The feet that saved my life

"crap, I wore my wool socks, I'm going to make floaters from toe fuzz". Admit it, many  have had those thoughts.

Foot washing on  Maundy (meaning "commandment") Thursday is actually meant to put us in a deeply reflective place. It's not merely a "reenactment"  of what Jesus had done in (John 3:1-17 ) but is a continuation of his actions.  It is a humbling act for the one washing and the one being washed. It was never meant to be merely a a manual act. 

Jesus commanded us to wash so that we may never forget that we were made to be slaves to each other, just as He became a slave to us. There is no hierarchy in the Kingdom of God. Foot washing was done by the lowest of slaves and this was a role Jesus took upon himself.

He came not to be served, but to serve, 

and to offer up his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

There is a large dose of humility required on behalf of the one coming to be washed as well. We must completely surrender control, pride, and humility.  Our feet are not naturally pretty, and "biblical feet" were all the more dirty, callused, and pungent.

 When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, 

“Master, you shouldn’t be washing our feet like this!”

 

Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now why I am doing it; some day you will.”

“

No,” Peter protested, “you shall never wash my feet!”

“But if I don’t, you can’t be my partner,” Jesus replied.

Simon Peter exclaimed,

"Then wash my hands and head as well—not just my feet!”

John 13:6-9 

I washed biblical feet one year in Tanzania,  and it changed my life.

I was preaching I in a  village in Tanzania when the Holy Spirit asked me to call people up to wash their feet. This was odd. Visitors are held in great esteem in Africa whether they are from abroad or the next village over because travel is costly either in terms of hours (or days) spent walking or fuel spent driving. It shows great respect and honor to put ones' self out to visit. Mzugu's (rich white people) from overseas are placed even higher because they have spent lots of  money and time. It is a very big deal.

God spoke to them and me that day;

I had given the call to come forward and the first person to accept the offer was a old grandmother,  carrying her listless albino granddaughter.  (I found out after the service she had severe malaria)

My heart burst.

I had learned just the day before that some witchdoctors in the Eastern Regions had started a rumor that albinos were good luck. A horrific practice had begun where albinos were hunted down, killed, and dismembered for body parts to sell to the witchdoctor for charms.  The threat was so real that the government had issued a decree outlawing the practice. (I had actually read about this later in the paper while in Dar es Salaam).

I found myself, a visiting priest, washing the feet of a little girl who in the eyes of some of her own people was little more than a good-luck charm worth more dead and dismembered than alive and whole.  

Her feet were bare so I began to pour the water. They feet were gritty and covered in all the things that make up the ground in an agrarian society. The water turned instantly brown. As I rubbed her feet, the grit was harsh under my feet yet she didn't move or make a sound.

My heart burst again.

I was caught up in God and taught the deep truth:

In the eyes of God, this little one is of infinite worth to the Infinite One.
We are called to go, not weighing the cost. He traveled from Heaven and came to Earth.

We are called to get dirty, to use our hands, and to engage. Do not worry about what is on them. Sin is sin is sin.

We are called to willing lay aside our pride. Let others stare and tell us we are touching the filthy. He bore that same. We are called to remember that we are the least, the last, and the filthy.

We are called to remember that Christ washed us not only with water, 

but with his blood. 

In the Great Reversal, I was worth more to God alive than dead, 

so he choose death so I could have life. 

The feet of Jesus saved my life, because they walked to me.
We are called to walk as well. Get dirty beloved. Get dirty.

giving up meat for the Gospel

It took over an hour's drive to reach the church. We left well before the sunrise so that we could arrive before it became too hot under the African sun. Had we been driving in the States we would have not attempted to drive on the "road" without off-road suspension  and over sized tires. We passed by one motorcyclist who had to get his bike unstuck. The bishop was well used to navigating this terrain in his soccer-mom SUV.

