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Romans: "Beautiful Feet!"

Romans 10:5-15

August 7, 2005

 

1. We’re going to begin at the end of this section of Paul’s Letter to the Christians in Rome. If you have your Bibles, look at the 15th verse of Chapter 10. "How beautiful are the feet" he writes. How many of you think of your feet as beautiful? Boy, I don’t! My feet are only functional – they keep me from falling over; they are not beautiful. So what would make refer to feet as "beautiful"? We have to read on to the end of the sentence to find our answer – "the feet of those who bring good news" are the beautiful feet. But that only brings up another question. Why would Paul even say that? Why would he make that kind of statement?

2. Which brings us to the section that immediately precedes these words: Paul is doing what he has done before in this letter – gotten almost breathless as builds phrase upon phrase: "Scripture says ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ [That’s in Isaiah 28:16, which actually says "No one who trusts will worry/be agitated." – which is worth one entire sermon by itself!)] "No one who trusts will have to worry, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,’ [which is a quote from Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:32) describing "The Day of the Lord" – a day of darkness and gloom and blood and fire, topped off with the promise that ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be . . . and the word Joel spoke was shalom – everyone who turns away from their destructive habits and turns toward God – will be okay. Paul puts an "end of the world" spin on Joel’s words and uses his own word with a slightly different meaning – saved from danger or destruction – a little like the days of Noah, when Noah "called upon the name of the Lord, heard God’s word to build a boat and was saved from the destruction of that catastrophic flood.]

3. Back to Joel and Paul. You might wonder what difference that makes. Whether we believe Joel’s shalom/be okay or Paul’s saved from destruction, the point is the same–"God’s people have a happy surprise coming to them! And in his breathless way, Paul continues, "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 not heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?" That’s it! Paul identifies a big problem! Here is good news, but there still people who have not heard about it. And he cannot stand the thought of all that good news, and no one to deliver it!

4. Enter ‘beautiful feet’ stage left. It’s purely subjective, of course, but what could be more beautiful than the person who brings you good news? Nothing! I don’t believe there is anything more beautiful! If you were waiting for good news, as soon as it came you would want to drop to your knees and kiss those feet – although you might want to wash them first! "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

5. How many ways can good news be brought, whether it’s Joel’s good news of shalom or Paul’s good news of being saved from destruction at the "end of the world"? One in particular comes to my mind today. And that is the good news of food. We are gathering food today, as we do every first Sunday, to help bring shalom to those who lack it. And we do it because we have "called upon the name of the Lord" – we have looked to Jesus as our model for life, and he told us to share the extra we have with those who don’t have enough. So we come to his Table today, to eat the "supper" he shares with us. And we, in turn, share what we have with all of our brothers and sisters. Guess that makes our feet beautiful, too, huh?

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