The Winged Boot Fitting Service from Jamie Coats (The Fitter)

[Points of Consciousness in Square Brackets]

[Feet] It is a bright clear day. I am standing at the bottom of the mountain on a gently sloping grass plain, looking out across a landscape and then up into the hills, and then further up to the high mountain peek.

I say to myself, “Wow! It is going to be a long way to walk to get to the mountain and to climb it.” I feel good. I feel hearty. I have provisions with me. I am wearing hiking gear. My feet are on the ground.

I pause and say, “What is the service that I am to do? I will walk the valleys, climb the hills, get into the mountains, climb to the summit of the highest peak and rise above. The service is to come back and to feel just as good as this moment.” I have a smile in my voice and a sense of joy in knowing my ability to go up and come back. I feel a sense of wonder and openness in not knowing what I will bring back. There is always the possibility I will never come back. But it is the intention to return and to serve; to plant ones feet on the ground in the valley and to bring down to the valley the exaltation of God in the moment, in the blade of grass, in the people around. [feet]

I set off.

[Genitals] I walk and come to a large long trestle table set up in the middle of a field, in the middle of a wonderful, beautiful green landscape. People arrive and sit on the benches. There is a huge banquet picnic, informal, very good-natured going on. There is Jesus Christ sitting in the middle, breaking bread.

I pause, perplexed and then laugh because there is everybody there, everybody you’d love and hate: all colors and all nations, all types and all strains of people. People you’d never think would be there are there. People you dislike, people you love. There are good people and not so good people. Jesus is breaking bread with all of them. It is the most wonderful time.

I sit opposite Jesus on a wooden bench. Jesus looks up and says, “Take, eat this bread and drink this cup of wine, my flesh and blood. And by the way, look up and down the table, and enjoy the new apostles of today, not quite the ones you remember of the New Testament.” I say, “Much more racially balanced and more women than was said to be present in the past.” Jesus roars with laughter, and says, “Ah! That was merely what was written. Not how I lived on the earth. Now you know the next stage is difficult. It always is. But take a little bread and take a little wine by dipping the bread in it and put it in a pouch and carry it with you so even when you are further up the mountain you will enjoy remembering the communion with the apostles down here. Bring all back something good too.”

I get up to leave. Just as I am about to leave Jesus says, “I know at the beginning of your journey you got a nice pair of boots which I prepared for you. Remember, I always worship at your feet before you start out.” I look down and see that I am wearing the most wonderful boots for climbing. There is something magical about them too. They can sprout wings, golden. “Wow!” I say as I realize the little wings can turn me into an angel if I need to fly around. I smile. I turn to Jesus and say, “Jesus, you never lose a chance to humble me, do you?” He laughs. I laugh. [genitals]

I set off.

[Stomach] Time is now more somber. I am visiting the latest disaster, the murder and mayhem in Madrid, which happened this day on earth. People blown out of trains and killed. I cry. I cry. There before me is the cross with Jesus dieing. I see the pit of despair. I see people cursing God, “Why have you allowed this? Why have you done this?” Jesus dies and in that moment we are all forsaken.

Before me I see a deep wide trench a hundred feet across and thirty feet deep. It is full of dead, mangled bodies. I see an image of myself murdering a woman and I see myself as a baby being murdered by a mother. There are the remnants of a broken bridge across the trench.

On the far side of the trench is dark foreboding landscape. In the middle of the landscape, standing alone is a black-nailed-shut-wooden door. At the moment Jesus dies on the cross a tiny hole appears in the center of the door in the shape of a cross. Radiant light is burning the hole from the backside of the door. The light of the Risen Christ begins to glow through. The light burns the hole larger every second and the door begins to disintegrate.
I climb down into the trench of death and wretch at the smell of rotting flesh. Memories of holocausts, terror and the full horror of man surround me. I know that my sins contributed to the horror and that I experience the horror as a victim too. I walk through the dead and a path clears to the doorway. The door is gone; there is just an open doorway of light. The dead around me stand up renewed. The light blazes through the door and absolves us all. The murderers cower, cringe and fall back. Some ask for forgiveness and are forgiven. I cry out, “I do not know how you, Christ, can do that.” But others shrivel and burn and disintegrate into little pieces. [stomach]

I walk through the doorway.

[Heart] I am in the circle of the heart, of the love of Christ. I pause to savor the huge warmth and joy. There are thousands of people thronging the circular piazza. The angels are there too.