In fact, his whole life, even his diet, was geared toward reaching his people. One day at lunch I noticed he only ate vegetables. When I asked him why he told me:

"As you've seen the people love thier Bishop very much, and we are a generous people, especially my tribe. When visitors come we always want to show our love and feed them! If I were to take what they offered everywhere I go I would be too fat to reach my people.  I walk, ride a bike or a motorcycle,  and I drive a car to get to them.  The only thing I don't do is fly the airplane! If I am out of shape I cannot walk  through the villages and talk to people about Jesus and encourage them in their walk with God. This is very important to me"

The size of the church didn't matter to the bishop. He had to get to them simply because they were fellow Christians and all of equal importance.

"In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, 

slave and free, male and female. 

Among us you are all equal. 

That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. 

                                                                                               Galatians 3:28

I was deeply challenged by this man of God, but I was even more challenged by the worshipers in this House of God. One side of their church had a gaping hole where the timbers had been eaten away by ants. This did not phase them from giving God the praise and glory.

We had come that day with the bishop to celebrate with them and to dedicate a new building project. They had been saving money to buy bricks so that the ants would not eat the church again. They were giving up from what little they had so that they would have a roof to sit under where they could praise God.

This is what Easter is all about: sacrificial love.

Most of us in North America will never appreciate or understand the sacrificial worship of most our sisters and brothers.  This is our loss.

The blind will see God

I found him sitting alone in the grass alone at the Anglican Church's school for the blind in Kitui, Kenya.

 

"Look, see him over there? He's handicapped too"

  

The girls were walking past him,  the ones with more sight leading the others. They laughed and smiled and acted like girls you would see in any mall . They would have gone shoe shopping if they had any money for shoes.

He sat there in the grass, little hands and arms pumping rhythmically, his head swaying back and forth.

The others lined up and began to sing for us so we were called over. I got up and began to walk over but glanced over my shoulder at the little boy I had been sitting with. The Holy Spirit called me back to him. So I went.

In addition to being a super-hero my wife is a Speech Language Pathologist. She has a specialty in deafness and a passion for the "complicated kids" with multiple issues. I've learned by watching and listening to her over the years how to connect with these kids. I sat next to him,  hunched over to his level and repeated his language back to him. He couldn't really speak but made these little grunting sounds so I returned.

And then the beautiful happened.

His broken eyes darted back and forth in his head, searching for the thing of something outside of himself who had heard his call and answered.  After repeating this for a minute or two He finally locked in on me. I placed a hand on his little shoulder and he turned his head, looking me directly in the eye and smiled.

He had found what he was looking for and so had I.

Whenever I travel to teach and preach anywhere I always pray "Lord, show me where you are".

  

He always honors this prayer.

I sat there grunting and talking, rubbing his shoulder when I became overwhelmed by the presence of God and moved to reach out.  Recalling from my wife that kids who suffer from dissociative disorders often wear weighted vests to help them feel connected to something other than themselves I placed by hand on his head and began to stroke his hair.

And then the beautiful happened again

He became stone-still.
he cocked his head, leaned toward me to within inches of my face, and grinned the most lovely grin I have ever seen. It was a wall of white, back-dropped with cocoa brown. It had the glow of the sunrise after a night of terror. It had the peace of a phone call from the doctor with negative results. It had the weightiness of arms in a sea of loneliness.

It was holy. 

I have only felt this sensation to this degree once before in my life. That was when I sat down upon a rock in Fort Collins, Colorado and prayed for the first time "Lord, I don't believe in you, but if you are real, please show me." I was bathed in the same light this day as I was then.

  

Beloved, this is our call; to bring Jesus Christ to those who sit in darkness. Although they cannot see him, they can feel his presence through our touch. It is simple formula.

  

1) Look for Him

2) Respond to Him

3) Sit with those to whom he sends you

4) Connect in their language

5) Love them for who they are

  

Why bother?

  

Because Jesus did the same for us. He came to those who could not see, the ones sitting on the side of the path, dirty and alone. He came down to our level, taking on the form of man and spoke our language.

