Get Your Feet Wet!

A Sermon Preached by

The Rev. Paul Debenport

November 15, 2009

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We’ve already heard our primary passage from Joshua 3: 7—10, so let us now hear

God’s good Word to us in some of the words and actions of Jesus in John 13: 3—17:

And during supper, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and

that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer

robe, and tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and began

to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel that was tied around him.

…

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, Jesus said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?  You call me Teacher and Lord—and

you are right, for that is what I am.  So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your

feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have set you an example, that

you also should do as I have done to you.  Very truly, I tell you, servants are not

greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent

them.  If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

The Word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God.

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          Joshua and God’s pilgrim people were almost there, but not quite.  They were in sight of the Promised Land, but there was a barrier, a danger, and a temptation to turn back.  First there was the river—the Jordan River, deep and dangerous.  And on the other side of that danger was the land promised by God, but it was also inhabited by warring Canaanites and others who made their future look dark.  But it wasn’t the first time God’s people had gathered at the river of grace, only to see it as a threat.  To Joshua and the elders it was—to quote Yogi Berra—“Déjà vu all over again.”

          The eldest remembered the first time, at the Red Sea.  God, through Moses, had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt.  Joyful to be free of slavery and heading to the Promised Land, with bands playing and spirits soaring, God’s people gladly followed, until…they faced the deep water, a barrier, a danger, a temptation.  But Moses said God said, “Get your feet wet!”  But God’s people threw fit, a tantrum, and blamed Moses, since they couldn’t quite blame God directly.  And with a remarkable piece of revisionist history, they declared, “Let’s go back to Egypt.  Slavery was great.  ‘There were no graves in Egypt.’”  But then Pharaoh’s army topped the hill, clearly after blood.  Caught between the rock and the watery place, suddenly “Getting our feet wet” seemed the lesser evil, so from fear more than faith, God’s people followed Moses into the muddy future.  And—amazing grace—God delivered them! 

          But much later, after decades of wilderness wandering, here they were again, poised at last to enter the Promised Land, but blocked by another river, the River Jordan at flood stage.  And again God called for an act of dedication, to “get their feet wet,” as a test of faith in the face of fear, although this time the greater fear was on the other side, the unknown, threatening future.  And again, God’s people grumbled and whined:  “The land’s not so bad this side of the river where it’s familiar and safe.  The water’s deep and scary; we’ll get in over our heads.  Let’s park here, Joshua, and worship deliverances past, our glory years, not what could be.”

          But Joshua said God said, “Get your feet wet first, then my deliverance will happen.”  They wanted assurances first, of course, but no bridges over troubled water dropped out of heaven to keep them high and dry.  Just the Ark of the Covenant, the ark of memory of promises and deliverances past, the memories of God’s faithfulness.  Grumbling and fearful still, still they took those first scary steps into the future with God, and God baptized their muddy feet and delivered them yet again.

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          Today is our Dedication Sunday.  Those of us who are able today will put one foot in front of another to place financial commitments toward the work of God’s people now in this part of Christ’s church in these baskets—which are sort of an Ark of the Covenant.  It is one way we’ll take our first step into the swirling waters of the future together.  Given the troubled economic waters that surround us now, there are few assurances for us as individuals or as a congregation.  Just God’s promises and God’s deliverances past; just our memories of God’s faithfulness in our lives and in our church’s life.  We’ll make these commitments so God will be glorified and God’s good Word proclaimed here week in and week out; that people—ourselves included, but not just us—will be ministered to in times of grief and joy, want and plenty, sickness and health.  We’ll do this trusting that God will bless our efforts and multiply our gifts toward God’s sure and certain will to healing and wholeness on earth as in heaven.  We’ll get our feet wet to make sure the children and youth are nurtured and supported, the sick and grieving comforted, and that the homeless are welcomed and the hungry fed for Christ’s sake and in Christ’s name.  With the commitments of our time and talents that must go hand and hand with our money, we’re committing ourselves to serious prayer, serious, grace-filled proclamation and serious, effective mission in a world still dark and murky and slippery.  In other words, we are re-dedicating ourselves to serious discipleship —to faith over fear.  All this and more, must begin with this first step, with “getting our feet wet,” or as Mike put it last week, with stepping out together in faith.

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          The Prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring good tidings, who publish peace, who publish salvation, who say to Zion, `Your God reigns.’”   “Not”—one commentator notes—“how beautiful are the followers’ lips which proclaim the good news, nor their eyes as they proclaim peace, nor even how beautiful are the good tidings themselves, but how beautiful are the feet, without which God’s good tidings would never have been proclaimed at all.” _{[Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p. 72]} 

          Perhaps Jesus was thinking of this passage that dark, fearful night when he stooped to wash the disciples feet—not their lips or hands or eyes, but their feet.  Perhaps he knew that like him that night, they too would have to take scary steps into the unknown future to proclaim and witness to his saving grace.  So he baptized their feet to prepare them to have the courage to follow in his footsteps.

          So through Joshua, Moses, Isaiah, and most of all, through Jesus, God is calling us yet again today to “get our feet wet” first; then to look expectantly for the saving presence of God who will not let us get in over our heads.  Who will be with us and for us until we all meet at the saving river of God’s eternal grace. 

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

At the Benediction:

This metaphor of “feet”—though inelegant—is used a lot in

scripture and elsewhere to communicate a basic, but critical truth. 

The wisdom of Proverbs proclaims:

“Take heed to the path of your feet,

then all your ways will be sure.

Do not swerve to the right or to the left. 

Turn your foot away from evil.”

The always quotable theologian Frederick Buechner put it this way:

“If you want to know who you really are,

as distinct from who you like to think you are,

keep an eye on where your feet take you.”

But one of my favorite quotes about “feet” comes from a runner in the 80’s

and is a most suitable prayer for ending this service of re-dedication:

“Feet, don’t fail us now!  Feet, don’t fail us now!

Go in peace and courage

In the name and with the blessing of

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Amen.