An angel comes to me and says, “Come, greet all the people who have ever lived and all the people who are alive. Here in this place is their love and their expression of it. The combined love of all people. Everybody has a part of them that is love. It is there for us all. It is the richest power that exists in the universe and it is inherent in human nature. Animals have it too as they care for their own. This caring is the greatest resource in the world. From the heart we have love and it makes a pulse.  The heart beat of every human who has lived and is alive beats together to the pulse of the universe. All love and caring and life is here.”

There are people that I meet who I had always seen as unhappy and the angel says, “But there was always a happy part of them. A part of love, a place from the heart.”

There is Jesus in the middle, standing dressed simply in white robes. The light of God shines directly down on him and his total self rests in the heart of the universe, God. From Jesus radiates out a love from his heart, his self into us and into me. His love is so strong that it absorbs into me and my heart radiates his love to the people around and their hearts radiate too and too and too. All around our hearts are radiating the love because we love God with all our life. We bathe ourselves in the love and it radiates out. Jesus smiles and laughs and says, “It is perfectly human too.” [heart]

I leave and walk on to the place of the mount where sermons are given.

[Throat] Jesus is standing there – doing a handstand! He is talking to everybody doing a handstand! I am perplexed. He gets off the hand-stand and stands up and turns to me and I say, “What is all that about?” He says, “Some people were too far away to hear but I wanted to make it clear that I would turn their world upside down by the clarity of words. That is what I came to do. As they could not hear me I let them see me doing a handstand.” I laugh. “Yes,” he says, “You laugh too.” He admonishes me, “But turning the world upside down is disturbing as well. Sit!” So I sit.

Jesus says, “Let’s talk quietly. You are born of a different age and have come into a world of much difference. I have sent you disciples to teach you about the word, including the middle school teacher in Quincy, Massachusetts, Ron Adams and others too. So remember there is not much to say. Say it well, say it clearly and if you need to say it standing on your head do so because that is what the word will do to people. Do not be frightened that this is the message. The love of God is so powerful and people want to feel it. When it touches them they enjoy that it turns their worlds upside down. Of course those who have not yet opened their eyes are disconcerted and may resist. But speak gently and speak clearly and speak of the love of God and be off with you up the mountain, you go.” And I go. As I leave I notice Jesus practicing his cartwheels. I laugh. I walk. The mountain seems steep, rocky. [throat]

I begin to climb.

[Head] The mountain has never seemed so hard. I climb and get to a ridge. There is a cave and I climb in. It is cold and I sit, cold and miserable. I have my nice boots on. My boots which when I want them to can turn gold and sprout wings. I am thinking, “Why am I climbing up here, why not use the boots? Where is the church on the top of the mountain? Which way to go?”

I hear a woman’s voice, it is the voice of Mary, the Mother of God. She is up above me in an area where it is green and I hear her say, “Oh Man! Oh Man! Why have you climbed up the hard way?” Some steps appear outside the cave that curve up around the mountainside to a place a hundred feet above where Mary is sitting in a garden of beautiful roses. The garden is low-walled and is like an out door church.  From the garden we can look out across the plains below. She says, “Welcome, welcome. Come enjoy. Smell the roses.” They are wonderfully fragrant. She says, looking slightly exasperated, “Trying to achieve again? Mountain climbing. Did you not notice that Jesus gave you boots that fly if you wish? You actually climbed up the mountain as if you were some form of superman?” I say, “Excuse me, if I had used the boots I would have been a superman. I came up the hard way like a human.” She laughs and says, “Come! Let us worship God.” At this point a path appears at the end of the rose garden that leads up to the top of the mountain.

We walk up to the very top of the mountain. She says, “Well you know if you read your scripture right when you step off the top of the mountain you will step into my womb but actually you will step into the womb of the whole universe.” We stand on the top of the mountain, it is like being at the top of Everest but in this case there are no surrounding mountains so we can see across the land. She says, “We are at the pinnacle.” It is pretty amazing. But she says, “You do know that you must follow what is alive, alive in each person and know that I will leave you when you step off the mountain because I am of a story book and what you are stepping into is the virgin womb of the universe. Think Man what this means. You enter the womb of the one who holds my son, Jesus and God as Father too. I know that when you met my son, Jesus, before in the beyond and God the Father began to appear from behind Jesus, you were frightened that you were going to die. But know that even God the Father is held. Know that as you step off the mountain where you will step. I will be gone.” [head]

I stand on the top of the mountain.

[Crown] The light encloses around me and I am in an egg of light. I spin around, up side down and back again as if there is no gravity. I am held and I am thinking, “Christ! I am in the womb, the womb of who? Who is this mother that I am in and into what world will I be born?” The egg opens like a flower. The petals fold away and disappear.  [crown]

I am standing in space.

[Beyond] I look out into the universe. Jesus appears, the Risen Christ and says, “And here is the whole universe in motion everywhere.” He takes my hand and for the first time begins to lead me away out into the universe. He says, “Be reassured we will bring you back fully.” But I say, “But if I see God the Father I will die.” He says “You’re dead already and alive so don’t worry.” I ask, “You’re not bringing me to God the Father?” He laughs and says, “Didn’t my mother, Mary, tell you that even God the Father is held by the one whose womb you are in?” We walk towards the Sun. A fireball explodes towards me, the full wrath of God the Father. I feel a blinding burning sensation and fear that my flesh is going to burn off. Jesus says, “Do not fear, it will burn the sin from you. But if you are holding a sinful moment within you it will burn you and rip into your flesh. For this moment I bless you and hold you. And yes I know you are a worthless sinner and all that stuff but in this moment experience the wrath of God.”

We walk into the Sun and the blinding fire, an extraordinary orange of heat. “Can you imagine,” says Jesus, “If you were holding onto a sin and this heat hit. Imagine what it will do to you.” I look out across the universe and there are filaments and fragments, disintegrated souls of no coherence. Jesus says, “Destroyed by the wrath of unity.”  I turn to him and say nervously, “I must return.” I pull away from him, a sense of fear and needing to return pervades. Jesus points to my feet and says, “Remember those boots that I gave you at the beginning? They are holding you to the ground this very moment. They are the special gift that I gave you. You thought you blew out through the top of your head? Didn’t you? But you didn’t because I was holding you with special boots all along.” I pause, look down and laugh. “It is true.” My feet are still on the ground. I ask, “How can you do this?” Jesus laughs and says, “That is for another time. Now I think it is time for you to return and do it carefully in steps. You will arrive back on the mountaintop.” [beyond]

At these words I am back on the mountaintop.

[Head] Mary is there and says, “How was my son?” I reply, “Quite a man. Took me to see God the Father, scary but Jesus was holding my feet to the ground.” “Ah yes,” she says, “He has a sense of humor too.” So we walk down an amazing golden staircase that stretches straight down the mountain. Part way down Mary says. “I will leave you here. It will be safe for you to walk down alone from now on to the next place.” [head]

I walk on down alone.

[Throat] People come up to me and ask, “What was it like?” I reply, “Well if you keep your feet on the ground it is pretty amazing and scary too. Time to try and live a good life I think.” I reflect, “I need to get my thoughts in order.” [throat]

I walk down further to the place of the heart, the circular piazza.

[Heart] In the circle of the heart it is quiet. It is evening time. There is real warmth and a sense of happiness in the air. I greet people and they wish me a good night and I know I will have good dreams. A sense of love, joy and general pleasantness pervades me. [heart]

I walk on to the pit of despair.

[Stomach] I kneel before the cross and say, “Jesus, I would have died before God the Father if you had not died for me. I understand what this forgiveness means.” [stomach]

I walk to the place of the picnic banquet table.

[Genitals] I am in the place of communion. It is night. Everyone except Jesus is asleep, who is sitting alone at the table. There is a candle on the table that illuminates his face. He says, “Sit.” I sit down and take out the pouch that contains bread dipped in wine and I eat it. And he says, “These are all good people. There are good people everywhere, through the spirit of communion commune with them all. Like you, they are all graced by God. Enjoy their fellowship and remember to break bread as I have always done.” I smile and I thank him. [genitals]

Finally I walk to the bottom of the mountain.

[Feet] I arrive at a simple wooden hut where I had put on my magical boots that helped me walk the mountain and helped me survive out in the beyond in the face of God the Father. I take them off and there is the man who looks after them and the footlockers. It is Jesus. I rented the boots off him but I did not recognize him when I started out. I say, “How come you are always looking after me and my service.” He says “You like the boots?” I reply, “I love the boots.” He says “Go fit some nice boots on other people. Good night and God bless, sleep well and learn the lessons of today.”[feet]

Amen.

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