He did stay with company of the choir of angels but chose to dwell with the the band of fools singing off key. Taking up a selfless life, he bore shame, beatings, mocking, and humiliation for us. 

Knowing that we were blind He did not withhold the antidote to our sickness, but freely gave his life in exchange for ours. Through his acts were shown what we could not see. We saw love on display.

And then the beautiful happened.

God gave him new life, and he shares this glory with us.

...the program had ended and I was called over. It was time to leave. I can't explain why but I can honestly say I found it easy to walk away from him. Perhaps because he will never leave me.
Perhaps because in the depths of my soul I know I will see him again.

But I am sure of one thing and it was confirmed when I was told that the little boys'  name was "Joseph"....I had seen the face of God.

Christian Marriage Swapping

"Ready, set..."
The hundreds of people crammed into the church who had gathered to witness this public event were dancing, shouting, and cheering joy and excitement. The couples participating were up front surrounded by friends and cameras. The choirs were singing, the music was pounding...

Then the bishop raised his hands to quite the chaos.... and shouted "Go!"

All eyes watched the spectacle as the wives started taking whatever they wanted. The cheers got louder and louder as they stripped the men of their goods. Hands flying everywhere! I had never seen such a event but there I was in the church in Kenya  in a town with no lights or running water and getting caught up in it all this madness.

It was Biblical.
It was beautiful.
It was hysterical,
 and it was not what I had expected.

Five couples had just committed to live their lives together. This was not a case of celebrated polygamy. Moments earlier these ten people had danced into the church with their wedding parties shouting and praising God. Choirs sang, paper flew, worship ascended, and Holiness came down.

They were not swapping partners, but they were giving up their lives to their spouses.

The Bishop  had just explained to the now married couples that they now  belonged to other. Everything they had was now the others property and could be taken freely. When had handed them their wedding licenses he jokingly referred to them as "ownership papers".  When he shouted "go" the wives started rummaging through their husbands pockets taking phones, wallets, watches, keys, whatever. It was so funny! Go, go" he shouted, take it, It's all yours!
then it was the husband's turn and they took purses, tissues, glasses, lipsticks... it was hysterical!

As I watched this the Holy Spirit spoke to me;
"this is what happens when you marry me. All I have is yours, and in turn, all you have,  is mine"

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
    the Lord bestows favor and honor.

 
No good thing does he withhold
    from those who walk uprightly.

                                                                    Psalm 84:11

God gives freely to those who have pledged their lives to him. We have no need to pick his pockets, we only have to ask! He gives us good things out of his storehouse. 

“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. 

This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. 

If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? I

f he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? 

As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. 

You’re at least decent to your own children. 

So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?"

                                                          Matthew 7:11
 

We, the gathered church, are his Bride.
The Bride Groom stands with open hands, not closed fists. The gifts of the Spirit are ours for the asking!
 
Why then church do we live such destitute, powerless lives?

Today, join in the marriage swap Kenyan Style! Ask for the good gifts and he will give them too you!
...but don't forget, he gets to pillage us too!

But here is the deal. All he wants is the things that keep us from joy. He takes our pain and gives us his healing. He takes our sorrow and gives us his joy. He takes our death and gives us his life.

"This is God’s Word on the subject: 

“...I'll take care of you as I promised and bring you back home.

 I know what I’m doing. 

I have it all planned out—

plans to take care of you, not abandon you, 

plans to give you the future you hope for."

                                                                                                         Jeremiah 24:11 

Have you accepted from God what he has freely offered? He freely gave his life up for you. Will you claim your dowry? Do not delay! The Wedding Feast has begun! Are you withholding from Him? He will not take from closed fists. Open your hands and empty them so that He might give you more than you can imagine.

It is Biblical.
It is beautiful.
It is hysterical,
 and it is more than can be  expected.

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” 

And let the one who hears say, “Come.”

 And let the one who is thirsty come; 

let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

                                                               Revelation 22:17