I’m a gardener. About this time of year I get all excited about what flowers & vegetables to plant. I found some old seed packets from several seasons ago, but few plants germinated from these old seeds. They were completely lifeless, perishing right there on my shelf. BUT I got some seeds of more recent date, and now we’ll see what sprouts! Funny, they looked about the same as the others: dry, shriveled and useless… Scripture to be read on this Third Weekend of Easter is meant to advise spiritual gardeners that what seems to be dead does indeed spring to life, by God’s grace! Let those with ears hear and own for themselves this Good News.
ACTS 2:36-41 is the conclusion of Peter’s sermon on the First Pentecost, where Passover pilgrims were astounded to hear God’s message in their own languages. He said, “Save yourself from the old dry seeds–oops–this crooked generation”. N.B.–these nascent believers were just little sprouts, not yet fully ripe! Don’t razz those around you who are still in the growth process. And you? The Holy Spirit continues to guide believers old and new into a closer walk…
We continue to hear the words of PETER (or one of his team) in I 1:17-23. We go on with the agrarian simile: “You have been born anew, not of perishable but imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.” Face it, this is a throw-away world & culture: don’t fix your shoes, get new ones; don’t worry about scratches on the car, get a new one; spouse let you down? get a new one… The hymnist writes, “Death and decay in all around I see; O thou who changest not, abide with me.” Here Christ helps us along “to Perfection”, even while nearby systems don’t deliver.
LUKE’s Gospel, 24:13-35, is the Easter story of two weary disciples on their way back home to Emmaus (not near Allentown, but near Jerusalem) suddenly joined by a stranger that told them all about Resurrection. Blinded by grief & disappointment, they didn’t recognize Jesus until supper. They had been stuck in the perishable, the story of a dead Master confined by the power of Death. But that’s last year’s seeds! From now on, the imperishable can laugh at the old dominion of wear & tear! The writer includes this call to the Gentile Church to lift it from the Road to Nowhere into a sense of possibility and hope. These weeks after Easter announce a sense of renewal, as Creation forms again…
Barbara K. Lundblad tells us, “By the time this letter [I Peter] was written, news of Jesus who had been raised from death had traveled far beyond Jerusalem. The bright light of Easter was shining far beyond the tomb. Can we help people see that spreading light?” (in FEASTING on the WORD, A 2:415). Our final prayer may well ascend, “Lord of Harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.”
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
Please stay tuned every Tuesday as we wrestle with Scripture to be heard on the upcoming weekend: at horacebrownking.com
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