1.
Moccasins, dancing slippers or
evening slippers, hip-waders for fishing or a good pair of
hunting boots, Nikes, crocs, thongs for the shower or beach,
wing tips, Oxfords, high heels, football cleats or biking shoes,
designer basketball shoes that flash, protective shoes you wear
after foot surgery – and, of course, sandals!
2.
On the Eve of Epiphany in Mexico,
children put their shoes outside their door for the Wise Men to
fill with gifts; also to provide hay to feed the camels.
3.
Not long ago when I complained about
the price of having my shoes half-soled, the cobbler inquire dof
me: “How much do you spend a year on clothes?” I replied, “Oh,
I don’t know, a couple of hundred dollars.” “And when was the
last time you bought a new pair of shoes?” he asked. “Three
years ago.”
a.
“Your feet are the foundation upon
which your body rests, the shoe repair man told me. Don’t you
think you should spend as much money taking care of your feet as
you do the rest of your body?”
b.
Shoe repair is becoming a lost art
today. We wear throw-aways and replace the old shoes rather than
repair them.
4.
You know, a shoe repair place is
something like a church: It is a place where you go to repair
souls and mend heels!
II.
John the Baptist announces the
message of salvation in the coming of his cousin Jesus and the
symbol John uses to illustrate this is a pair of sandals.
A.In each of
the 4 gospels John’s statement about baptism for the forgiveness
of sins and about Jesus’ greatness is tied to a comment about
his sandals.
1.
“I baptize you with water for
repentance, but one who is greater than I is coming after me; I
am not worthy to carry (or untie) his sandals. He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire.:
2.
John’s attire is that of a man off
the desert, not the city.
3.
But why would a man who was
comfortable wrapping himself in a camel skin and who dined on
locust feel embarassed or unworthy of carrying his cousin’s
sandals?
B.John must
realize that in the presence of Jesus he is face to face with
one who is holy.
1.
To take off my shoes is a sign of
respect and reverence, similar to what Moses was instructed to
do at the burning bush, for he was standing not only on holy
ground but in the presence of God.
a.
This is a custom still observed by
Muslims as they enter their mosque or place of worship.
2.
If I were appropriately dressed for
leading worship this morning, I would not wear even sandals, but
I would be barefoot! It is believed that the priests in Old
Testament times were barefoot, they removed their sandals before
entering the synagogue or temple.
a.
Even as late as 1764, Edward Gibbons
noticed that the friars who “were singing vespers in the temple
of Jupiter were barefoot.
3.
Shoes, or sandals, are to be taken off
because they are dirty - worldly. They are for used outside,
not within the house, not in the presence of what is holy.
4.
Surely, you must give careful thought to
which pair of shoes you are going to put on each day when you get
dressed.
a)
Most of remember Imelda Marcos of the
Philippines who had at least two pairs of shoes for every day of the
year!
5.
The attire on your feet sometimes says
something about who you are, what you do for a living, what you are
going to do that day.
a)
One Sunday in the church I served in the
small coastal town of Reedsport, Oregon, where everyone knows
everyone else, we asked 10 different church members to place a pair
of their shoes in the front of the sanctuary: a police chief, a
fisherman, a woman who was a principal, a doctor, and so one,
including a pair of the pastor’s shoes. We included two student.
Then picked 3 members at random and asked them to identify either
who wore each pair of shoes or what occupation the wearer had. It is
surprising how many of the shoes were recognized - including my own
light brown shoes.
C.To go without shoes
is a mark of poverty of classlessness in our world.
1.
And Jesus identified himself with the
poor.
a)
Though he was holy, he was “one who was
numbered with the transgressors” in the language of the Suffering
Servant of Isaiah.
2.
Here was one called to be Messiah and
Savior of the world, yet who understood his calling was in lowliness
and humility, “to serve and (to) save.”
3.
What better mark of being a servant than
a pair of ordinary sandals?
a)
To fetch one’s slippers or shoes is a
mark of demeaning status.
b)
In “My Fair Lady,” Eliza is told to
fetch the evening slippers of Professor Henry Higgens. Remember her
reaction?
c)
John felt himself unworthy to stoop and
untie Jesus’ sandals, or to carry them, for he was familiar with the
saying of the rabbis, that “Every work which a slave performs for
his lord, a disciple must do for his teacher except to (untie) his
shoe.”
4.
But this is precisely what your Lord
asks of you.
a)
He gave you the example as he took a
towel, knelt on the floor, removed the sandals of his disciples one
by one, and carefully washed their feet at the Last Supper.
b)What if you
were asked to do this instead of serving Communion one Sunday?
