Word in the Hand

For no apparent reason I thought I had baptised a Buddhist tradition into the church building – I have taken to not wearing shoes. I have to let you know now that my eccentricity of spirit grows almost daily. But then I realised that this isn’t a Buddhist tradition at all – this is the call of God to Moses – you are standing on Holy Ground. And, except that it may well cause chaos at the end of the service, I can absolutely recommend it.

Feet are funny things – we tend not to think about them, not to care about them yet they are so necessary (I apologise now to anyone who does not have this freedom)

We disregard them and think they are ugly. At the Holy Thursday Mass, it is almost impossible to find volunteers to have their feet washed!

Yet how much importance did our Lord Jesus put on feet? Apart from the washing of the disciples’ feet - which made clear our role as servant to our brothers and sisters; there was the time when the woman washed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair and all the times that Jesus cured the lame. 

Jesus and his disciples walked everywhere; the ride into Jerusalem was an event, a scene set up to honour the Old Testament scripture. Otherwise it was dusty roads for them and Jesus talked while he walked; how often do we hear ‘while they were walking’; so much of the disciples knowledge was learnt ‘on the hoof’.  He sent them out by foot and told them to ‘wipe the dust from their sandals’ from any town that did not listen to them. We are sent to 'Go and serve the Lord'.

I was thinking about this today when I read the Gospel about the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Spirit once he had gone back to the Father.  It is the usual thing to think of the Spirit as Air, as Fire, as she comes spectacularly at Pentecost.

But the Spirit has always been with us, as the creative breath of God upon the Earth. The Greeks called her Sophia and honoured her for her wisdom and truth. She has soaked the Earth with her presence.

The Spirit is everywhere and she has been our Mother since the beginning. Jesus is not sending us a new ‘Being’ as Advocate. We have never been orphans, although we have been lost on more than one occasion. It simply became time for her to become known to us.

When the Holy Spirit shows herself to the Apostles at Pentecost  it is just another face of the Mother who has always been and always will be with us. I can almost hear her saying to Jesus ‘Leave them with me; I’ll take care of them.’ And she does, she is in the Earth at every stage of their travels, guiding them to the fertile fields of faith, being with them in their trials, breathing God's love into those that hear her.

We are driven by the Spirit - our faith is a journey  - feet should be definitely be an alternative symbol for Christians.

Anyone who has been involved in the alternative healing therapies, studied Yoga or other Eastern traditions will be more than aware of the presence that is all around us. The Eastern faith has its own understanding of this 'earth power' but to us, undoubtedly, this is the power of the Holy Spirit – to heal, to communicate, to bring serenity and to see truth. 

So take off your shoes, even metaphorically, feel the life around you, meditate, pray, listen and know that the Spirit is in our lives now, as promised and for always.

wordinthehand2008

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• #1 Comment from bgilmore725 
  19/05/08 00:56 | Permalink

  One evening, after our final Bible Study (the topic was Forgiveness), our Pastor  had planned a simple feast for us. We read the story about Jesus washing his Disciples feet... and then he proceeded to wash each of ours. He did not tell us in advance that he was going to do this. It was a very moving time for us all. Most of us are older, our feet calloused, our toenails thick, some yellowed, our toes crooked, the veins blue, the ankles swollen... we were not a pretty bunch. Our feet spoke of our lives, of working hard. He was on his knees, washed each pair of feet in a basin, poured water gently over them, then dried them off with a white cloth. It wasn't a towel... it was gauze-like. After he'd washed all of our feet, he tore the cloth up into strips and gave us each a strip to take home to remember the experience... I kept mine, and placed it in my Bible. I looked at it today, and the name of the Pastor is still written on it. It turned out that that year was his last year with us, as he was sent to start a new church in another city... something he did very well. He's a seed planter, for sure. I love the idea of walking into the Sanctuary barefoot! Truly, it is Holy Ground. bea
  
  http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/