Take off your shoes.

Back in the 1990s I visited the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem; you might know this place better as the Dome of the Rock. (This was back when they’d let non-Muslims visit.) It’s the oldest Muslim building in the world; it’s believed to be where the temple of the LORD, in Jesus’s day, once stood. It’s an impressive building. Neat mosaics. Pity it deliberately has anti-Christian verses from the Quran inscribed in them:

An-Nisa 4.171

Messiah Jesus ibn Mary was no more than a messenger of God, the fulfilment of his word, through Mary and a spirit sent by him. So believe in God and his messengers. Do not say trinity; stop for your own good. God is only One God. Glory to him; he is far above having a son.

Yep, Muslims believe Jesus is Messiah, that he’s alive, and that he’s coming back. But they insist he’s not God, nor the son of God. Sometimes they’ll teach even they aren’t God’s children; only his servants. But I digress.

Before we went in, we were instructed to leave our shoes at the door. I was wearing sandals, so it meant I had to go barefoot. Lots of people in there were barefoot. Why barefoot? Because it’s holy ground.

And that used to be the regular practice of monotheistic religions—

Exodus 3.2-5 NIV

2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

4When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

When the ground was holy, you lose the shoes.

Joshua 5.15 NIV

The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

When people stood before God, or went to temple and synagogue, they removed their sandals. Because that was the ancient custom: Holy ground, no sandals. In the Greek and Roman empires, the way you could tell slaves from freemen was the fact freemen wore sandals and slaves didn’t, and the Jews of that day recognized this was kinda part of the reason we remove our shoes for holy ground: We’re the LORD’s slaves, and need to remember our place.

So why don’t Christians remove our shoes when we worship? Well, some of us do. Sometimes I do. But you might recall we Christians are collectively the temple of the Holy Spirit: We’re always on holy ground. Because we’re holy, wherever we go is holy ground. And sometimes it’s just wise to wear shoes. Hence the barefoot-before-God thing became optional. And when it’s not our custom to ever go barefoot, sometimes we’re not aware it’s an option—one we might want to opt to do.

It’s a prayer posture.

Elsewhere I’ve written about prayer posture—about sitting or kneeling or bowing down or lifting our hands; whatever we do which helps us focus better on God. Some of these postures are done because they’re custom, but that’s not a valid reason to do ’em; if custom doesn’t help us pray, quit doing that custom. And yes, those who revere custom are gonna be offended when we break custom, just like the Pharisees were outraged when Jesus deliberately defied their traditions. To their minds, it meant Jesus was a sinner. Yet Jesus never sinned—he followed God’s laws, not human ones.

The reason I recommend going barefoot for worship, is not because it’s an ancient custom we have to revive. We don’t. Like I said, we’re the Spirit’s temple. And sometimes the Spirit’s temple wear shoes. Sometimes we need to wear shoes; it’s a safety thing, or a hygiene thing, or the business establishment we’re visiting requires it.

But sometimes having your bare feet on the ground is a really useful reminder we’re in God’s presence. You might find this to be true. You might not. It’s optional. All prayer postures are.

It was not optional in the Old Testament, when Moses and Joshua and everyone in temple had to go barefoot as they stood before the LORD. It was why the priests at the altar had to constantly wash their hands and feet as they performed ritual sacrifices, and might step in blood or gore. The thing about sandals and shoes, is they step on everything, including unclean things, including ritually unclean things, and you didn’t wanna bring those things with you when you enter God’s holy presence. Now that the Spirit indwells us, we’re always ritually clean, and always in God’s holy presence, so we don’t think about ritual uncleanliness so much. But perhaps sometimes we should.

So as I said, it’s an option. Give it a try.