Dealing with Daily Threshing
This is my manuscript for the sermon I was going to preach on Sunday celebrating the Baptism of Jesus. Church was canceled in the Garden due to drifting and I wasn't sure of the roads to head down the mountain. The texts were Isaiah 43:1-7, Acts 8:14-17 and Luke 3:15-22.
I had to look up what threshing was, because, well, to be honest, we don’t do a lot of wheat farming in Saginaw, Michigan. In the threshing rooms, the grains of wheat are place on the ground and then pounded until they break open. The stalks of wheat are beaten by sticks and rods. Metal bars and chains are used to pound the stalks. They are trampled upon by cattle and other animals. They are crushed under rollers exerting tremendous pressure. It is then that the valuable seeds are separated from the useless husks and stalks that surrounded and hid them. It is a way of breaking open the shells to get at the important things inside. A winnowing fork or fan is then used to toss the broken mixture into the air. The lighter chaff would blow away, while the heavier seed would fall to the ground. This process has been around since the beginning of when ever humanity began harvesting grain. It is incredibly violent, literally beating, stomping upon and crushing the grain until it fractures and the useful grain is separated from the rest of the stalk, which is useless, except as fuel to be burned.
Today’s Gospel lesson is a continuation of a lesson we read just before Christmas when I talked about “Luke: The Movie.” John the Baptizer has begun his ministry and has drawn quite a crowd. John warmly welcomes them by calling them a ‘brood of vipers.’ John warns the crowd, full of sinners and society’s rejects that they must radically reorient themselves toward God; they must repent of their ways.
The one who comes after John, the one who he is unfit to untie his sandal, “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” [Luke 3.16] John has baptized them in water, forgiving their sins and calling them to repent. John is warning them that they need to turn to God, or they risk being separated like chaff from wheat. Tradition has it that on the Day of Judgment, we shall be separated like chaff from the wheat, and Jesus, as our Judge will “gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." [Luke 3.17] We will endure threshing, being beaten and broken, stomped upon and crushed. Those who are pious and faithful and worthy will be gathered into the grainery, but those who are unrepentant, and sinful will be separated by Christ’s winnowing fork, and shall burn in unquenchable fire.
John is calling on the people of Israel, and the people of all times and places, to repent, to reorient themselves to God in their daily lives. In the part of this passage from the Gospel lesson assigned in December, John tells the people to be fair, treat others with respect, share, don’t take more than your share, care for others. By doing so, they show the love God has for them by showing that love for one another. What they had done in the past is the past. But by reorienting themselves, they show their brokenness. Using that brokenness, God breaks into their world, and into their hearts and into their minds.
The passage from Isaiah just cries out how much God loves us. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” [Isaiah 43.1-3] “You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.4] God loved them and was going to be there for them.
God tells Israel, who was languishing in exile in Babylon, that it is going to be all right. They had been through a horrible experience. They had done wrong and God allowed them to be punished. But it is going to be all right. “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. … You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.3, 4] What has gone on in the past is the past. Yet even in the past, even in their sinful and sorrowful ways, despite their disobedience and disrespect, beyond their turning away and falling aside, God held them as precious … and honored … and loved.
God did not fall back into love with Israel because they were becoming obedient. God never fell out of love with them. God did not find them precious because they repented and reoriented themselves. God saw them as precious and loved them in spite of their brokenness. Because through that brokenness, God breaks into their world, and into their hearts and into their minds.
When he was baptized, Jesus received the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit would help him endure his own thrashing process. The Spirit sustained and supported him when he went into the wilderness to face temptation. The Spirit is a gift that enabled the Apostles to preach and proclaim properly. The Spirit is a gift given by God that comes to God’s people as a blessing and empowerment. The Spirit is given to those who have the work of God to do.
