Sure Footing

John 6:51-58

     We need to have a clear idea of who we are. We need to know clearly what our purpose is. We are the beloved children of God. Humanity is broken and wandering and has fallen into the muck and our loving God, our Heavenly Father became human and came to save us. Jesus came to reach out his hand to lift us out of our delusions, he came to life us out of our self-destructive behaviors, Jesus came to save us and to give us life in abundance. Jesus offers his hand with out conditions. Trusting him to save you is all that is required.

     This past Thursday I attended a memorial service of a 24 year-old-man that I first met 13 years ago. His was a sad and tragic death.

He was born with some physical challenges that he had to deal with his entire life. Sometimes they were frustratingly impossible to overcome when it came to getting what he wanted, like a driver's license. When I knew him as a high-schooler he had ideas of going into pastoral ministry and would often stop me in the halls of the church to ask me questions about the process.

I mostly lost touch with him over the last few years. I got a cryptic Face book message from him last summer, to which I replied but he didn't respond back. I had no idea that he was living in Manistee.

What I knew of him was that he had a strong faith and a supporting family. I thought that with all challenges he faced in his life that he had a good foundation...sure footing to stand strong.

But based on the decision he made it is obvious that there was pain that I did not see and there was unstable ground where I thought there was a rock.

     When you lose someone like that it causes you to ponder and to reassess. I was doing that the day after the memorial service when Alex said, “I want to go for a hike.” Perfect. That is just what I need. So he and I went up to the National Forest and hiked part of the Nordhouse dunes trail. I had never been there before . It's a beautiful place. We started by going out to the beach. We stumbled over hills of sand just to get a look at Lake Michigan which was just roaring that day with huge waves. Then we went and hit the trail. We climbed up and as we walked along the trail I was aware of the risk involved. The down side of the dune ,which was rarely more than just a couple of feet from the trail and sometime much closer, dropped off 60-100 feet to the bottom. It was pretty steep and had lots of trees. The trail is sandy and had lots of obstacles like roots across it. If one were careless it would be easy to trip and fall and get hurt pretty bad if they went over the side of the hill. Alex and I hiked for little over an hour. My senses were elevated because of the risk. I was thinking, “I want to make sure my son had sure footing both on the trail and in life.”

     Jesus Christ is the source of everlasting life. Jesus Christ is the Lord of Lords. Before he existed in the flesh He was the Logos, the Eternal Word of God. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.

     As we stumble through life climbing the unstable piles of sand It is good to praise God for the abundant beauty that is around us in those he has put on the path with us and in everything he created. When we work to get over all the unstable ground that this life throws at us just to get to ultimately reach the lake shore it is good to have some assurance of our destination, and I'm not talking about riding the Badger to Wisconsin.

     Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

      Jesus promises eternal life and life for the world. He is offering something eternal, unchanging stable. He is giving the alternative to the instability of life. Life without Jesus leads only to death. There are some who only hear what they want to hear.

Scripture says, “Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began to argue with on another, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'”

     They were taking Jesus words literally without listening to what he was really telling them. Jesus was offering something wonderful, but because they had an agenda to discredit and to destroy they were looking for any possible way to distort his words. Why would anyone who is stuck in the muck and the filth not take the hand of one who could get them out?

     When you have been in the muck so long you begin to think that is just the way things are supposed to be. And if you can explain the muck well enough. If you can explain our human predicament well enough and if enough people listen you begin to believe that it is the only truth there is. When you are convinced that the ditch is holy and there is no other alternative to the cycle of life that you are in, then the offer of Jesus' salvation seems like a fantasy that is too good to be true.

     Some people just don't want to hear it. Jesus doesn't back down from his metaphor. “The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him.”

     We are to eat his flesh? We are to take on the sanctified nature of our humanity. We were made in perfection. We have messed up, failed and have fallen. But Jesus came to clear all that up. Jesus came in the flesh to purify our flesh. We need not be ashamed of our humanness. We need not be ashamed of our nature. God made us the way God intended and any corruption that is in us, Jesus will correct if we just reach out our hand and accept his salvation.

     Jesus says we are to drink his blood? Yes! Blood is life. We are to take Jesus life that he has offered as our own. Our life on this earth will end. But while we are here we take the life of the eternal Christ in us an live in confidence, serving our neighbors without hesitation or restraint because we know that we have eternal life even beyond death's door.

     We are going to have two baptisms. In baptism we as a community of faith welcome new members into God's family. In baptism God's undeserved love is lavished on those he has created. In baptism God offers sure footing in a world of shifting sands.

     So how is it with you today? How confident are you in your spiritual walk. How is you relationship with God?

     I invite you to remember you baptism. Not necessarily remember the day, but remember that you are a beloved child of God. Remember that God acted first in offering you a way to an abundant and eternal life.

Remember that God made you on purpose and loves you very much.