Barefoot Theology

What could I possibly mean by having a barefoot theology?  Oh great, the heretic is at it again, right?  Allow me to explain if you don’t mind.  In Jesus’ time and during the Old Testament people usually wore sandals.  This was to protect their feet as well as provide a means of transportation.  There are quite a few examples in Scripture that have to do with bare feet that I would like to explore if you’ll indulge me for a little while please.

Obviously, the first example comes from Genesis with Adam and Eve themselves.  In the beginning, they were naked and felt no shame.  Personally, I’d love it if we were able to get back to that point.  However, thankfully that is not the case because outside of the bedroom of a wedded couple it doesn’t seem like a wise proposition.  Can you even imagine?  Everyone would be just walking around naked?  I have experienced that very thing if you remember my blog post about the onsen in Tokyo.  The main difference there is that it was separated into males and females, for obvious reasons.  However, I’m still a little peeved at the old Japanese dude who was doing a panoramic scan of the outside bath with his video camera, not cool dude.  In any case, outside of cultural traditions and nudist colonies this is not a common practice.  Ultimately I’m grateful for this as I honestly don’t want to see hardly anyone naked.  You either have people who are wearing not enough clothes to cover their fat as it is and should never be naked in public, or the beautiful people who would inevitably cause the rest of us to lust.  So, maybe there’s a reason we’re going to be clothed in white robes in heaven?

The second example that comes to my mind is Moses and the burning bush.  For some reason, God chose to speak from a burning bush to capture Moses’ attention.  God speaks in many different ways, but this one is particularly interesting to me.  A burning bush that doesn’t end up consumed?  Yet, for whatever reason, God chose to use yet another seemingly insignificant object to display His glory.  When Moses came near, God told him to take off his sandals, because the ground Moses was standing on was holy.  Anytime we come into contact with God, we are standing on holy ground.  Maybe we should all go to church barefoot?  Of course, I don’t see that catching on too quickly.  This would especially be the case of my home church because we meet in a movie theater.  Granted, it’s much cleaner than the first theater we met in when we started, but still, you can imagine, right?  Instead of your shoes sticking to the floor because of spilled soda, your feet would stick to it, gross.  In addition, as my pastor and I like to try and emphasize to our people, we are the church.  Church is not some building; it is us as His body.  In that light, maybe we should go barefoot all the time?

The third example of someone being barefoot in the Bible that comes to mind is when Christ washed His disciples’ feet as an example of servant hood.  At first, one of His disciples objected to the very idea of his Master washing his feet.  When Jesus rebuked him, he asked for Christ to wash his head and whole body as well.  What a riot, I can only imagine being there when that happened.  Hey man, maybe you should calm down a bit on both sides of this pendulum swinging thing that you always seem to be doing.  Jesus teaches us that the least will become greatest in the kingdom. 

This completely turns the current leadership model on its head, doesn’t it?  Those who are greatest should be the servant to all.  Hmm, this sounds quite a bit different than the current leadership model that is at large in and out of the church, doesn’t it?  I’ve heard the Church referred to as the biggest organization in the world.  This implies a hierarchy, doesn’t it?  I agree without a doubt that Christ is the head, but apart from that I don’t see as much emphasis placed on leadership as we place on it today.  Yes, there are deacons and elders and lead pastors of course mentioned in the Bible, but I dare say we place way too much emphasis on those roles as opposed to the others.  This is especially true in regards to the fact that we’re all priests, also known as the priesthood of all believers. 

Let me be clear here because I can see lines of confusion coming across some of the faces of people who are reading this now.  Yes, the Bible is clear about leadership.  However, it places just as much emphasis on how they are to serve the church and equip the saints.  There is much less emphasis on how the leadership is supposed to look in practice.  Some people think only men should be in positions of leadership.  If I remember reading this book correctly by a contemporary mega church pastor, it was something like men only are supposed to be elders but women can be deacons in addition to men.  I remember reading through that argument several times and having a hard time drawing the same conclusion as the author was making.  The passage he was using doesn’t seem to distinguish much between elder and deacon as it concerns which sex is supposed to do which or is allowed to. 

Perhaps I should go to seminary and get that cleared up, but I probably am not going to get a Master’s of Divinity anytime soon.  Stranger things have happened of course, but I really don’t see that happening in my future.  Of course, when I was in high school and college I was unsure of what I wanted to do when I graduated college with the rest of my life.  I had no idea, except that I was positive I didn’t want to be in the business world.  Now look where I am, teaching business classes to Burmese people.  God certainly has a great sense of humor sometimes, doesn’t He?

There may be wisdom in a barefoot theology.  At the very least, it should be considered.  Some might argue that it is completely impractical, but I can think of a few places where it might be practical.  The first one is from a friend who had us literally wash one another’s feet at church camp.  It was uncomfortable to say the least and not my favorite illustration he ever used.  However, it did stick with me.  Whether it was the fact that I actually washed middle school boys’ feet or the incredible symbolism and images of Scripture that it conjured in my mind, it will surely be something that I will never forget.

Another place, perhaps more importantly, where it might be practical, is in regards to our hearts more than the physical act of actually being barefoot.  When you’re barefoot, it naturally changes your posture.  Shoe companies have grabbed a hold of this idea and ran with it, allow me to share a few examples I can think of off the top of my head.

I remember a fellow teacher who got turned onto a type of shoe that I think was called Massai Barefoot Technology or something similar.  I remember mainly because she later complained that other teachers had copied her style, I assured her there was some comfort to be had in being a trend-setter.  Another shoe is the Nike Free that has been wildly popular among runners.  More recently, shoe companies have added shoes that look like feet, I’m not sure what those are called but the ideas are all similar.

Why has this become so wildly popular?  What are the supposed benefits?  Join me as I speculate a little and I promise I will bring it back to the point of barefoot theology, eventually.  I think it’s because as we have made better shoes that are ridiculously comfortable and supportive, there has been a certain amount of backlash among doctors within the medical community.  They argue that we are spoiling our feet too much that they are ill-prepared for basic things like walking for extended periods of time.  This coupled with the idea of how going barefoot is better for your posture have lead to skyrocketing sales of barefoot resembling footwear. 

Now, let’s get back to posture and how a barefoot theology might affect it.  Perhaps we’d have a very different theology indeed if we were to practice what we preach more often.  Perhaps we’d have a very different posture towards the outside world if we focused on loving our neighbors instead of proving how sinful they are and how right we are.  Maybe, and of course this is just a theory from someone without so much as even a single class at a Bible college or seminary mind you, if we went barefoot either literally or figuratively on a more regular basis we’d understand where people are coming from and learn compassion as a result.  Walk another mile in someone else’s shoes people have been known to say.  Maybe we should walk a mile barefoot as well to learn about our hearts’ posture towards God and others.