The Foot Book
By Rev. Ella Moehlman
Left foot. Right foot.
Feet feet feet.
How many, many feet you meet.
So begins The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss.
Slow feet. Quick feet.
Trick feet, sick feet.
Beautiful feet of the messenger who announces peace!
That last line’s not Dr. Seuss but the Bible, which is also a Foot Book. Feet are all over the texts on Christmas Day—the feet of the messenger in Isaiah, beautiful on the mountainside.
Those feet are carrying with them an announcement of peace, good news, and salvation—the feet of the shepherds, carrying them swiftly from their field to the straw-covered floor in Bethlehem, as well as the ten, tiny, perfect little toes on the feet of the newborn Christ Child.
Ella Moehlmann
I have what you could call the opposite of a foot fetish: a foot aversion. Feet are gross. Hairy big toes. Toenails. Toe jam. Feet creep me out.
Then my son Theodore came into my life. He had squishy baby feet. And I was in love. I wanted to hold his feet. Kiss them. Go, “this little piggy went to market…”
My son Theo is no longer a baby, but I still love his feet, even though they are getting a bit more gruesome and stinky. I still want to press his soft little soles against my cheek. I’m assuming Mary had the same reaction of delight to her baby boy’s round little toes with their perfect little toenails.
I heard a pastor once describe how ordinary the Christmas story starts out. A census, a baby being born, poor parents with nowhere to stay—these things happen all the time. God comes in an ordinary way to ordinary people, with their ordinary lives.
But I’ve noticed we like to take the ordinary out of the Christmas story. Our nativity scenes are anything but ordinary. Everyone is always good looking, posed so elegantly, staring reverently down at the baby. Mary isn’t passed out from exhaustion; there’s no blood or manure.
In those nativity scenes, the stinky feet have been removed, sanitized! We don’t want yucky feet in our nativity because they remind us of ourselves and the ultimate stink and decay of death.
And we do this in other parts of our worship and life together as church. Once a group of women were discussing the upcoming Maundy Thursday foot washing. They were all talking about how they needed to schedule a pedicure that week. Gotta have your feet done before you can take your socks off at church!
We want to cover up anything that reminds us of death, anything that creates vulnerability. We do this in our lives, and we do it in the church— even though church should be a place where we can bring our real selves, gnarly feet and all!
Like Adam and Eve covering their nakedness with fig leaves, whatever we do to gloss over the stink and death we all experience (and the stink we cause one another!), it is not going to trick God. We can’t hide it from God’s nose, which is burning up in anger at the stinky ways we turn away from God and hurt each other.
But then Jesus comes along. He is Our Odor Eater.
He absorbs the stinky death in our lives. God comes into our world to be with us, and to be human, like us. Jesus’ feet won’t always be soft, squishy little baby toes. He’ll grow up.
During his ministry, Jesus walked around a lot. His feet were dirty and tough and gross. And ultimately, his feet get nailed to the cross. Nailed there by us, who paint our toes with a nail lacquer named Righteous Red, in order to cover our broken lives and try to please God.
Christmas is about Jesus coming into our world, and by his death and resurrection destroying the stinky odor of our feet.
I had a seminary professor who loved to remind us, “God loves the socks off of you.” When we hear of that love, something changes in us. Like what I experienced with my little Theo’s feet. Something shifted from a foot being gross and reminding me of decay, dying and death to being something of promise, love, and joy. That is what faith in Christ does for you. God loves your feet because God loves Christ’s feet.
Jesus’ cute little baby toes aren’t the only feet we encounter in the Bible at Christmas. Those shepherds had feet that carried them, running and skipping to the manger with Mary and Joseph and the baby. Shepherd feet are not so cute. They would be calloused and dirty. Maybe in their terror and excitement of the angels, one of them had stepped in a pile of sheep poo.
But it was to these shepherds and these feet that the angels appeared. Real, dirty feet are made worthy of hearing God’s good news for the world. Real, stinky feet become as beautiful as baby toes because they bring with them a message of salvation. A God with feet, who redeems our feet, is something to share about!
Two Books Honor Gary Simpson
The Rev. Dr. Gary Simpson, emeritus professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, has been honored with two Festschriften. Dr. Simpson is a frequent participant and leader for Crossings Table Talk, Thursday Theology, and conferences.
The Festschriften, Theology and Ethics for the Public Church and Forming Leaders for the Public Church, are published by Fortress Press. The editors, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Yonas Deressa and the Rev. Dr. Mary Sue Dreier, consider Dr. Simpson “a public theologian par excellence” who deserves to be read globally.
