Dragging our Feet in the Sand

Sermon 3-18-18

Grace and peace to you from God our creator and from our Lord and savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

 You all are familiar with the “Footprints in the Sand” poem, right? A man has a dream that he was walking along a beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashes scenes from his life, and most of the time there are two sets of footprints. But after the last scene ended, the man looked back on the beach and saw that sometimes there was only one set of footprints, and they happened to coincide with the very lowest and saddest times in his life. The man was understandably upset that it was at THESE dark times that the Lord seem to abandon him.

The Lord replies to this man, “My precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During those times…. when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

For some of us, this poem is our reality.  Some of us at times have been so overwhelmed with these lowest and saddest times that we cannot take even take one more step forward, and the only way we make it through each day is to be carried by God.

But at other times, our walk with the Lord may leave behind a different kind of trail in the sand.

Read this version closely.... 

I once found an alternative take on the footprints poem in a funny comic on Facebook…. In the first panel, God has his arm around the dreamer and says the familiar words, “…where you see one set of footprints is where I carried you.” But there is an alternative ending, where God points off in the distance and says, “Now, THAT long groove is where I DRAGGED you, kicking and screaming.”

Jesus makes a lot of promises to us, including to never leave us. Where Jesus is, we are there, as he says in verse 26. And this does indeed bring us a great deal of comfort when our lives are challenging. However, the first part of that verse reads “whoever serves me must follow me…” and sometimes where Jesus goes are not places that I am exactly eager to be.

After all, Jesus and I don’t exactly have the same taste in hang-out spots. 

From the last few weeks in Lent, we can get an idea of what kinds of places Jesus likes to frequent:

The wilderness with the wild beasts, being tempted by Satan.

With his disciples, talking about crosses, death, and self-denial.

In the temple, trashing the booths of the money changers and chasing out their animals with whips.

In late night conversations with Nicodemus, foreshadowing his own death.

And today - hanging out with people on the outside, chatting with God through thunder, and YET AGAIN speaking of his own death.

Hmm. No thanks, Jesus. I’ll catch up with you the next Lent.

Even after all this, the late-night conversations and the cleansing of the temple, the Greeks in our Gospel reading were still drawn to Jesus. As Jesus said, “I will draw all people to myself.” But the drawing that Jesus is doing here has less to do with nice things like crayons, or magnets being drawn to one another, or being drawn to someone through love at first sight … it has more to do with dragging heavy nets full of fish across the sand.  The word that Jesus uses here also describes how fishermen “draw,” or rather, drag, pull, or heave these heavy nets onto the beach. Probably leaving behind them a long groove in the sand.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised when following Jesus looks more like a long groove than footprints in the sand.

Like the Greeks, we may THINK we want to see Jesus… but do we really? Seeing Jesus is seeing the cross. Seeing Jesus means following him TO the cross, to suffering, humiliation, and death. The cross is not a place anyone in their right mind would want any part of. And yet, that is exactly where Jesus calls us. To deny ourselves and take up our cross.  To lose our own lives for the sake of Jesus and the good news. To die to our selves for the sake of our neighbors. To be buried in the earth like seeds so that we may bear fruit.

This is not exactly a journey where we are keen to go on... even if we know that, because of Jesus, there is resurrection on the other side. Jesus WANTS us to be with him, because he loves us and desires that we would not perish, but have life…. Eternal and abundant life. And that is only possible if we go where Jesus leads us.

This is really, really hard though. It’s going to involve change, loss of the familiar, and new experiences, and not being able to clearly see the path we are traveling sometimes. It’s going to involve trusting Jesus to lead us through some unexplored territory. This is really scary, so too often we dig in our heels and try to stay put.

Much like my cats tried to do during one of my many moves with them over the years. By now, they have been through quite a few moves with me…. But once, early on, I hadn’t quite worked out all the kinks. Everything was all packed up at my new place. I marveled at the wisdom of my plan of leaving the cats until very last. You can probably see where this is going.

Can't stay mad at this face for long...

As I put one cat in the carrier, my other cat dug her claws in, to let me know SHE DID NOT WANT TO GO…. And her claws left a long bloody grove down my pinky finger. Great. I got her in the carrier, but I’m bleeding from a pretty decent cut, and naturally I had left all the bandages at the new place!! Fortunately, I found a spare tissue to wrap around my hand … and now I can laugh about the time that I drove to my new apartment, angry cats in the back seat, with a bloody pinkie up in the air.

My cat was scared and didn't know where we were going. She didn’t yet understand that we were going to a new home … together. I didn’t want to leave her behind, because she is part of my family. But she wasn’t happy about it… and her long groove of protest intersected with my hand. But I was willing to risk her claws and losing a little blood - if that’s what it took to bring her home with me.

Jesus refuses to leave us behind. He thought that facing our claws, our dragging feet, our reluctance to the point of turning our back on him, was worth it – that WE are worth it. Jesus stops at nothing to draw all people in to God’s family. Even if that meant that we would rather betray, deny, abandon, or even crucify Jesus rather than follow him.

But God has a way of making crosses and tombs empty. God has a way of turning death into life. God has a way of even making our long grooves in the sand into something that God can use for good.

If you grew up on a farm like I did, or with someone in the family who gardened, you know what a long, straight groove – or furrow - in the ground is perfect for: Planting a row of seeds.

Like the cross, a seed is a vehicle for life. By itself, a seed looks dead and lifeless, but once it is buried in the earth, it can become what it was created to be – to burst open and bring forth new life, many times over.

We may not know yet exactly what kind of seed we will be – but we know the One who has planted us here in this place at this time. It is the same God who gathers us together every week to sustain us with the body and blood of his son Jesus… only to send us out again into the world. It is the same God who will not leave us behind. It is the same God who commands us not to leave OTHERS behind. We are drawn in and welcomed to God’s table of love, and we in turn help in the work in drawing in others too…. there is a place for ALL here with Jesus. Thanks be to God. Amen.