In the year 2000 when I was consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, a group of young people decided to witness to our faith by walking on pilgrimage from Greensboro to Durham where the consecration service was to be held. Whether they knew it or not they walked in the steps of  people of faith who witnessed to the love of God long before them. They walked in the steps of Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims. They walked in the tradition of John Bunyan’s character Pilgrim in Pilgrim’s Progress. They walked in the steps of Mahatma Gandhi’s salt march to the Indian Ocean. They walked the steps of those who marched across the Edmond Pettis Bridge in Selma of 1965. Above all they walked in the steps of Jesus of Nazareth who summons disciples of every generation and epic with the words, “Follow me.” Their pilgrimage was a parable of what it means to be disciples of Jesus.

Christian discipleship is, in a sense, about what you do with your feet. There is a wonderful passage in Frederick Buechner’s book, The Alphabet of Grace.

“Feet are religious too. I say if you want to know who you are, if you are more than academically interested in that particular mystery, you could do a lot worse than look at your feet for an answer. When you wake up in the morning, called by God to be a self again, if you want to know who you are, watch your feet. Because where your feet take you, that is who you are.” 

Discipleship is about what we do with our feet. The metaphor of feet is a rich one indeed.  One of the powerful images of Scripture is that of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper (John 13). To be sure, the washing of feet was a sign of welcome and hospitality. It was in like manner an act of humility. It was also an act and a model of service. 

Many workers here in North Carolina and nationally stand on their feet all day for salaries below a living wage with the absence of benefits. The North Carolina Justice Center (www.ncjustice.org) and the Living Wage Resource Center (www.livingwagecampaign.org) keep up to date information on issues of economic justice and the campaign for a living wage nationally.  

How can we as people of faith support those who are quite literally on their feet all day at low paying jobs without health insurance and other benefits of life? 

What are some ways we can educate ourselves and provide education for our congregations and communities of faith on concerns of the working poor here in North Carolina and principles of biblical economics which can help to guide us in our efforts to change public policy and private practices? 

Discipleship is about what you do with your feet. It is about doing the word, and not simply hearing the word of the Gospel (1:22). The word “disciple” in both Hebrew and Greek has some origins in the realm of teaching, learning and education, if you will. Bruce Chilton, in his recent book Rabbi Jesus, says that an ancient rabbi was not merely a teacher of the head, but a teacher of head and heart. The rabbi taught a way of life. A pupil or disciple was not, therefore, simply an academic student of the teacher. The disciple sought to live the way of the teacher, to follow in his or her steps. 

Jesus reflects this understanding when He said: “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master” (Mt. 10:24-25). It is in this context that He says, “Follow me,” or “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Mk. 1:17; Jn. 14:6). It is in this context that 1^st Peter speaks of Christian discipleship as following in the steps of Jesus. Discipleship is about feet. More to the point, discipleship is about what you do as an expression of who you are in Jesus.

At some deep level, following Jesus is about the life of God being lived in our lives in such a way that finally we “love as God loves,” to borrow from theologian Roberta Bondi. That’s where this language from James comes from: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, and the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows.” Discipleship is to care for the widow and orphan as God does, it is to love as God loves, to do justice as God does justice, to love mercy as God loves mercy. It is to live the way of the Gospel, the way of Jesus, the way of the Word of God. Discipleship is the life of God living in and through our lives.

By The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina