Story Lectionary:
Hebrew Scriptures for Post Resurrection Week Two:
The Book of Jonah (you will find a complete image exegesis of the Story of Jonah in Giving Blood by Leonard Sweet. Reading this exegesis first will help in your image exegesis of the post resurrection text for this week regarding Peter known as Simon bar Jonah)
The Song of Jonah
Psalm 51
Psalm 139
Acts Chapter 10: The Story of Peter’s Conversion of the Gentiles
The Gospel of John: Jesus’ Seaside Appearance and the Call of Peter
Jesus appeared again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias in this way. Gathered there were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Little children, you have no fish, have you? They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast the net, and now they were not ab le to hault it in, because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards’ off shore.
When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net ws not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you? Because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love (agapeo) me more than all of this?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love (phileo) you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed (bosko) my fledgling flocks.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love (agapeo) me?” He said to him, “Yes Lord, you know that I love (phileo) you.” Jesus said to him, “Shepherd (pomaino) my flocks.” He said to him a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love (phileo) me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “feed (bosko) my flocks.” “Listen to me. When you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go wherever you wished. But as you grow older, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God). After this Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come what is that to you? You follow me!” The rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but “If it’s my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
I am that disciple who is now testifying to all of these things and has written them down, and you may know that this testimony is true. There are many other things that Jesus did too, and if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Image Exegesis:
The imagery in John’s story of the encounter between Jesus and his disciples along the shores of the Sea of Galilee (known also as the Sea of Tiberias) highlights both the calling and “calling out” of Peter (referred to formerly by Jesus as Simon bar Jonah). As Jesus’ resurrection is a “sign” in itself, the “sign” of Jonah also appears to echo through this story of Jesus’ re-calling of Simon (whom he had nick-named Cephas or Petros).
In the passage, we find several metaphors, including the metaphors of Peter’s names. Whereas earlier in John’s testimony, when Simon is called by Jesus initially, he is called Shimon Bariona (Simon bar Jonah –using the same name as descending from the Hebrew Testament prophet). Here in this passage by the Sea, Jesus addresses him as Simon bar Ionanou (John). Although Jonah and John are related names, the two spellings appear to be intentional. Whereas the “young,” impetuous and imperious Peter may inherit the “character” and “personality” of Jonah, the Simon who will grow into his faith and calling becomes Simon, Son of John. Or better, “Kephas,” the stone who will be first to build upon the cornerstone that is Jesus.
The name in Aramaic “kephas” given to Simon (in Greek Petros) when Jesus met him may also have other connotations besides the ones most typically understood in the passage. While many assume that Jesus meant the nickname to demonstrate the “steady, committed, sturdy” character of the later Peter, the nickname given to the young fisherman probably was a “play” on his character. The young disciple Simon, as we see in the stories of scriptures, was a rather stubborn, impulsive, headstrong, rough-and-tough fisherman with somewhat of a quick temper and a sometimes immovable sense of Jewish thought in regard to Jesus’ mission to the Gentiles.
He was quick to pledge total loyalty to Jesus. He was the first to attempt to walk on water with Jesus before his faith had matured to the depth of buoyancy that he needed to prevail. He was a Jesus wannabe, but often without the seasoned faith to sustain his commitments. We see this in his predictable denials of Jesus at his trials when fear drove him back to behaving as his former self. Simon has a strong personality and a strong desire to be the kind of disciple Jesus wants. But it is hard for him to go “deep” and to truly “be” the solid and faithful disciple that his personality suggests he could be.
Just as Jesus jokingly calls the sons of Zebedee (also fishermen) “sons of thunder” for their fiery tempers, he immediately sees the potential strength in Simon, naming him “kephas”, stubborn as a rock. And Jesus believes that the strength of character and stubbornness that defines Simon’s character can be chiseled and molded into the kind of stone that can be the foundation for building the church in Jesus’ footsteps and fingerprints, after his ascension.
We’ve seen this kind of faith in the potential of difficult prophets before.
If you’ve read the image exegesis of the Story of Jonah from Giving Blood (the textbook on preaching by Len Sweet [Zondervan 2014]), you know that Jonah the prophet, the son of Amitai (which means truth) also had an extremely tenacious yet stubborn and fearful character. He is a solid Jewish man, who strongly believes that God’s grace should not include the gentile Ninevites who have turned away and have not been as loyal as he. He loves God but stubbornly tries to go his own way, rather than God’s way, taking to sea and attempting to sail to Joppa and ultimately to Tarshish (Neverland) in order to escape God’s mission of preaching a message of warning to the Ninevites.
