Christmas Day

Beautiful Feet 
Isaiah 52:7-10

Today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is one of many gems from the prophet known as Second Isaiah. For those of you who know Handel’s Messiah, you hear the words sung. But the words themselves are beautiful. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’”

How beautiful are the feet.

How often have you said to anyone you know, “You have beautiful feet?” It’s not a part of the human body that we usually associate with beauty. Even the most glamorous of people, I expect, is rarely complimented on the beauty of her feet.

I love this Christmas Day service. One of the things I love is what I might call its ordinariness. Christmas comes, and is celebrated, in ordinary circumstances, not just the extraordinary splendor of last night. Feet, not wings, are the focus today.

In Luke’s Gospel story of Jesus’ birth, which we hear on Christmas Eve, the angels are the heralds of good news. Trumpets sound and the heavenly host assembles with shimmering wings. Hark, the herald-angels sing.

In Isaiah, the herald has feet, not wings. Tired feet, I imagine, from rushing up and down mountains to bring good news to Zion.

The passages are parallel. Both describe God’s heralds who bring good news. As heralds, the angels or messengers need some sort of locomotion. They need feet or wings to bring the news to us. The heralds bring the good news to God’s people that God isn’t just out there somewhere anymore. God is coming now at this moment to be here with us. Actively reigning in our hearts and lives.

It is the heralds’ message that is beautiful. And many sorts of wings and feet bring it to us. In our ordinary lives, the heralds mostly have feet rather than wings.

Today give thanks for the bearers of the message in your life. They are beautiful, all those people who, in so many ways, have showed us that God is with us. Our God is with us.

Give thanks for the people who have shared God’s wonder and love with us, who have brought us the good news, who have helped us sing glory hallelujah.

I think tired feet are beautiful feet, especially this time of year. Maybe your tired feet have been heralds for others. Maybe your tired feet have brought the good news of God’s love and joy, God’s tender care into the lives of others.

It’s a beautiful message. Of peace and salvation. Of God with us. How beautiful are the feet of all the heralds who bring the message to us in the ordinary times and places of our lives.

Sing for joy! Isaiah says. Our God reigns.