are not a Jew you are considered a Gentile. So Paul
is saying that the Gospel is to be preached to everyone, no one is exempt, no one is outside of the reach
of God.
In our better moments, when we do think about sharing our faith, I wonder if we limit our thinking to
the people that we most interact with; those who are around us daily, who are the most like us, as the
ones we should be sharing our faith with. But this text from Romans says that the Gospel should be
shared with those like us and those unlike us.
Has there ever been a time in your life when you learned how to do something new? What was it? Who
taught you? Could you have taught yourself how to do it?
When I was in high school I learned to ride a horse. At first I started by riding western style, with the
great big saddle. Believe it or not there is a lot more to riding than it appears. After a few years of riding,
I decided I wanted to learn how to ride English style, with the much smaller saddle. With the help of a
friend I found an instructor to teach me the basics of riding English style. My first lesson was on a sunny
Friday morning. We saddled up the horse with the smaller seat and prepared to begin. The instructor tied
up the reigns so I could not reach them, hooked the horse up to a very long lead line, got him walking in
a circle with the large whip in her other hand and began describing for me the need to build up my thigh
muscles. I was just about getting the feel of the new saddle when she told me I would now need to rotate
my body 360 degrees around the saddle while the horse continued to walk. I thought she was joking, but
she clearly was not. As I attempted the first turn in the saddle, I slide off the side of the horse, who
thankfully stopped in his tracks. I got back up on the horse and was told to try again. After several failed
attempts, ok, lots of failed attempts, I finally made it 360 degrees around that saddle without falling off.
Thinking that was going to be the bulk my lesson that day, I was relieved to have finally mastered that
task, only to hear the instructor say, “Great, now we are going to do that at a trot.” It was a great exercise
in strengthening my thigh muscles, but I probably did not make a great choice in doing that the day
before I went to Cedar Point with the youth group. I could barely walk the next day. Yes, that painful
experience is burned in my memory banks forever!
I am not sure I would have mastered the art of English riding without the help of that instructor. While
that was hard and painful, it launched me into additional opportunities of learning to jump and Dressage.
There are many things involved with English riding that are not natural for our bodies, I had to be
trained and I had to train my muscles. And as you have already mentioned many of you have had
opportunities to learn new skills with the assistance of great teachers. We would not know how to do a
lot of things if we did not have people who would walk beside us and reveal to us the successful ways of
learning and growing.
Some of us could say the same thing about our faith development. While we all have the spark of God
within us that draws us to God, we discover as we read scripture and learn more about faith that living in
the example of Christ is not a simple thing in this world. Many of the things Christ focused on were not
the easy way and he often times turned the expectations upside down from the cultural way. We have
many temptations, distractions, obstacles, and cultural priorities which can easily get in the way of us
making faithful choices.
If we think about our faith journey, most of us would probably say that we did not stumble upon faith
on our own. We all have had people who shared God with us, strengthened our faith and redirected us
when we got off course. In fact, I bet we could name some of those people, so why don’t we throw out
some first names of people who have helped us in our faith journey…
Have you ever wondered where you might be if any of the people you named had not taken the time to
share their life and faith with you?
As someone who has been a Christian for a while and as a pastor
verses 14 and 15 have always been something that has spurred me on in sharing my faith.
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!”
“
These questions remind us and inform us that in order for other people to come to know the covenant
relationship with God, it means someone needs to share the good news. It means they need someone to
walk beside them through their joys and through their challenges. It means someone is there to
contemplate the bigness of God and try to discern answers to questions that fill our minds with wonder
and awe.
Recently, I heard a preacher talking about the saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi; “Go and preach
the gospel and if necessary, use words.” When I first heard this saying, I thought it was rather profound.
But the preacher was pushing against this saying and encouraging us to use our words to share the Good
News. Our actions are not enough to convey the importance of telling the story of Christ and the great
love of our God.
The last question is a call for us: How are they to proclaim the Good News of Christ unless they are
sent? Today, I am sending you, each of you, to go into the world to proclaim the way God has moved in
your life and given you value and meaning. The proclamation does not have to be prophetic; it simply
needs to be authentic.
We are models of faith and we are called to journey with others in faith. We will discover as we do this
there is benefit for them and us: they come to know faith in Christ and we expand our experience of
Christ through our encounter with them.
Let us pray and offer ourselves to the ways God is calling us to Go and Proclaim.