The reason Jonah doesn’t want to do this? He fears God will be gracious and forgiving to the Ninevites, and he doesn’t want God to forgive them. In God’s eyes, he has little courage but much potential. As we see in the story, Jonah must descend from a stormy heart into a womb-like death of self, in order to emerge to agree to the Lord’s request. But even afterward, he reluctantly preaches a milktoast message of God’s call for redemption and pouts when God’s power prevails despite him, the Ninevites repent, and they are forgiven. He is an unwilling prophet. But one whose voice is ultimately God’s voice. God uses Jonah’s stubborn character (to Jonah’s own dismay) to decidedly move the gentile people back into the fold. Jonah’s anger at the Ninevites reflects the general animosity of the Pharisees and devout Jews of Jesus’ day toward all Gentiles. Jesus, however, sees the Gentiles as God’s children and wants Peter to be part of his mission to save the lost sheep of God’s kingdom.
In the story of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples by the sea, we see that Simon, Thomas, Nathanael, John, James, and two others are gathered by the Sea of Galilee. They have left Jerusalem and have gone back. Even though Jesus had already appeared to them where they were staying in Jerusalem twice, there is still a feeling of confusion and a sense of not knowing what to do next. Simon (Peter) we can imagine must be feeling shame and embarrassment, a sense of failure, for his denial of Jesus no less than three times, especially after his devout assurance to Jesus that he would never falter. He must feel he is a failed disciple, and in the wake of Jesus’ death, a deep sense of inadequacy. So, he goes back to what he knows he is good at--his former “life” as a fisherman. He tells the others he’s going fishing. They take their nets and go out that night to do the same. But they catch nothing.
Peter is running away. Running back to what he knows and who he used to be. He is in effect “giving up,” deciding that he cannot be an apostle for Jesus. That he doesn’t have it in him. That he is after all only a fisherman. But he finds, he can no longer go back either. He is no longer the person he used to be either. And nothing comes of his attempt to flee from his new mission and new identity.
The metaphor of the boat on the sea, the nets, the group of men and the fleeing of Peter from his calling must feel similar to many pastors who have found themselves somewhere in between the person they used to be and the person they are becoming, as they begin to follow Jesus in answer to God’s call. When God calls, it is a lifetime commitment. It changes you. You not only change your vocation, but your identity changes. A metamorphosis happens whereby you realize one day that you are not the person you were before. You may feel inadequate to accomplish the mission God is sending you into. It is an uncomfortable and frightening place to be. When Jesus stood beside Peter, he felt a lot braver. Now, he felt his ability faltering. And for all of his stubbornness, resolve, and strength, he found that he continually failed. Now, returning to the sea, he found, he could not be the fisherman he was formerly either. His encounter with Jesus had made him a “new creature.”
The metaphor of the boat indicates a place of transition. A boat that is not moored at the shore is on a journey. But this boat was not going to a destination, but simply going in search of a life that no longer existed for Peter. The nets he cast were not cast as a fisher of men, as Jesus called him to be. But he sought to return to his life as a seaman, catching fish to sell to the Gentiles. In fact, many Jews would sell those fish that were either unclean or not fit for the Jewish communities to Gentile people. His “old life” was one of separations and status quo. It was not the life Jesus called him into and which he accepted as his disciple. So on that boat of transition, Peter remained in limbo. The metaphor of the boat is coupled here with the metaphor of darkness. They are fishing through the night. The metaphor of darkness, in which Peter cannot “see” himself or Jesus, is a womb-like time, a timeless void, in which his identity is in liminal time. It is essentially a “time out.”
An interesting etymology of ichthys (the Greek word for fish and the symbol used later by the early Christian community to symbolize “Jesus Christ Son of God and Savior) was its affinity with the former meaning of the word “womb” in other languages. As Jonah spent “time out” in limbo in the womb-like belly of a monster fish, so too is Peter spending time-out in the “womb” like darkness of the sea, casting his nets into empty waters.
