Marinated in God's Love

 

Sunday 083020 the 13th after Pentecost

Each one of us without knowing it, does read the Bible with our own lenses. Depending on where we are at in life, it is possible that at each reading we may see different things that we hadn’t seen before, even after reading the same passage for years. I wonder if Israelites had the same feeling when they read prophecies from years before them. Today I want to share with you my lenses, but if they don’t fit, I beg you to forgive my naivete. Lately, I have been experimenting how to marinate meat. Friends helped me to find out various methods. I chose beer. I am learning that the meat becomes tender and flavorful, in order words, the best! Sorry Vegetarians! This process of marinating caught my attention when I was thinking about Jesus words: “If you want to follow me, take up your cross and follow me.” What did Jesus mean when he said take up your cross? I really hope that today, we can find out together.

The more I thought about the process of marinating meat, I realized that the meat is in no position to argue with me that it doesn’t like the flavor and the spices I am using. What if Jesus is telling us that carrying our crosses daily is to be marinated into godliness, to agree that the message of the Gospel would operate/work in us so we can get the divine flavor. Like any change in life, this process isn’t easy. It requires our full collaboration with the grace of God every day, every moment. Carrying our daily crosses may mean to accept all the random circumstances in our lives. Suffering/Sacrifice (disappointments, misfortune, pain, illness, unfairness, sadness, death…) I rebelled as refugee. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to be treated like I wasn’t a human. I was just a number. We must endure/ accept without bitterness. It is hard. If we don’t, we would nurse the bitterness and pass it onto others. If we do, then the marinating process has gone wrong, some bitter herbs or spices spoiled it.

Jesus invitation to follow him means walking in his footsteps. Perhaps, there are areas of our lives that must die so we can find deeper life in God. I hope I recognize those areas in my life that must die: My ego, my sin, my disregard of others, my lack of empathy, my selfishness. This process of being marinated in godliness… this process of being bathed in the wonder and the power of the cross, is where Jesus is inviting us to pass through because he demonstrated it for us: The cross…this instrument of death is at the same time bringing life and divine beauty in us. We often pray on Fridays that Jesus first suffered pain and didn’t enter the glory before he was crucified. So we pray that we walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace. This way of the cross is definitely the marinating process and it is the way to life, the way to serving God in Mission because God expects us to participate full in the recovery of our world, to make things whole. The truth is just because it is the way of the cross, does not mean that it will always include suffering, often it will include inconvenience/ discomfort/ sacrifice, but definitely it will include relinquishing our will, so we can take on the will of God.

Are you marinated in God? Are you seating on the ramp like one of those boats ready to be launched? You are unsure how this new journey of denying yourself would work out, the journey of accepting stuff as they happen to you without complaint: meaning to be free to groan under the weight of our pain instead of whining in self-pity. God help us. Psalm 26: 2 says: “Test me O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.” This is how I am reading it with my lenses: “Marinate me, infuse your Holy Spirit in my life, so I can be thoroughly marinated with godliness.”

This is how I am reading Jeremiah 15: 19 through my lenses: “If you are tender and flavorful, I will use you because hardened hearts don’t usually turn back and admit they were wrong, I will take you, if you turn back.” God’s invitation is throughout the Bible, for us to take a step forward and seek God, and follow Christ. It is an invitation for us to be marinated so we can be tenderhearted and flavorful to be distinguished in our godly characters, but we are frail and mess up all the time, we struggle in our journeys as Christians, that ‘s why Paul has words for us to help us live as marinated people/ disciples of Christ: He says: …Serve the Lord, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer… never avenge yourselves, if your enemies are hungry, feed them. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good!”

Jesus, help us to know how to love you, nurture in us godliness, marinate us to your liking! Amen.