Beautiful Feet

September 26, 2009
Church in Nepal is something to behold. To start, the women sit on the left, the men sit on the right, and everyone sits on the floor. You leave your shoes at the door (as you do before entering any room!). And church is 2 to 3 hours long. Oh, and it’s on Saturday. Sunday is just another day here!

To start, we sing songs, many of which I recognized from the tune, but couldn’t quite remember the English words as they sang Nepali. This is sprinkled with prayer throughout, lasting up to an hour or so. As it was my first week and Chloe’s last week in the church, Pastor Krishna asked us to sing and play a song for church. No pressure, right? We sang How Great is Our God, one of the few overlaps in the songs Chloe sings in Australia and the ones I sing in America.

Then, there was a pastor visiting from Australia (of no relation to Chloe, though they live rather close in Australia) and he preached a sermon on “Beautiful Feet.” We started in 2 Kings 7:3-16, the story of the 4 Lepers sitting outside a besieged Samaria, contemplating whether it was better to starve as lepers in Samaria or to risk everything by seeking the kindness of the enemy camp, the Syrians. Now, understand that lepers were the bottom of society in Samaria. They were unclean, not to be touched, mocked, ridiculed, considered to be like dogs. Now, in Nepal, there is the Hindu Caste system, and in the past untouchables were the lowest caste in the system. Well, a new lowest caste has stepped up to the plate, and they are the Christians. For a devout Hindu, there is nothing lower than one who chooses to love and follow Jesus Christ and Him alone.

So, this story began to shape a new meaning, as I looked around me, and realized no longer was I in the America where “Christians” are everyday people. Rather, the people around me, myself included, are like the lepers in this story. We have no worth to many Hindus. But as the story went on, the parallels became incredibly beautiful. These 4 lepers decided to go out to the enemy camp, to try to find food to live another day. So they did, and to their great astonishment, God had driven the Syrians away in such a hurry that everything else was left- food, treasures, animals. So, they feasted, this probably being the first time in their lives that they ate so well, as they were the despised in Samaria and were restrained to begging for food at the city gates.

But after awhile, they realized, though they had discovered these riches and supplies, they could not wait until morning to share them with Samaria. So, they rushed back to the king and the very people who shunned them, and brought the life saving good news that God has provided food and supplies and their enemy has fled! As I listened, I began to see the reality of this story in the people around me. They are the shunned of their culture for choosing to follow one God, rather than hundreds of thousands of gods of wood and stone. Yet, they choose to continue to go to the very people who shun them and share the Good News that God has given life once again through His Son Jesus! In a very real way, they are modern day lepers bringing the hope of Salvation to a desperate and dying Samaria.

Isaiah 52:7 is the “theme” verse of the orphanage here; it states, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news...” It’s a verse that I’ve been claiming, and the pastor likened the lepers to those feet who bring good news. There’s a Christian rap song that I love called “Beautiful Feet” by Lecrae (you should Google the lyrics; they’re beautiful!). It’s a story of the desperate situation in America’s streets (and honestly in the world in general), but there is hope because “You hold the truth that saves so run and shout it to the world! They can’t believe in something they ain’t never heard so go, go, go with those beautiful feet!” So wherever you’re at, know that God has sent you out with anointed feet to share his Good News with everyone you encounter! Go, go, go with those beautiful feet :)