When daybreak arose, the disciples saw someone standing on the beach. Then Jesus spoke and said in a gentle, loving tone, “My dear ones, you didn’t catch anything, did you?” They replied that they hadn’t. Jesus then tells them to cast their net to the right side, and lo and behold, they pulled in a multitude of fish of every kind (153 were supposed to be the sum of diversity of fish available in the Lake of Galilee in Jesus’ day). It is clear, that the power of fishing belongs to Jesus. The miracle of their abilities and powers belongs to Jesus. Alone, they cannot prevail. Only with Jesus’ power can they be miraculously successful in every venture. When we think back to the story of Jonah, God’s gift of the Tree that covers Jonah and God’s power to take it away and allow Jonah to see his own folly is echoed here in Peter’s story.
Later, when Jesus confronts Peter, it is a “wilderness” moment, in which Peter’s temptation to be satisfied with the material “commercial fishing life” that he can see around him (which he knows Jesus’ power allowed for), rather than the commitment to a new life in which he will and can with the power of the Lord do so much more, he is confronted with his own fears and limitations. And he realizes how shallow his old life has been, but how deep and rich his “fishing for people” will be in comparison.
It is the disciple John who recognizes Jesus on the shores first. When Simon hears that it is Jesus, he puts on clothes, as he is naked (many fishermen would fish naked or nearly so), and he jumps into the sea. All of the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the fish.
The metaphors of clothing and nakedness are important to the story as well. As the guests of the bridegroom clothe themselves for the feast, Peter clothes himself to present himself before Jesus, having experienced the miracle of his power yet again. In an expression of humility, and perhaps the typical Simon-Peter like impulsivity as well, he leaps into the water, immersing himself and swimming/wading to the shore to Jesus. This immersion is a kind of baptism experience, as well as echoing the emerging of Jonah onto the shore of after his womb-like period of inner conflict. It is a resurrection-like experience, a symbol of a second chance, and a hope for a renewal.
Jesus welcomes the disciples on the beach with some bread and a charcoal fire cooking some fish, a similar charcoal fire to the one Peter must have remembered from the evening of his denials. Jesus asks the disciples to bring some of the fish they caught to add to the meal. It is a meal that he not only provides, but multiplies with their participation. It is a “round table” kind of meeting, in which they not only share in a meal but share in a mission, as Jesus reminds them in that “teachable moment” what they must be and do, who they are and must be.
The “feast” of the Lord, in which the disciples are nourished body and soul by Jesus, prepares them to go out and “feed” others in a similar fashion. As he serves, they must serve also. They knew him, and he them. In the story, Jesus again is the host. He does the feeding. He shares not only the bread, but the fish. The disciples’ ability to fish for people comes from Jesus, but their goal is to be in community and at the table with all those whom they bring to Jesus, to nurture them as Jesus does them, to serve others, even as they learn to serve. Even in his post-resurrection appearances, Jesus is still teaching. Just as in his foot-washing story, Jesus uses that moment around the fire to remind (re-mind) his disciples what their role must be. In this third appearance, Jesus’ power (symbolized in Jewish thought by 3 x 3) is again confirmed, even post death. (Note the three days from death to resurrection are also mentioned by Jesus, as he mentions the Sign of Jonah in Luke 11 and Matthew 12).
The moment of reckoning, or perhaps the moment that Peter (in his Jonah role) is renewed, comes in his conversation alone with Jesus. Peter is asked 3 times (the same number of times he had denied Jesus) a similar question. Similar but not exactly the same. Jesus is giving Peter a do-over.
Jesus asks him first, Simon son of John, do you love me? Jesus uses the unconditional word for love, the sacrificial word, agapeo. Simon replies, I phileo you. (I will always be your friend). Jesus says to him, feed my flocks of lambs (the word for feed is used for feeding large flocks of young animals of the pasture of every kind).
Jesus then asks again, this time, Simon, son of John, do you agapeo me? Again, simon replies, I phileo you. I am your friend. Jesus asks him if he would sacrifice his life for him. Simon says, I’m your ally. It’s not quite the same. Simon just can’t seem to go deep enough, even now. Still Jesus is not deterred. He tells him, you must feed (pomaino –a word closest to shepherding) my flocks of sheep. You must be a shepherd and nurture personally all of my sheep –not just the Jewish ones, but every kind, including the Gentiles. Nurture them each with a personal hand.
