"When our Claws Scratch the Body of Christ"

 Sermon 3-21-21

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.

Believe it or not, there a lot of steps involved when cats travel. The carrier, the litter boxes, the food and water… and also a specific order to each step, to get from place A to place B with happy cats. After more than the 11 years
of the lives of my two cats, I now have this down to a science. But I didn’t always.

One move, a few years ago, did not go so smoothly. Everything was all packed up at my new place, except the cats As I put one cat in the carrier, her claws left a long bloody grove down my pinky. Naturally, I had packed up all the bandages, and they were currently in a box at my new place!! I did find a spare tissue, and so I drove to my new apartment, with a bloody pinky up in the air, angry cats in their carrier in the back seat.

Needless to say, this last move with them to our new home went flawlessly. That OTHER time, though, my cat was scared and didn't understand what was happening…. and her long groove of protest happened to intersect 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 to her new home, where she belonged. 

 You all are familiar with the “Footprints in the Sand” poem, right? Man, dream, beach, sand, walking with the Lord, his life flashes before his eyes… one set of footprints, happening at the lowest and saddest times in his life.  The Lord’s reply - “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 have been so overwhelmed with these lowest times – many likely being in the past year.  We may feel we cannot take even take one more step forward, and the only way we make it 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. 

I once found an alternative take on the footprints poem in a comic strip…. The first panel, is the familiar end to the poem. But in the second panel, God points off in the distance and says to the dreamer, “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. This can be incredible comforting in our most difficult times. However, the first part of that verse reads “whoever serves me must follow me…” Yikes. Did I sign up for THAT part too? Because Jesus and I don’t exactly have the same taste in hang-out spots.  Sometimes where Jesus goes are not places that I am exactly eager to be. 

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 being attracted to something, like magnets or love at first sight. In this case, being drawn to Jesus is more like dragging heavy nets full of fish across a sandy beach. 

The word that Jesus uses here – he draws all people to himself – is the same word used to describes how fishermen “draw,” or rather, drag, pull, or heave heavy nets full of fish onto the beach. Probably leaving behind them a long groove 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.

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. Like this coming spring, as we emerge from a long year dominated by Covid, we may have felt buried by the amount of change, loss, and grief we have experienced every day. As we navigate lives that are different, we are going to desire the familiar so badly… to dig in our heals and hang on to some parts of the way things were. And some of these parts were not so healthy, and now might be the time to let these things go.

And it seems to be becoming more clear, every single day, what things are long overdue to be left behind – the dangers of purity culture, the dehumanizing of women and people of different backgrounds than us, the glorification of violence and gun culture, and our own complicity as religious people in each and every one of these things. All things that converged so clearly and so tragically this passed week. And I do mean tragically in its literal sense – a disaster that could have been avoided.

Some of us seem to keeping our claws digging into the passed more than others. But the truth is, this week these claws harmed our Asian communities and siblings in Christ. And violence against one beloved of God is violence against God, too. 

It’s a good thing for us, then, Jesus thought that facing our claws, our dragging feet, our reluctance to the point of turning our back on Jesus, was worth it. Because Jesus will stop at nothing until Jesus draws all people in to God’s family, even if WE are the ones who don’t want to go along with Jesus’ way of going about it and drag our feet.

If you grew up on a farm as I did, or have someone in your family who gardens, you know what a long, straight groove – or furrow - in the ground is perfect for: Planting a row of seeds. You see, God has a way of even making our long grooves in the sand into something that God can use for good.

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 every week to sustain us … 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.

Jesus refuses to leave us behind. Jesus WANTS us to be with him, because he loves us and desires that we would not perish, but have life…. abundant life, now AND in the future. And that is only possible if we go where Jesus leads us.  Some days we walk, and some days we have to be carried. But no matter what, the promise remains. Where you are, Jesus is. Where Jesus is, you are. Thanks be to God. Amen.