Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time
A bowl of salad sits on the table of your dining room at home. In that salad bowl is some fresh lettuce, tomatoes, some red onion, bits of feta cheese and some home-made croutons. Meanwhile, everyday you pass that bowl of salad, watching it wilt and wilt until the lettuce leaves shrivel up and your croutons become soggy. Don’t you ever feel like that bowl of salad? Let’s talk about it like the days of the week for us. Mondays are usually a rough start, but you had the weekend to rest up and so you’re ready to take on the day, it’s that fresh green attitude towards what the week will hold. Then Tuesday hits and you start to wilt. Assignments have been put on the calendar and exams are fastly approaching. We hit the end of the week and our croutons are soggy, the feta has been spoiled and we’re just there, sitting in that wooden bowl your mom bought for christmas one year. Trying to keep it together.
How many times have you felt that way? Every week? Every day? What if I told you that, even in the midst of our wilted lettuce, that bowl that’s keeping us from hitting the ground was God? Bam, didn’t think I could pull that one off did you? Anyway, listen to that phrase again. What if we considered the bowl keeping us from hitting the ground to be God? How many times do we forget the fact that He is right there, ready to give us rest and freshen us up with new cherry tomatoes right off the vine and bright crunchy lettuce? Whether those cherry tomatoes are smiles gifted to us by the people we love or that lettuce being a good night’s rest when we really need it, He’s always finding ways to get us through.
Maybe you find yourself looking for energy or rest in other things like through scrolling on insta or binge watching netflix shows, but did you ever stop to think about whether that was actually giving you rest or not? What about Scripture? I know what you’re thinking, “Here we go, lecture me on the Word of God. Wouldn’t be the first time.” Listen, there’s a reason people walk away feeling different after they read the Word of God. There is a physical reaction that happens within us, and it’s not because of anything else but the voice of God telling us that we are known and that He desires life for us. In Sunday’s readings, God is affirming us in His awesome B(HOLY)ness (get it, because He’s the bowl and He’s holy…) anyway. In 2 Thessalonians 1:11 the Lord says “We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and powerfully bring fulfillment to every good purpose and every effort of faith.” Wow, here’s those fresh cherry tomatoes I was talking about, and that crunchy lettuce. God will make us new. God will do what we can’t so that we can live, exist, and be. It goes on to say, “We ask you, brothers and sisters, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly or to be alarmed either by a ‘spirit,’ or by an oral statement..” and goes on to explain more. Dang, Scripture is telling us to chill! Don’t worry, don’t let your brain jump to the worst result, more importantly, don’t let what others say take away your joy.
How revitalizing is that? To actually be affirmed by the Word of God, that He’s got you. He alone will make you brand new, will make you amazing and fabulous. So all He asks is that we trust in Him and take a spirit of peace as our posture. Remaining still in His holiness, as the freshest picks of vegetables from His garden of life, ready to be made new and to find joy in Him. And so, I challenge you to let yourself be a salad, and experience the wilting and sogginess of life, but do not forget the bowl that holds you firmly. Don’t forget the promise of refreshment and revitalization that God promises. Pick at least one way this week, that God refreshed your salad and made you new.