Then Jesus asks one more time, but knowing Peter can’t muster enough courage to answer his plea for agapeo, Jesus lowers himself to Peter’s level and accepts his best: Simon of John, do you phileo me? And Simon answers, “Lord, you know I do.” And Jesus again instructs, “Feed my flocks –all of them.” Jesus in this exchange not only renews Peter, but he makes clear who he is and what his mission is for Jesus. He is to override everything he feels and knows, and to go out and grow into this new identity and this new mission to include all of God’s children. Later, in Acts, we see that Peter understands, although it is something he will continue to struggle with all of his life.
One of the most important similarities for Peter’s mission is Jesus’ determination that Peter minister to the Gentiles. And this also ties him to the Jonah story. In Jesus’ day, the Gentiles were thought to be outcasts and unclean. The last people to whom Jesus’ disciples expected the Messiah to preach were the Gentiles. Even though they experienced Jesus’ continual relationships with the Gentiles in his life and ministry, it now fell to them to continue that mission. And they were faltering. If Peter faltered, the rest would follow. As we saw in the decision to fish, Peter led the way. The others seemed to follow his lead.
Jesus ends his interaction with Peter with a prophecy. “In the past, when you were young, you went your own way. Now going forward, you will be led where you don’t want to go.” A life in mission with Jesus is not your own. It is not a “planned” life. It is a “prepared” life, prepared at a moment’s notice to go where summoned, even places “you don’t wish to go.” It was time for Peter to accept his call. He may not be entirely ready. But God doesn’t call us when we’re ready. God makes us ready in the midst of our calling.
A resurrected life is a missional life---to serve, surrender, and sacrifice. Jesus’ mission of salvation was to all people, Gentiles and Jews alike. As in Jonah’s day, that mission would make a lot of people angry, and enrage the Pharisees of the Temple. No wonder the disciples now felt alone. But Peter is called to be the first stone upon the foundation that Jesus had built. Jesus now urges him to be everything he knows he has the potential to be, to fulfill the prophecy of his name –Cephas, the stone. To be Simon bar John, committed disciple of Jesus who will go out with the power of the Holy Spirit to convert people by the thousands in Jesus’ name, not of any ability of his own, but in the Name of Jesus. Peter would go on to help found the early Christian churches in Antioch and in Rome, to preach a Pentecost sermon that would convert more than the fish he caught that day on the beach. “On this Kepa I will build my church,” Jesus prophesied.
What a pledge to his disciples. What a vote of confidence and confirmation of character that Jesus had in Peter. The same commitment and potential that God saw in Jonah. Whereas Peter’s “little faith” had failed him before, where his fear had paralyzed him, where his courage had failed him, Jesus assured him that if only he would go on, he would prove to be everything and more for the Kingdom of God that he could ever imagine. Peter was crucified in 64 AD, upside down at his own request, to indicate his unworthiness to be in any way compared to Jesus. Even at the point of his death, after all he had accomplished, he knew, that all of the power and glory was the Lord’s. Sometimes to carry one’s cross is to be nailed to that cross. In Jesus’ words:
“Simon, Satan has deigned to have you…But I have prayed for you, that
Your faith fail not; and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.”
Perhaps we are sailing on the sea of doubt, or perhaps we are not sure who we are in our calling . .. or perhaps we feel we are failing and our expectations are paralyzing us in our ministry: Jesus is always our lifeboat. In this time of post resurrection, we affirm our own calling, and put on those resurrection glasses to see Jesus beside us amidst our doubt, encouraging us in our identity, even despite our failings. WE must experience the miracle of the resurrection in our own lives, and practice resurrection daily, so that we can proclaim Jesus’ power in the lives of others.
Peter is not the only unwilling prophet. We are all in some ways unwilling bestowers of God’s grace. God’s forgiveness and mercy will always exceed our abilities and our desires. This is the miracle of the Sign of Jonah. The Sign of Jonah is not just a warning to repent. It is an affirmation to all who are called by Christ to minister to those we wish we didn’t have to, and to go in directions we may not wish to go. It is most importantly an acknowledgment that the power of Christ is a power not our own.
--Image Exegesis by Lori Wagner
Story Sermon: The Story Told This Way
Kopi Luwak
The following is a sermon by Len Sweet taken from his recent preaching text, Giving Blood.