Seventeen colleagues and former students of Dr. Simpson contributed essays and reflections that build on his scholarship. Among them are Marie Y. Hayes, and the Rev. Drs. Gregory Walter, Robert Kolb and David L. Tiede.
Crossings congratulates Dr. Simpson and thanks him for his contribution to the church’s witness to Jesus Christ.
Behind the Scenes, but Front and Center for Crossings
Every week of the year, many of us receive an email message with a link to the latest six-step text study from Crossings. Later in the week, we’re alerted to a new Thursday Theology posting.
For the past few years, Alfred Gorvie has been the person who works behind the scenes to make sure that all these email messages are sent out—and that our computer screens can display the latest wisdom from Crossings. And in a readable and attractive format.
As was the case for many of us, Alfred’s path to involvement with Crossings is an interesting story, one with personal connections.
Alfred Gorvie
Alfred met his wife at a Lutheran church in East Texas while he was an International Student sponsored by friends who had visited Sierra Leone as part of the ELCA’s Companion Synod program. Alfred was active in the Lutheran church in Sierra Leone and continues to keep in touch with the church there.
His wife is Cheryl Walenta Gorvie, who serves as pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation on the southside of St. Louis. Founded in 1894 as a Swedish Lutheran Church, Gethsemane is now active in the diverse community that borders “The Hill” (St. Louis’s historic Italian neighborhood) and the world famous Missouri Botanical Gardens.
In 2021, Cheryl and Alfred moved from Dallas where Cheryl was a pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church for ten years—along with their two children—Evan, now in 7th grade and Evelyn (Willow), now in 4th grade.
Soon after moving, they became friends with Tina Reyes, Lutheran campus pastor for Washington University and other area colleges. The campus house is sponsored by nearby Bethel Lutheran Church, where Sherman Lee, Crossings executive director is active.
Until Tina introduced him to Sherman, Alfred hadn’t heard of Crossings. Because both of their careers were in technology, Sherman quickly recruited Alfred to join the group of those who work to keep Crossings resources and programs available.
Alfred’s full-time job is with Reinsurance Group of America, a global firm that re-insures life and health insurance. He works in the corporation’s Global Security Office. “We monitor security and then fix the holes we find.”
Each week, Alfred does the work of turning Word documents into the weekly postings of Thursday Theology and the six-step text studies. “Lots of pieces have to come together to make this happen. It’s important to know the background for the postings,” says Alfred.
In converting the Word documents written by dozens of different writers into WordPress postings, lots of editing is involved to make sure words and fonts are correct.
Alfred brings an ethusiasm to these weekly tasks, “I relish selecting artwork that visually and thematically amplifies the gospel’s promise for readers in need of good news,” he said.
With a full-time job and two growing children, time is limited for outside activities. In addition, as Alfred notes, “There are challenges of a clergy spouse. My wife works weekends and is off on Friday, when I’m working.” But Alfred enjoys singing in the choir at Gethsemane and he is involved in his kids’ Scout programs.
Alfred clearly brings all the elements of his life into the work that benefits those involved in Crossings. He says it best: “I enjoy the creative and theological synergy that Crossings offers— especially the unwavering commitment to the law-gospel distinction and the insistence that theology must speak directly to lived experience.
“I hope the future of Crossings will remain uncompromising in proclaiming Christ crucified and risen as the answer to real human need, not abstract speculation. I also hope for diverse contributors to continue shaping weekly content and for Crossings to reach new audiences—pastors, laypeople, and seekers.”
A New Year Full of Promise
You can help see that the Promise of the Gospel gets a wider hearing in the year ahead by making a special year-end gift to Crossings. Your financial support will make it possible to:
• Offer scholarship and travel assistance for the January 2026 conference
• Improve and strengthen our website as an essential platform for making Crossings theology available to others
• Launch a Crossings podcast in 2026 that will feature weekly discussions of our Crossings text studies
• Sustain the weekly posting of text studies and Thursday Theology— along with Table Talk, the monthly online discussion forum
You can make a secure online gift at crossings.org/give. Crossings welcomes donor-advised funds, charitable IRA distributions, and Thrivent Choice Dollars.
Join Us Online for…
- Table Talk, the monthly online discussion forum
- The Crossings Book Club every other week
- Lectionary text studies posted every Sunday
- Thursday Theology with essays, sermons, and other thought-provoking writing
To learn more and sign up, visit crossings.org/join-us
Crossings Newsletter Staff:
Writer/Editor: Bruce Modahl
Board President: Jerome Burce
Executive Secretary: Cathy Lessmann
Executive Director: Sherman Lee
Project and Development Manager: Bethany Dreher
Contributions to Crossings are tax-deductible. Crossings welcomes donor-advised fund gifts and charitable IRA distributions.