(1)
Would you stoop to such a task?
(2)
Would you lower yourself to this.
5.True greatness,
Jesus tells us, is to offer oneself in loving tasks, even to fetch
shoes like a slave or a dog.
a)
Dr. Charles Mayo, who with his brother
and father founded the world- famous Mayo Clinic, one day was
hosting a group of European medical experts at the clinic. They were
also guests in his home. In their own countries, it was the custom
of these gentlemen to place their shoes outside the bedroom doors
for a servant to polish. As Dr. Mayo was headed to bed, he noticed
shoes lined up outside the rooms of his honored guests, but it was
too late to wake up his household help. With a sigh he picked up all
of the shoes, hauled them to the kitchen and spent half of the night
polishing them. (P 11/92)
6.
In a stretch of 3 ½ years when I was in
New Mexico, I went through 3 back surgeries. After one of those
surgeries, I could not put on my shoes; I could not reach my feet.
So Elmer, a close friend, took me to a shoe store and I bought a
pair of sandals. He cut off the buckles and sewed on velcro. But I
still needed help to put on my sandals. I had to ask someone every
day to help me do that. For me this was one of many acts of serving
which caring people in that wonderful congregation did for me in
those 3 ½ years.
D.Thirdly, sandals in
the Bible are symbolic of a legal obligation.
1.
To confirm a contract, one would take
off his sandal and give it to the other.
2.
To divorce your wife, you would carry
her shoe and drop it outside the house.
3.
To take possession of a piece of
property, you would place you shoe on the land.
a)
In the story of Ruth, Boaz, as he
accepts the sandal of Naomi’s next of kin, tells the elders in
Bethlehem, “‘You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the
hand of Naomi all that belonged to (her kinsman.) Also Ruth the
Moabitess, I have bought to be my wife.’”
4.
To carry the sandal, or to wear the
sandal of someone else, of Christ himself, is to acknowledge that
you and I are his possession, people whom he has redeemed (Ruth
4:7-8)
5.
John could not carry the foot gear of
his cousin at the Jordan River, for he was to die before the mission
of Jesus was in full gear.
E.Additionally,
putting on your shoes is to get ready for a journey.
1.“The
boots of the tramping warriors...shall be burned as fuel for the
fire,” the prophecy in
Isaiah 9 reads.
2.
The instructions which the Lord God gave
Moses on the eve of the Passover before the children of Israel
departed Egypt included these words,
a)“‘In
this manner you shall eat (the flesh of the lambwith unleavened
bread and bitter herbs); your loins girded, your sandals on your
feet and your staff in your hand.’”
(Exodus 12:11)
3.
As followers of Jesus Christ, I should
think we would put on sandals, comfortable athletic shoes, or
marching boots, “The Shoes of the Fisherman,” if you will, as an
overt gesture that we accept the mission he has given us, we have
received our marching orders and are prepared to obey.
4.
I think of my nephew Jon, an Air Force
pilot: his flight boots are a critical piece of his equipment,
custom-made. No one else is able to wear his flight boots.
a)
No one else may wear the shoes God has
put before you, or carry your staff. Your journey, your mission,
like that of Jesus in his baptism, is uniquely your own.
5.Curiously, as Jesus
send out the 70 ahead of him, he gives them these marching orders:
“‘Carry no
purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road..whenever
you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets,
say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off
against you.’‘” (Luke
10:4, 7)
6.
By contrast, an old spiritual proclaims,
“All God’s children got shoes; When I get to heav’n, goin’ to put
on my shoes...goin’ to dance all over heav’n.”
III.
We must always resist the temptation to
renounce our mission, our journey– to put off our shoes or whatever
we have on our feet, to refuse to carry them, not out of a sense of
unworthiness, but unwillingness.
A.In the first 3
gospels, the temptation immediately follows this baptism.
1.
Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of
the world,
a)“‘these
I will give to you... if you will fall down and serve me.’”
2.
It is a most seductive temptation to
serve self rather that Christ,
a)
to seek glory and fame rather than lowly
servitude to the needy
b)
to seek after riches rather than to
embrace poverty,
c)
to fail to see that I am standing in the
presence of One who is holier than I.
B.These are the
reasons you or I often do not carry or wear the shoes of Christ’s
office.
1.
It is a heavy undertaking, of which you
and I like John the Baptist, are truly unworthy, and yet his
invitation is there just the same,
a)
to be baptized with the baptism with
which he has been baptized.
And let all of God’s
“childr’n who got shoes” say, “Amen!”