Being Real in 2024: Beautiful feet

 Just a quick one here:  See this post:  http://partsofspeaking.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2024-02-01T11:17:00-05:00&max-results=7

I have one question for the kind of person who posted the screed that I used there: Do they tithe to groups that help the poor? (church or parachurch or non-religious?) Do they volunteer in ways that would alleviate poverty, illiteracy, job insecurity? How do they spend their time to make a difference?

Or do they just post self-righteous little memes that basically say, "I'll sit on my rear and let the government and someone else do it?" 

Ooh, that was tough. 

I am teaching on evangelism this Sunday. Yeah, me. The worst in the world. But I am going to use as a hook the Super Bowl Commercial about footwashing. I understand the backlash to that promo; it could have been better conceived on the visuals. And I don't know who it was targeted to:  Right-wingers (or their perception of right-wingers)?  Nonbelievers? It's a muddled message.

But I do have to wonder if some of the backlash was just a visceral, "I ain't touching anybody's feet, that's somebody else's job" attitude. Or, "I ain't having anything to do with that kind of person."

Well, wait till you have a close family member in hospice, you'll touch more than that, and get over it.  Or not. You'll pay someone to do it like we do today because we are too high and mighty to touch people. 

Jesus touched lepers, people, the most oppressed and ostracized people of His day. 

My lesson will be on feet.  We don't talk about feet. I have foot problems, so I think about my feet a lot.  They hurt.  People who talk about Jesus have "beautiful feet," the Bible says. 

And they are willing to wash feet. Jesus made it very clear that that level of service is a norm. I don't think he made it a church institution like the Lord's supper and baptism, but the spirit of footwashing is required.