“My power is made perfect in weakness.”
(according to Paul)
Prop: Pass around a bowl of coffee beans, and have each person take one and hold it during the sermon
I gave a sermon recently to a 12,000 member church gathering in Subaraya, Indonesia. Indonesia is known for a very exclusive coffee called Kopi Luwak. Only a couple of thousand pounds of this coffee comes up on the world market every year. And it comes from the island of Sumatra. Now this coffee bean has an interesting story.
Kopi Lowak is supposedly the most exquisite, exotic, and the most expensive coffee in the world. It costs $300 a pound. They sell this coffee by the ounce. It is the only coffee they sell by the ounce. Kopi is Indonesian for coffee, Luwak is Indonesian for the name of how we get this coffee. Luwak is a cat. It is a Civet cat. Now this cat is a nocturnal creature that comes out only at night. It is about the size of a fox and is the Juan Valdez of the animal kingdom. This cat only picks the most perfect coffee cherries to eat. It comes out at night and wanders all over the island of Sumatra and will only pick the most perfect coffee cherries to eat. It would rather starve than to feast on a Kona coffee bean, or a Blue Mountain coffee bean. It will only pick the most perfect coffee beans. It eats those coffee cherries and digests them. In the morning the locals harvest these beans. After every one of these beans has passed through the dung of a Civet cat. The most expensive and exclusive coffee in the world has come through the dung of an animal.
Isn't it amazing how God works! See, in nature you see this over and over again. What is honey? The nectar of nature. But what? Bee “dung.” That is what honey is. In Asian cultures Geishas spend days trying to look beautiful with a kind of white paint. Do you know what this white paint is that they put on their faces? Nightingale “dung” - you got it! What do mushrooms grow in? What makes them so succulent and tasty? Well, you know what it is! I want to challenge you to go to the fish market at Meijer and ask the guy behind the counter for a sardine. They will laugh in your face. You see, there is no such thing as a sardine fish. Sardine is a name that we give to trash fish that they put together in a can. There is a halibut, and there is haddock and salmon, but no sardine. It doesn't exist. But my favorite way of expressing how God works to bring nature and theology together is in the dove. The dove does not exist. It is a poetic name for a trash bird called a pigeon. The symbol of the Holy Spirit is a trash bird. We prettify it by calling it a dove, but really it is a pigeon.
Isn't it amazing how God works! Jesus had a mustard seed. And the mustard seed for Jesus is very much like the Kopi Luwak coffee bean. It was a “trash weed.” The whole gospel is based in the idea that what is born of “trash” becomes “treasure.”
Where was Jesus born? Jesus comes to this earth and is born in a trash place of the planet called the city of Bethlehem, the city of David. And where was he born? In a stable. What goes on in a stable? More “dung.” And so what were Jesus's first smells as he was born into this world? What were Jesus's last smells as he exited this world? Where was he crucified? A place called Golgatha, which was the garbage dump for the city of Jerusalem, the trash place.
In I Corinthians 1:25, we read: “Divine folly is wiser than human wisdom and divine weakness stronger than human
strength.” Preachers, consider your call. Few of you are people of wisdom, by any human standard. Few are powerful or highly born. Yet God chooses what is weak in this world to shame the strong. God has chosen things low and contemptible. Things that are not lofty nor elevated, to overthrow existing orders. And so there is no place for human pride in the presence of God for you are in Christ Jesus by God's act. He is our righteousness, and in Him we are consecrated and set free. And so, in the words of scripture, if you must boast, boast of the Lord."
The gospel is about the way in which what is most weak, what is most despised, what is most contemptible in your life, in this world, can become, through the power of the Holy Spirit, what is most beautiful, what is most radiant, and what can be most a blessing. You see, we have a topsy-turvey upside down, inside out gospel. Like you do to a sock, you turn it inside out, upside down, topsy-turvey. And that is what the values of the gospel does to the wisdom of this world. If you want to be first, you have to be willing to be last. In God's eyes, the first will be the last. Do you want to be strong? You have to be willing to be weak. Do you want to win? You have to be willing to lose. We have an upside down, topsy-turvey gospel that says whatever is buried trash in your life, God can turn into buried treasure. Whatever you think are the trash cans of your existence, God can turn them in to treasure chests.
