Good morning!  How big are your feet?  I'm a size twelve, the biggest in my family.  My Mother always said my big feet gave me a good understanding.  I've never considered a man's feet beautiful, but our text says the feet of those who bring good news always are, especially when they bring good news about freedom and victory.

          This oft-quoted text is a reference to messengers in old days who ran from the scene of a battle to bring news of its outcome to the king and His subjects.  Isaiah 52:7 refers to the good news that God's Chosen People could now return home from exile in Babylon.

          Isaiah 52 is filled with the news of Israel's deliverance from slavery to its enemies, and it foreshadows our deliverance from slavery to sin by Jesus.  The Jews' return from exile proves "Our God reigns."  Because everything in the universe is under His control.  Nothing happens in our world or life without it being part of a plan, God's plan for His modern-day Chosen People, the Church.

          A little history -- David was Israel's greatest king.  After his son Solomon's reign ended, in the time of 800 - 600 years before Christ, Babylonian kings north and east of Israel began chipping away at the empire.  After Solomon, Israel's kings were basically unfaithful.  They kept turning their backs on God, so God gave them over to their enemies.  Battle by battle, Israel was cut into pieces.

          You see, whenever we turn our backs on God, He gives us over to our passions and sins in the hopes we will see the light and come back.  God didn't create us robots.  We have the ability to make choices, and He wants us to choose Him.  He gives us the Bible and the Holy Spirit to nudge us along, showing us the Way.  But God never forces people to choose Him.

          Isaiah lived about 700 - 650 BC and had the prophetic ability to foretell the future.  And what he saw was not good.  Time and again he warned his people to turn from their evil ways or face the consequences.  But time and again they failed to listen, so the kings of Babylon defeated them, divided the kingdom, and hauled the people off into slavery.

          In 589 BC, Jerusalem was levelled and Solomon's first temple destroyed.  But Isaiah prophesied God would one day bring them back to their land.  That's the Good News those beautiful feet are bringing in our text.

          This was all finally fulfilled in 539 BC when King Cyrus of Persia let the exiles return home.  Isaiah prophesied the returning people would say, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

          As we approach the year 2000, we Americans live in a time of great peace and prosperity.  Our standard of living is rising and the crime rate is falling.  Wall Street is on a ten-year roll and our neighborhoods are safe and peaceful.  Our homes are filled with more gadgets, more technology, more doodads, and more information than could possibly be imagined at any time during the past thousand years.  We're approaching the new millennium in much better shape than the last.

          But although Americans live in peace, there are still plenty of wars raging all over our planet.  At least twenty major wars are going on even as we speak, mostly in Africa and Asia, some decades old, causing untold devastation and death.  But this tragic loss of life and property is mostly unseen and therefore unreal to us.  Our last brief war ended nine years ago with a resounding victory, and today peace seems all around us in good ol' prosperous USA.

          But something tells us it's really not true.  Things are not so great as they seem.  There are real wars going on in America right now.  What kind of wars?  Silent wars, quiet wars, but wars nonetheless.  We don't hear the battle guns, we don't see soldiers assaulting beaches, we don't have war correspondents, but the wars are real nonetheless.

          I'm talking about the War on the family  ...the War for the souls of our youth  ...the War against unborn human life  ...the War against truth and morality  ...the War against Christianity  ...even the War some churches wage against each other.  And these silent wars are quietly unraveling the fabric of our society.  Though we have prosperity, most thinking people know these wars.  What they don't know is where they are taking us, and who will win, and is there any Good News to report?

          These are all part of a war Satan is waging against God and His people.  They are spiritual wars to win the heart of America.  Whenever Jesus is praised, Satan raises cain.  Whenever good happens, Satan mixes things up.  Satan wants us separated from God.  When God and His people are united, Satan has no power, so he creates fights, stirs the pot, incites riots, and generates insane behavior among people who should know better.

          Today I want to assure you that, without a doubt, "Our God Reigns!"  God is active and alive, and He is not going to let His people be defeated.  The long-range plan for people of the world is under His control.  Nothing happens without it being part of His plans for the people of His Church.  If you remember nothing else from this message, remember this - "Our God Reigns!"

          God reigns today and He will reign tomorrow.  He will win the battles because He has already won the final war through His Son Jesus, the victor over Satan and death.  The battles may still rage, but Good News is coming from the messenger with beautiful feet.  What kind of battles, you might ask?  Here's an example:

          When I was eight years old, Dad met a stranger who was new to our country.  From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this charming newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family.  The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome all the guests who visited our home.

          As I grew up I never questioned his place in our family.  Mom taught me to love the Word of God, and Dad taught me to obey it.  But the stranger was our storyteller.  He could weave the most fascinating tales.  He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours.  He became a friend to the whole family.

          He took Dad, brother Billy, and me to our first major league baseball game.  He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even introduced us to several movie stars.  The stranger was an incessant talker.  Dad didn't seem to mind, but sometimes while the rest of us listened to his stories, Mom would quietly go to kitchen, read a book, do her work, or maybe pray.  I wonder if she ever prayed the stranger would leave.

          My dad had strong moral convictions, but this stranger never felt obligated to honor them.  Profanity, for example, was rarely allowed in our house, not from us, our friends, or adults.  Our longtime visitor, however, eventually began using four-letter words that burned our ears and made us squirm.  But to my knowledge the stranger was never confronted.

          Dad rarely drank, but this stranger felt like we needed exposure and enlightenment to other ways of life.  He offered us beer and other alcohol.  He made cigarettes look tasty and cigars manly.  He talked much too freely about sex.  His sexual comments were sometimes blatant and suggestive, and often embarrassing.  He showed us pictures that made us blush.  But he knew we wanted to see more.  I know now that my early concepts of the man-woman relationship were greatly influenced by that stranger who came to our home.

          It was the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more.  Time after time he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave.  More than forty years have passed since the stranger moved in.  And you know what, he's still living with us.

          When I left home I took him along.  And if you were to walk into my home today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him show his latest suggestive pictures.  His name?...  We always just called him...TV.

          Friends, it's a battle not to buy into the things of the world when we have the world's greatest PR pitch man living in our family rooms.  Carol and I just brought home a bigger stranger, and if we let him, he just keeps preaching his vacuous nonsense.

          I have heard of some families getting rid of him all together.  It's hard at first, but eventually life gets much better than when the stranger controls day after day.  You see, he's part of the war!  And we must control him in or he will control us.

          But remember - "Our God Reigns" in the wars  ...against the family  ...for the souls of our youth  ...against unborn life  ...against truth and morality  ...against Christianity itself, those silent wars threatening to unravel the fabric of our society.

          But there is Good News!  All is not quiet on the Western Front.  The messenger comes to us with news of salvation.  We are not alone.  Jesus Christ is our warrior.  As Luther wrote, "But for us fights the valiant one, whom God Himself elected."  Christ died in defense of His people, and He rose again to give us new life.  All who trust Him are rescued.  To most of us, this may not be "new" news, but it is always Good News.  God loves us in spite of who we are.  In Christ, God loves us, no matter what, and He has won the victory for each and every one of us here this morning.

          Remember, "Our God Reigns!"  He is active and alive around us, and will never let His people be defeated.  Everything is under His control. Nothing happens without it being part of His plans.  He is King of kings and Lord of lords.  On this Christ the King Sunday, "Our God Reigns!"

          I don't know if my feet are beautiful, but Good News makes them sorta cute.  May we always resist the forces of evil around us.  May we encourage each other and never tear each other down.  Evil will not win out, because "Our God Reigns."  God guarantees it!  amen!

Copyright © 1999 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.