"Footprints"
a sermon by wayne mclaughlin
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
June 30, 2013
Psalm 77.1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5.1, 13-25
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I assume most of you have heard or read this poem titled, “Footprints In The Sand":
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it:
"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."
The LORD replied:
"My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
(I have seen this poem attributed to Mary Stevenson or Carolyn Joyce Carty)
It’s a nice poem. Makes me want to tear up a bit. And it invites serious reflection on our faith and how we understand the presence of God.
THE EXODUS
But there is actually a verse in the Bible about footprints that also invites our reflection. It is in today’s Psalm:
Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. (Ps. 77.19, NRSV)
Here we have the unseen footprints of God. Arguably the most important event in the Hebrew Scriptures is the Exodus— the story of God delivering the Israelites from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt.
The story says that God opened the waters
of the Red Sea
so that the Jews could walk across the ocean floor and escape to their freedom.
But here’s the point: No one saw God. He did not materialize. In fact, he didn’t even leave any footprints! He was invisible.
Then how did the Jewish people know it was God? Centuries later when they wrote this story down, a story that had obviously beentold over and over again through centuries, how could they be sure God was involved?
Well, for one thing, their leader, Moses, had told them that he heard God speak from a bush—a flaming bush—and God told him to lead the people out of Egypt.
And for another thing, there was no way they could have escaped by themselves. The impossible happened.
And ever since then the Jewish people have said that the way to know if God is behind some action or event is to compare it with the Exodus.
The main question being:
Is someone being set free?
THE UNSEEN
The Bible tells us that we have to believe in what we cannot see.
St. Paul writes:
We look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4.18)
For we walk by faith, not by sight. (5.7)
We who are followers of Jesus “look for what cannot be seen”! We believe that there is more to life than meets the eye. As Paul says, “What cannot be seen is eternal.”
There is something eternal. Something unseen.
We do not walk by sight!
Which means we live our lives based on an invisible spiritual presence. It’s not that we deny what can be seen. What can be seen is real too. We affirm whatever science proves to us. We accept evidence that is provable. But we do not believe that that is all there is to life.
We believe reality is larger than what an atheist sees. We see more. We believe in The More.
BY FAITH
We walk by faith. That is, we live by trusting in the invisible presence of God. In the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse one, we find a of definition of faith:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (NRSV)
Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see. (Contemporary English Bible)
Pope Benedict XVI, in his Encyclical, Saved in Hope, says that the Greek term elenchos does not have the subjective meaning of ‘conviction,’ but the objective sense of ‘proof.’ So, he says, our faith—our trust in God in the present—actually gives us a kind of certain knowledge that God’s promises for the future are reliable.
“Faith draws the future into the present.”
So, living by faith creates proof of the invisible reality we call God.
A CONTEMPLATIVE SCIENTIST
Michelle Francl-Donnay is a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College. She is also a contemplative. In a public lecture given last year she said this:
I believe in God. I also believe in evolution, quantum mechanics, particle physics, anthropogenic climate change, the Big Bang Theory, and perhaps even the Higgs boson. I am a scientist and a practicing Roman Catholic. I am a contemplative, who regularly extricates myself from the ‘interwebs’ and takes up temporary residence in silent monastic enclaves. I am a quantum mechanic who has used some of the most powerful computers in the world to dig into the interiors of molecules to see what makes them tick. I don't leave my faith at the door of the lab, nor do I suspend my critical faculties at the door of the church.
Science deals in the tangible, the physical. There is a point at which any further why’s or what’s take you from the physical to the metaphysical, from the realm of physics into philosophy and theology. I can’t prove the existence of God in the same way I can prove the existence of my notes on the page in front of me, but like much of science, direct observation is neither always possible nor necessary. I have never seen an electron and I cannot prove its existence in the same way I can prove the existence of my notes, but I am convinced of their existence, I can see their traces. No one has held a Higgs boson in their hand, but its tracks convince us it (might) exist.
I believe in God; I have seen God’s tracks. Several years ago I spent 30 days in silence, very methodically looking for God’s traces in my life, and in the life of the world, doing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Not everything about even the physical universe is knowable, or at least quantifiable. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says that knowing the exact position and exact velocity of an electron is not possible. Building a better measuring device will not help, it’s just not knowable. Psychologist William James, who wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience, takes a similar tack in the realm of the metaphysical. One marker of mystical experiences, which might include experiences of God, is that they are ineffable, indescribable.
(emphasis added)
***
The world is made up of that which we can see and that which we cannot see. The world is both material and spiritual. God’s footprints are all over the place. But we can’t actually see them. God is at work in our lives in invisible ways.
Scientists tell us that 90% of the universe is made up of dark matter, and we don’t know what it is. There is a lot of invisible stuff in our universe.
Adam Smith wrote in the 19th century about the ‘invisible Hand’ that operates in economic affairs. We who base our lives on the Biblical Tradition speak about the invisible Hands and Feet that operate in spiritual affairs.
RESURRECTION AS AN EXODUS
In the New Testament the death of Jesus is reported as a historical and public event. No one denies it took place. His resurrection is also reported, but not as a historical, public event. No one saw the Resurrection. What they saw was an empty tomb. Which is kind of a negative evidence.
But the apostles report seeing Jesus in a transformed, science fiction kind of body—he materialized and disappeared at will. These sightings were not historical, public events. They were spiritual events, seen only by believers. They weren’t visible to the public eye. They were in another category altogether. But the apostles report that these appearances were real.
The resurrection of Jesus is the central invisible footprint of our Christian faith. Just as the Jews were set free from slavery in Egypt,
though God’s footprints were not visible,
so, the disciples of Jesus were set free from their fear of death by the resurrection of Jesus. There were no visible footprints leaving the empty tomb. The evidence of the resurrection was seen in the courageous and compassionate lives of the disciples.
GALATIANS 5 – FRUIT OF FREEDOM
In his letter to the Galatians Paul says, You have been set free! But he warns them: Don’t go back into Egypt; stay on the road of freedom. Then he gives them evidence of Christ’s redemptive work in their lives. It’s like an orchard, says Paul. The evidence (the footprints) of God in your lives is the fruit you will find in God’s orchard.
There is love,
and joy and peace;
and patience, kindness, gentleness,
generosity, loyalty, and self-control.
When you see these kinds of fruit growing within you and in your relationships with other people, you will know that God has set you free. These are the visible evidences of the invisible God at work in you. These are the fruits of freedom and salvation.
God has been walking through your soul. His footprints are invisible. But the evidence of your escape from the slavery of your egoism is the tasty, juicy fruit that grows people see on your branches.
Self-control,
loyalty,
generosity,
gentleness,
kindness,
patience,
peace,
joy,
love.
The taste of freedom in Christ, the evidence of salvation, the visible marks of the invisible God. The proof of the resurrection.
1920/15:10
