Oh, those beautiful feet! They testify that God has not left our world destitute. He has sent His apostles, His prophets, His evangelists, and His ministers of grace and salvation. His messengers have walked this earth; they have walked the earth of your home town, and brought to you the Word of grace and eternal life. Indeed, God Himself, who came in the flesh, has come into our world, dirtied His feet and dwelt among us with all His grace and truth. He is the One who truly has beautiful feet.

We are reminded of the time when His dusty feet, left unwashed at the home of a Pharisee host, were cleaned by the tears and hair of a penitent adulteress. She saw in those dusty feet the words of Isaiah perfectly fulfilled. Oh, how lovely were those dirty feet! Lovely because those same feet once soaked with penitent tears, were later soaked with Christ’s own innocent blood. That blood flowed from the wounds inflicted by a mob of impenitent people, a mob who had the arrogance to call themselves the people of God!

Yet this, too, was in God's economy. For those feet once stained in holy blood for the sins of the world, now rest upon the earth victorious as Jesus is risen and ascended on high! As the Scriptures declare, “Heaven is the Lord's throne, and earth is His footstool.” Isaiah's words repeat this theme, “Your God reigns!” And this powerful King sends out His heralds of grace to declare to you those glad tidings of good things, of peace and salvation.

Pastor Meador is one of the Lord’s heralds of grace. God is now calling him to serve the Church in another place. He will be missed, but we send him on his way with Godspeed. And still, God provides. I am pleased to accept your request to bring the message of God’s grace to you during your pastoral vacancy. I look forward to working with you, the Lord’s saints in this place, to build one another up in the Gospel.

Now, if anyone took a gander at my two hooves, I don’t think he would call them beautiful. Yet, my pledge to you is to preach…as St. Paul did in his day and as Pastor Meador did while he was here…nothing but the message of Christ crucified for our sins and raised for our justification. With that ministry continued at Zion Lutheran Church, we may all proclaim with Isaiah, “Your God reigns!”