The first couple of Easter Sundays in my ministry I decided to buy new shoes to wear for worship. They were always a bright color, or floral patterned, and they were always high heels. They were beautiful. They felt special. They were also…painful. I don’t wear high heels on regular Sundays (or ever), so why I thought Easter Sunday would be the day to wear shoes that made me unsteady and gave me blisters I just don’t know. The second service never saw my Easter shoes because I had always switched back to my regular shoes so I could proclaim good news without falling over.
I was thinking about Easter shoes last week as I served as a chaplain during a prayer vigil for Daunte Wright. I have a favorite pair of boots I wear whenever I am on the street serving as a chaplain. They are comfortable, sturdy, and they help me do my job. My job that day turned out to be directing traffic, of all things. Another chaplain and I shut down 63rd Ave in Brooklyn Center and directed cars to go around the neighborhood so that the hundreds gathered on the corner of Kathrene Drive and 63rd Ave N could grieve, pray, light candles, and lay down flowers. The words of Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis rose above the noise of the cars and I heard him say,
“We are in Eastertide, and Easter is about resurrection, and resurrection is about an uprising. Easter is an uprising and once we know that we can’t go back to the places of death.”
Easter is an uprising, friends. What kind of shoes do you wear to an uprising? My guess is shoes that help you walk the path of those who are oppressed. Shoes that let you run to announce peace and salvation. Shoes that let you meet your neighbors where they are and not turn away from their pain. Shoes that help you go to the places of death and proclaim that death does not have the final word.
Isaiah 52:7 says, “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’.” We usually hear these words from Isaiah during Advent, but when I lace up my boots to proclaim, march, meet, and pray, I think the prophet knew something about what kind of shoes are needed to proclaim the resurrection good news. Friends in Christ, lace up your Easter shoes. Your feet are needed to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, here and now, for all of us.
In Peace, Pastor Ruth
Let us pray:
Good and Gracious God, you are the author of life, and you adopt us to be your children. Fill us with your words of life, that we may live as your witnesses to the resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.