Beautiful Feet

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How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52: 7-10)
The window this morning opens on a green, climbing vista rising to the bare peak that is Volcan Baru, the highest point in Panama and the only place on earth from which one can see both the Atlantic (Caribbean) and Pacific Oceans at the same time. If the Lord were to “lay bare his holy arm” at the apex of Volcan Baru, nations from Colombia to Mexico, from Cuba to Venezuela might be able to see it.

You can’t see Volcan Baru from Rosthern, even on a clear day. And if the Lord were to flex his powerful arm from the peak of Stony Knoll, I doubt that any other nation beside Tiefengrund/Laird would see it.

We read the songs of deliverance from Isaiah at Christmas . . . a lot. Short of asserting that Isaiah visualized the coming of Jesus as the “baring of God’s holy arm in the sight of all nations,” it at least seems that the prophetic pastor is doing God’s work by painting a future of hope and confidence to people whose foremost image is the lost “ruins of Jerusalem.”

In Jesus, we have caught a glimpse of the bared holy arm of God. I can’t help but think of the images of the “ruins of Jerusalem” in Isaiah as being modeled painfully and perfectly today in the devastation of Aleppo. From where will the message of hope come? From those who open their doors to the now-homeless? “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” What an image; those of you who with compassion and love extend good news to refugees who’ve lost hope have the most beautiful feet in the world.
 
What a contrast to the jack boots of the deliverers of bombs and bad news!

Sometimes we get caught up in the joyful imagery of Christmas but fail to engage with the realities to which the imagery was meant to be applied. Pain and hopelessness are chronic conditions and always will be. Reading Isaiah 52 aloud to the suffering might be a feel-good gesture, but a sandwich might actually be better news. 

We North American Christians are blessed by having been born into a mountain-top home.

How lovely our feet become when we joyfully bring the good news down into the valleys!

(Just now, clouds are gathering on top of Volcan Baru.)

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