Something to Think About – “Down to My Feet”
“Holy Spirit come down, I need you now in everything. I need your anointing.
Fill me, move in your power, like oil poured down to my feet. I need your anointing.”
These are words from the chorus to a song the praise band sang during communion this past Sunday. As I listened to it, I was drawn to the phrase, “like oil poured down to my feet.” It immediately reminded me of Psalm 133, which speaks of precious oil running down from the head of Aaron, all the way down over his beard on the the collar of his robes. Oil was used as a ritual of consecration and anointing. It was a sign of commitment to God and a blessing from God. Of course, only a little would be used. It was a token, a gesture. The amount used wasn’t as important as the intentions and motivations that stood behind it. So when Psalm 133 speaks of oil running all the way down to the collar of the robes well… that certainly represented extravagance.
Even more extravagant was the way Jesus was anointed by the unnamed woman in Mark 14. Just days before his death, she “wasted” a whole jar of expensive ointment on Jesus. That’s what his disciples said… “wasted.” As though the woman needed only a little bit of the ointment for Jesus’ head, but in pouring the whole jar on Jesus’ head, some of it clearly would have run down his own face, over the collar of his robes, even all the way down to his feet, before running off his feet and onto the ground. The feet are the farthest they can possibly be from the head and still be a member of the same body. But that fact that anointing oil would run all the way down to the feet says something about the nature and character of God.
Abundance. That’s the best way to describe God. Abundant love. The abundant love of God is so great, we will always receive more of it than we would think necessary. And it can never be “wasted,” because there is a limitless supply of it.
Julian of Norwich was a saint of the church who was born in 1342. She is most well-known for the quote attributed to her, “All will be well.” She lived during a difficult time in European history. The Black Death was ravaging the population, with people dying so fast many weren’t able to be buried. The church was plagued by its own in-fighting and people’s hope and confidence was wavering. Into this world, Julian wrote of God’s great love. The reason why she said, “All will be well,” is because humanity and God are inextricably linked and there is nothing we could ever do to break that unity with God. The prevailing teaching of the church at the time was that God was angry with human sin and nothing humans could do could ever appease the anger God felt at the thought of our sin. But Julian said “no.” Not even the worst of our sin can separate us from divine love. And even though our pain and suffering my distract us so that we no longer recognize God’s love, doesn’t mean God has stopped loving us. Julian helps us see the nature of God’s abundance and the desire of a loving God to share that abundance with us.
So may we go into this week with the knowledge and confidence that we are clothed in the abundant love of God – all the way down to our feet. And that there is nothing we could ever do that would cause God stop wanting to share that abundance with us and clothe us in it.