Every Grain of Sand - July 11, 2021

Recorded Worship on YouTube

Psalm 40: 1-2, 11-12 & Matthew 10:26-31

Deborah Laforet

Every Grain of Sand

Let us pray.  May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by the Spirit and be words of wisdom for this today.  Amen. 

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need

When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed

These are the first lines of a song released by Bob Dylan in 1981 called “Every Grain of Sand.”  This summer, I have asked for people to request songs on which they they would like to hear me preach.  “Every Grain of Sand” was released on an album called, Shot of Love, which was the last of a trilogy of albums during Dylan’s ‘born again’ phase, which were oriented towards faith and spirituality.  Although not a well-known song, a 2015 Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs" placed it 10th.  U2 singer Bono compared it to the great psalms of David.  When Bruce Springsteen inducted Dylan into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame on January 20, 1988, he cited "Every Grain Of Sand" as an example of Dylan’s best work, and a 2021 Guardian article included it on a list of "80 Bob Dylan songs everyone should know.”

Don’t worry.  I had never heard it before either.

This was the very first request I received after I advertised the summer preaching series in May.  I reached out to Kent Palmer this week to let him know that I was preaching on his requested song, and he was surprised.  It’s not an easy song to interpret and not well-known.  He described the song as, “just so poetic and simple.  Gives me peace. Makes me feel small and insignificant but also not alone somehow.”  I told Kent that I’d listen to it and try and get a feel for what it’s about.  He said, “What’s it about.  Good question.”

As with most good poems that stand the test of time, they have different meanings for different people.  The words connect with people’s experiences in different ways.  Therefore, the poem doesn’t really have just one meaning, but several, so what I offer today are my own thoughts around Dylan’s words.

From what we know, Dylan had found God at this time in his life and he just couldn’t help writing about that experience.  I don’t know much about Dylan’s life before this point, but I wonder whether he experienced a lot of regret over his past, maybe mistakes he had made, or past trauma that brought pain and turmoil.  After those first two lines, Dylan continues with: 

There's a dying voice within me reaching out somewhere

Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake

Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break

And then he writes, 

In the fury of the moment I can see the master's hand

In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

God is everywhere and in everything.  We are not alone, even when it seems that life is against us, even when we feel we are at our worst.  I hear this in the verses of Psalm 40 that Jackie read for us: 

For evils have encompassed me
    without number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
    until I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head,
    and my heart fails me.

The psalmist though begins this psalm with assurance that God will not abandon them, that God will show mercy, that God “drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” (Psalm 40:2)

And then we hear in Dylan’s song,

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame

And every time I pass that way I always hear my name

Then onward in my journey I come to understand

That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

There’s something to be said about an unshakeable faith.  Not that there is never any doubt.  At one point in the song, Dylan writes that, “Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.”  But there is this assurance throughout the song that he knows he is not forgotten, that he knows he is never abandoned, and he knows he is valued and counted, just as “every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.”

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus takes some time to offer lessons to his disciples as he sends them off to proclaim the good news, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons.  He wants them to do what they have seen him do.  I imagine that they were unsure that they could do what Jesus did.  They were unsure whether they were worthy to do what Jesus did.  Who were they compared to their revered teacher, who it was rumoured was the Messiah, the one to save Israel?

One phrase we hear in the gospel, as Jesus teaches his disciples, is, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.  And even the hairs of your head are all counted.  So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (10:29-31)  In those times, sparrows, were plentiful and cheap.  This word, sparrows, in our bible, was used to speak of any small bird and these small birds are what the poor could afford to eat, two sparrows for a penny.  

Today we might feel this way about chickens, at least in Canada and U.S.  We don’t tend to think about chickens all that much.  We have eggs in abundance, and there are lots of ways we like to eat chicken, but do we ever think that “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father”?  Do we stop to think that God counts every bit of life in this world as valued, no matter how cheaply we may view them?  If even the smallest sparrow, or chicken, is counted by God and even each individual hair on our head, Jesus says, then we have no cause to be afraid for then how much more are we valued?

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need

When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed

I think we’ve all been there.  We’ve all had those times when we are gasping for breath or feel like we’re drowning, when it feels like we are utterly alone and, some of us even feel we deserve the hardship life brings us.  Know this.  Feel this.  We are not alone.  Ever.  We are counted, we are valued, down to each individual hair on your head, like every falling sparrow, like every grain of sand.  

Not only do you have a community, not only do you have friends and sometimes family, you also have the divine Creator, the Holy Infinite Presence, the All-Loving Spirit, always on your side, always walking with you, always offering forgiveness, compassion, support, and love.  I think that’s what Dylan found when people said he was ‘born again.’  He found assurance in God’s ever-present grace.  And you can too.  We can too.  

May you feel the presence of the sacred in your life, during good times and bad, and may it bring you peace and confidence in knowing you are as much valued as even the smallest creature, the smallest bit of life, and that you are never forgotten and you are loved.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Deborah Laforet