Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Sermon for Feb 7, 2021; Luke 6:1-5

 

Rev. George Miller

Feb 7, 2021

Luke 6:1-5

 

Today’s scripture is one we travel through gently.  If used irresponsibly, it treads upon those whose expression of faith is different from ours. 

 

We are here today not to harm, but to illuminate, to heal, to experience God.

 

What, if anything, can today’s scripture say about the God we worship, the God we call Abba, Father, Parent?

 

Is God like the Pharisees- looking with judgement to see if we follow every life-giving law to a “T.”

 

Is God like Jesus and the disciples, traveling from seashore to mountaintop, sanctuary to city?

 

Is God like the grain of the field?

Is God like the grain… 

 

In “The Message”, Eugene Peterson tells this story with an extra word.  The word he uses is “ripe.”

 

In Eugene Peterson’s telling of today’s story, it’s just not any old grainfield Jesus is traveling through, it is a ripe grainfield.

 

Ripe.

 

Meaning abundant.

At its peak.

Ready to be picked.

Ready to be fully experienced.

 

Think about it.

 

What is our faith about?

What is it that Jesus tried to teach us?

What is it Paul so often wrote about?

 

Was it about earning God’s love…or was it about experiencing and receiving God’s love?

 

Did those at the shore have to prove their worth to Jesus in order for him to get into that boat are preach?

 

Did the widow outside the gates of Nain have to pass some kind of test?

 

No.  All they had to do was be present, vulnerable, and willing to receive.

 

Could it really be that simple?

 

Could God really be that kind?

 

Could the Lord be so generous with God’s grace that God is not looking for such absolute strict adherence that you starve?

 

That God is not limiting of where and when you can experience the Lord?

 

That God is not toying with us, placing us in empty plots just to watch us fail?

 

Could it be that Jesus came to show us just how to experience and welcome God’s ripe, abundant love?

 

Could part of the Jesus experience be as simple as this-

 

If you are in a field full of the color purple- marvel in it.

 

If you are in a field full of grain- taste and see how good it is.

 

If you are in a field as the cool breeze of the afternoon blows by, enjoy the wind as it lifts your hair and plays with your senses. 

 

And afterwards…say “thank you.”

 

Thank you God for what you have created.

 

Thank you God for what you provide.

 

Thank you God for how you play.

 

Right now we are living in a culture with so many rules and so many images of scarcity.

 

Don’t go there.  Don’t touch that.

 

Wear your mask, but make sure it covers your nose!

 

Wash your hands, but not too much otherwise they’ll become chapped!

 

We have vaccines; but we don’t have enough.  You’re on the list; but you’re number 777!

 

But today, at this moment, let us take a moment to breathe out all that stuff…

 

…and then breathe in all the goodness that comes from God-

 

-the freedom

-the abundance

-the love.

 

To proclaim, and to believe-

 

That God is free.

God is ripe with abundance.

 

God is ripe with love for all of us.

 

God is ripe with grace and mercy.

 

God is ripe with new beginnings.

 

God is a field that is rich with the color purple, more than enough food to go around, and cool breezes to move through our soul.

 

God is ready to give.  Are we ready to receive?  Are we ready to experience?

 

For that, let us say “Amen.”

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