This is why I read the next verse in Luke’s Gospel; “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.” [Luke 3.33] Everything up to this point in Luke’s Gospel (Luke: The Movie) has been preparatory. Now that Jesus has been baptized, now that Jesus has received the Holy Spirit, now that Jesus has received God’s blessing and love, now Jesus can begin his work. But God said that Jesus was loved before he began his work. It is not because of his work, his ministry that Jesus is God’s Beloved. It is not because of what Jesus will do that God is well pleased. God is well pleased with Jesus, who is God’s Beloved, because that is God. God does not love us because of what we have done, or will do, or have stopped doing, or never did. That puts conditions on God’s love. God’s love is unconditional; we are precious and honored and loved strictly because we are God’s. That is the Lord, our God, the Holy One of Israel, Our Savior.
In our baptism, by receiving the Holy Spirit, we are sustained and strengthened for the thrashing that life is going to give us. The things we deal with daily, the circumstances of our lives, are our threshing floor. Daily we are beaten, trampled and crushed. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can endure when we are beaten by rods, sticks and chains. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can tolerate being trampled upon. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can bear up under the tremendous pressure that is applied to our lives. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can understand what it means to hear: “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. … You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.3, 4]” Then we can realize that everything is going to be all right.
I don’t think that on the threshing floor of the Day of Judgment that some of us are wheat and some of us are chaff. I think we are all wheat, and that life is beating down upon us continually, breaking our shell, breaking us down. We are all wheat which will be gathered into God’s grainery. It is only through dying that a seed can grow and sprout and flourish. While life has beaten us and broken us, it is through that brokenness that God can break into our world and into our hearts and our minds. God loves us and uses us, to do God’s work and to shape us to do God’s purpose. We are all wheat because while life beats us down and breaks us, it is through that brokenness God breaks into our world, and into our hearts and into our minds. Without God breaking into our world through the person of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we would lie broken on life’s threshing room floor. Without the Holy Spirit strengthening us, we could not tolerate the beatings, trampling and crushing given to us by life. With out the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we would lie on the floor amongst the chaff of our sins and failures. But because the Spirit can guide, lead and give us strength, and because Christ’s life, death and resurrection can deliver us from the things that surround us and keep us from being the pure creatures we were meant to be, we will be saved and brought to everlasting life.
God has told us that God loves us, that we are precious in the eyes of the Creator.
In our baptism, we receive and are strengthened and guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Christ suffered and died for our sins, and will ultimately separate us from Sin and Death.
“For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. … You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.3, 4] Knowing this, we begin and continue our work.
I had to look up what threshing was, because, well, to be honest, we don’t do a lot of wheat farming in Saginaw, Michigan. In the threshing rooms, the grains of wheat are place on the ground and then pounded until they break open. The stalks of wheat are beaten by sticks and rods. Metal bars and chains are used to pound the stalks. They are trampled upon by cattle and other animals. They are crushed under rollers exerting tremendous pressure. It is then that the valuable seeds are separated from the useless husks and stalks that surrounded and hid them. It is a way of breaking open the shells to get at the important things inside. A winnowing fork or fan is then used to toss the broken mixture into the air. The lighter chaff would blow away, while the heavier seed would fall to the ground. This process has been around since the beginning of when ever humanity began harvesting grain. It is incredibly violent, literally beating, stomping upon and crushing the grain until it fractures and the useful grain is separated from the rest of the stalk, which is useless, except as fuel to be burned.
Today’s Gospel lesson is a continuation of a lesson we read just before Christmas when I talked about “Luke: The Movie.” John the Baptizer has begun his ministry and has drawn quite a crowd. John warmly welcomes them by calling them a ‘brood of vipers.’ John warns the crowd, full of sinners and society’s rejects that they must radically reorient themselves toward God; they must repent of their ways.
The one who comes after John, the one who he is unfit to untie his sandal, “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” [Luke 3.16] John has baptized them in water, forgiving their sins and calling them to repent. John is warning them that they need to turn to God, or they risk being separated like chaff from wheat. Tradition has it that on the Day of Judgment, we shall be separated like chaff from the wheat, and Jesus, as our Judge will “gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." [Luke 3.17] We will endure threshing, being beaten and broken, stomped upon and crushed. Those who are pious and faithful and worthy will be gathered into the grainery, but those who are unrepentant, and sinful will be separated by Christ’s winnowing fork, and shall burn in unquenchable fire.
