The Audacity of Trust (Week 13, Nov 20)
Readings
Leviticus 25
Luke 4:14–30
1 Peter 2:4–12
Silent Reflection
Remarks
We have now come to the end of the first quarter of our year together. Part A. We called this section “A Time of Planting and Harvest” with the idea of syncing up our experience with the world around us, considering how we are interacting with what God has created.
The idea was to use this first quarter to build a foundation for a life of worship, a life in which we offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God and His great Kingdom project. In order to be able to offer our lives in that way, we need to be rooted in trust.
What is the seed we plant in order for the Kingdom to grow? We plant trust. Trust in the story as we say enough to our insecurities. Trust in God’s love as we lay down our harmful desires for self-preservation. Trust in God’s justice as we forgive and drop the jawbone.
Basic and yet inexpressibly significant, these are the ways we cultivate the Kingdom of God. These are foundational postures, major shifts in consciousness that alter the way we perceive the world, understand God, and relate to others — our family, our friends, and our enemies.
These seeds of trust are planted in the soil of living hope. We plant these seeds and find out they have a special design, bred to work exactly for the environment in which we find ourselves.
Of course, we don’t learn to plant overnight. Nor do these things sprout overnight. We plant the seeds and we wait. For days, it appears nothing is happening; yet we water and we watch in trust. Weeks later, we see the evidence of faithfulness poking through the earth. And yet there are so many things that could go wrong (and likely will). There are so many things we could worry about. Will the heat prove too much? Will the soil dry up and become lifeless? Will a great storm destroy our fragile seedlings? There is such a long way to go and it feels as though the progress might not sustain it. The measly growth is hardly noticeable from day to day. Yet we press on. Trying not to be consumed by worry, we trust. We plant, we water, we steward.
These seasons of planting and harvest require perseverance. The story encourages us. As we see Isaac begin to realize the call of his father to bless the nations, we perceive the need to stay in the land and remain faithful to the mission. As we see the tragic consequences of Cain’s insecurities, we recognize the need to be our brother’s keeper. Time and again we hear the call to persevere in the responsibilities of trust. We water, we cultivate, we steward.
This will not be a routine season. Storms will threaten our crops. Pests will invade our fields. Challenges will arise on every side. So, in addition to perseverance, we need to seek and live in wisdom. The story shows us that an element of shrewdness will be part of our partnership with God as we work the field He has given us. We are not asked to memorize the step-by-step Instruction Manual for Successful Farming. What we are asked is to undertake a dynamic journey of problem-solving and strategic thinking.
So we plant. We water, we cultivate, we steward.
Every day and every moment of this season is an act of faithfulness and trust.
We trust. We say “enough.” We protect. We rest. We persevere. We sabbath. We wrestle.
We cultivate the soil of faith. This is not a cheap faith, nor is it a shallow trust. This is not a mere theological concept taught to us in a course about the mechanics of personal salvation from sin. This is a deep and profound experience of daily engagement. This is about therapy appointments and idolatry, about compulsion and Amazon accounts, about insecurities and grudges and conflict with coworkers, about contentment and fear. This is about the diagnosis and the uncertainty. This is about losing jobs and signing divorce papers. This is about blood and sweat and tears and dirt and money and relationships.
And that’s why this work is so critical and important. Without the down and dirty work of breaking the ground, without the tilling and planting, there is no harvest. And so we plant seeds of faith and trust.
The good news is, at some point, planting turns to harvest. We see the products of love. We experience grace and as we both forgive and are forgiven. We experience acceptance and we let go of our demands. We are loved by God and we extend that same love to others. And this harvest of love, of forgiveness, of rest, of delight, increases a hundredfold and brings forth everything we need to thrive.
Sometimes it is just enough.
Sometimes it is more than we can imagine.
But the harvest always brings joy and celebration. It always comes with a party — a festival. Our festivals did not come without their trials and their hard work, so our festivals will be full of stories as we look back — tales of lessons learned, mistakes made, and inspired moments of shrewdness. When we speak about our lives, these tales are the native language.
So plant the seeds of faith in the soil of hope. Trust the story and trust the process. And know that harvest comes every fall.
Silent Reflection
Response
(Have someone lead the group through this mediation; everyone else should close their eyes. Take it slowly to give time for imaginations to work.)
Imagine a field full of workers, harvesting a field by hand.
They are singing songs, and they joke and chide each other as they work.
There is a whistle that signals the end of the harvest work and all the workers begin to pack up for the day; imagine yourself doing the same.
One by one, the workers leave. The din fades until you are standing in that field alone, hearing nothing but the slightest gentle breeze.
Listen for the voice and wisdom of God. What does He tell you about your own personal planting and harvest?