The Hebrew word for hell was Sheol. Heaven was Shiloh. God can turn any Sheol into a Shiloh if you will only let the spirit of God take that pain, that suffering, that ugliness, that which is contemptible, and let the Spirit turn it upside down. I am thinking now of a composer named Ludwig von Beethoven. What is the worst thing that could happen to a composer? To become deaf. The last twelve years of Beethoven's life, he was deaf. Think of the pain, think of the agony. And yet, of these last twelve years Beethoven composed four of his five greatest symphonies. You see, he allowed the compost of his suffering and his despair to become the humus out of which God's Spirit grew. . . some of the most beautiful music that has ever been composed.
Treasure chests and trash cans. In 1823 there was a student at a British school, Rugby School, his name was William Webb Ellis. He was playing soccer one day and he forgot through a mental lapse what game he was playing and instead of kicking the ball, he caught it. William Ellis caught the ball, ran to the goal, and all of a sudden, instead of hearing the cheering crowds he heard a mocking crowd, a laughing crowd. This student, William Ellis, at this British school called Rugby, was so humiliated and embarrassed, he took his life. But someone was at that school, watched what William Ellis had done, and said "You know, that is not a bad idea, that is a whole different sport." They used that mistake to found a whole different sport, named it after the school that it started at, and it became known as rugby,
which is the predecessor to football. But it did no good for William Ellis because he could not trust that a trash can could become a treasure chest.
The whole story of the scriptures - go through it from beginning to end, from Genesis to the maps, and you will find over and over again, sisters and brothers, this story of how God takes what is worst, least, contemptible, lowest, and does what is greatest, best, and strongest. It is the story of the gospel.
We have images for this over and over again in the scriptures. We have an image for it on Ash Wednesday. What are ashes that we put on our forehead - ashes are burnt palms.
Perhaps the most powerful image that we have in all of the scriptures is spitting. The ultimate insult that you could do to someone in the Bible ~ specifically named in Numbers 12:14 ~ is to spit on that person. It was the ultimate insult!
To spit on another human being, to curse somebody by spitting on them is the lowest of the low. One of the stories that came out of the Civil Rights Movement was about a third-grader, and eight year old by the name of Thelma. She was the first student to integrate the Mississippi public school system. When she came to school the first day her mother put her in a cute little pink dress. She showed up at school and the teacher said "Thelma, I want you to stand right there by your seat. You are not to sit yet." And so Thelma stood by her seat as the rest of the class marched in front of that seat and spat in her seat. An entire class of third graders. When they all went to their seats the teacher said to Thelma "You can sit down now." And yet, what did Jesus do when he wanted to heal the blind? He spat and he scooped out of the ground some earth. He used his spittle in that earth to make a healing compound and transformed a symbol of devastation into a symbol of hope. Transformed a symbol of cursing and insult into an activity of healing and redemption. Read your Bible, over and over. What does God do? God turns cursing into curing, turns belittling into blessing, turns burrs into spurs. The curse of being hanged on a tree was transformed into a symbol of forgiveness and salvation. This is the gospel in a coffee bean.
That what is the worst, the least, the last in your life God can turn it around and make it your greatest instrument for healing and for blessing. Moses was a murderer, he recycled his rage and hatred and became the greatest leader in Israel's history. Jacob was a thief and a rogue. He recycled his cunning and became the father of the nation. David was an adulterer. He recycled his passion and became the greatest of the kings. Peter was a boastful, swearing fisherman. He recycled his pride and became the rock upon which Christ built his church. Mary Magdalene recycled her love and became a saint. Zaccheus, a tax collector recycled his miserliness and became a disciple of Jesus. Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor, a hater of Christians, recycled his hatred and became the greatest of the missionary theologians. Esther, a harem girl, recycled her sex appeal and saved the Jewish people from history's first Holocaust. Ruth was an idol worshipper. But she recycled her foreignness and she became a progenitor of Jesus the Christ.
And what about you? What is the worst about you? What is least in you? What is the very dregs of your life? God wants to turn it around - inside out, upside down, topsy-turvey and make it into a source of healing, wholeness, and redemption.
Do you believe that God can turn your trash into treasure? Do you believe that God can make your Sheols into Shilohs? Do you believe that God can take the worst out of your life and turn it into the best?