John is calling on the people of Israel, and the people of all times and places, to repent, to reorient themselves to God in their daily lives. In the part of this passage from the Gospel lesson assigned in December, John tells the people to be fair, treat others with respect, share, don’t take more than your share, care for others. By doing so, they show the love God has for them by showing that love for one another. What they had done in the past is the past. But by reorienting themselves, they show their brokenness. Using that brokenness, God breaks into their world, and into their hearts and into their minds.
The passage from Isaiah just cries out how much God loves us. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” [Isaiah 43.1-3] “You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.4] God loved them and was going to be there for them.
God tells Israel, who was languishing in exile in Babylon, that it is going to be all right. They had been through a horrible experience. They had done wrong and God allowed them to be punished. But it is going to be all right. “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. … You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.3, 4] What has gone on in the past is the past. Yet even in the past, even in their sinful and sorrowful ways, despite their disobedience and disrespect, beyond their turning away and falling aside, God held them as precious … and honored … and loved.
God did not fall back into love with Israel because they were becoming obedient. God never fell out of love with them. God did not find them precious because they repented and reoriented themselves. God saw them as precious and loved them in spite of their brokenness. Because through that brokenness, God breaks into their world, and into their hearts and into their minds.
When he was baptized, Jesus received the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit would help him endure his own thrashing process. The Spirit sustained and supported him when he went into the wilderness to face temptation. The Spirit is a gift that enabled the Apostles to preach and proclaim properly. The Spirit is a gift given by God that comes to God’s people as a blessing and empowerment. The Spirit is given to those who have the work of God to do.
This is why I read the next verse in Luke’s Gospel; “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.” [Luke 3.33] Everything up to this point in Luke’s Gospel (Luke: The Movie) has been preparatory. Now that Jesus has been baptized, now that Jesus has received the Holy Spirit, now that Jesus has received God’s blessing and love, now Jesus can begin his work. But God said that Jesus was loved before he began his work. It is not because of his work, his ministry that Jesus is God’s Beloved. It is not because of what Jesus will do that God is well pleased. God is well pleased with Jesus, who is God’s Beloved, because that is God. God does not love us because of what we have done, or will do, or have stopped doing, or never did. That puts conditions on God’s love. God’s love is unconditional; we are precious and honored and loved strictly because we are God’s. That is the Lord, our God, the Holy One of Israel, Our Savior.
In our baptism, by receiving the Holy Spirit, we are sustained and strengthened for the thrashing that life is going to give us. The things we deal with daily, the circumstances of our lives, are our threshing floor. Daily we are beaten, trampled and crushed. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can endure when we are beaten by rods, sticks and chains. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can tolerate being trampled upon. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can bear up under the tremendous pressure that is applied to our lives. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can understand what it means to hear: “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. … You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.3, 4]” Then we can realize that everything is going to be all right.
I don’t think that on the threshing floor of the Day of Judgment that some of us are wheat and some of us are chaff. I think we are all wheat, and that life is beating down upon us continually, breaking our shell, breaking us down. We are all wheat which will be gathered into God’s grainery. It is only through dying that a seed can grow and sprout and flourish. While life has beaten us and broken us, it is through that brokenness that God can break into our world and into our hearts and our minds. God loves us and uses us, to do God’s work and to shape us to do God’s purpose. We are all wheat because while life beats us down and breaks us, it is through that brokenness God breaks into our world, and into our hearts and into our minds. Without God breaking into our world through the person of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we would lie broken on life’s threshing room floor. Without the Holy Spirit strengthening us, we could not tolerate the beatings, trampling and crushing given to us by life. With out the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we would lie on the floor amongst the chaff of our sins and failures. But because the Spirit can guide, lead and give us strength, and because Christ’s life, death and resurrection can deliver us from the things that surround us and keep us from being the pure creatures we were meant to be, we will be saved and brought to everlasting life.
God has told us that God loves us, that we are precious in the eyes of the Creator.
In our baptism, we receive and are strengthened and guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Christ suffered and died for our sins, and will ultimately separate us from Sin and Death.
“For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. … You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” [Isaiah 43.3, 4] Knowing this, we begin and continue our work.
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