Roots of Death (2)

I mentioned in my previous post that I disinfected my shovel, loppers, and gloves after digging out and disposing the diseased roots of our Japanese privet. There was one other item that I disinfected - my shoes. My shoes had touched the roots, my shoes had been in the diseased soil.

Paul writes (Ephesians 6:15), concerning our spiritual warfare and the armor of God, that we are to have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. This is a reference to Isaiah 52:7, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, Your God reigns!” (Paul also quotes Isaiah 52:7 in Romans 10:15.)

Paul’s thought in Ephesians is that we be well-shod and ever ready to share the Good News of God in Christ reconciling us to Himself and making a way for us to have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1 - 11). But how can we share the Gospel of peace if we are not peaceable? How can we share the Gospel of the Prince of Peace if the Prince of Peace does not rule and reign within us?

We can be technically and philosophically and theologically “right” but if we share the Gospel in the wrong way we are wrong. If we lead angry lives how can we share the peace of Christ? If our hearts and minds are oceans of anger how can we share the love and compassion of Jesus in the Gospel? If our marriages are more akin to combat than mutual love and caring and deference how can we touch others with the peace of God?

Most of us give some thought, even if it is casual thought, to the shoes we wear everyday. We do not want to wear mismatched shoes - one black and one brown, we don’t wear one running shoe and one dress shoe. We normally want to wear shoes that match our clothes in some way. When we work in the garden we don’t wear dancing shoes; when we dance we don’t wear work boots.

If we do not leave our homes without thinking about the shoes we wear, how much more ought we not to leave our homes without prayerfully putting our feet into shoes of the Gospel of peace? How much more ought we to put our feet into these Gospel shoes as our feet hit the floor first thing in the morning? If we live with others ought we not to greet them in the morning with our feet in Gospel shoes? If we see our neighbors in the morning ought they not to find us wearing these shoes? As we drive to work ought not we to be wearing these shoes as our feet press the accelerator and apply the brakes?

We will walk in poisonous soil during the day and we must continually trust Christ to cleanse our minds, our hearts, our feet (John 13); we must prayerfully meditate on God’s Word (Psalm 1) lest we participate in the poison of our angry and vitriolic society, and lest we spread that poison to others.

Everyday we will be spreading something to others, will it be poison derived from roots of death, or will it be the Good News of peace in Jesus Christ?