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“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

Don’t worry, I’m not the least bit interested in mocking God. Mocking religion perhaps, but not God. A bit amusing but I’m good with talking donkeys, disembodied hands writing on a wall, and even flat earth theories, but tell me, “you reap what you sow” and all bets are off. Did Jesus reap what He sowed? Perhaps in the long term since He is now seated in victory at the right of the Father, but on Earth? Oh, heck no.

I’m a total disbeliever. Don’t worry, God already knows. I have the fine distinction of having once gotten into a heated argument with a church reader board and this cop drove past a drug deal, over the pile of used needles, waved politely at the guy with expired tabs and no windshield, and decided to just zero in on the greatest threat to our community, this crazy woman preaching to a sign.

It’s a comical memory because I just threw up my hands and said, See Lord, there ya go, I rest my case. I absolutely do not believe you reap what you sow and I’m angry that the church overall is often so shallow, so pigheaded, that they actually believe they are “helping” when they say such things.

Also, absolutely no one seems to know anything about farming anymore. You can totally sow corn and harvest nothing but thistles. Like, duh. Wheats and tares, man. Weeds? Fallow soil?

I don’t know why religion always gets that verse so very wrong, but I think it’s partially a sign of great privilege and Western values. We love our, “you reap what you sow.” It means, if I work hard, make good choices, be a good person, I’ll reap all the fruits of my labor! And the bad guys, the lazy fox, will get nothing. Thank you for the Bible lesson, Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar.

Also, why no, I’ve never even heard of “crop failure?” Aren’t you a brilliant one. Do enlighten me.

I live in a country that is more like a failed nation state. The rich just get richer and the poor just get poorer. The bad guys always win. We’re in a downward spiral. You can’t fight city hall. You have absolutely no voice in your community or in your government. The church is barely breathing and someone is standing on the cord to life support. Every single election is stolen, for years. Kind of funny, people get cranky with me about the stolen 2020 election. I began getting serious about election fraud in 1999! Back in the day they actually taught a chimp how to hack a voting machine and rig an election, but nobody seems to remember those things.

In the Western world, “you reap what you sow” has come to mean, you get what you deserve. It’s a lovely sentiment but it doesn’t really jive with our faith where the rain falls on both the just and the wicked. Also, grace is all about getting what you don’t deserve. Unmerited favor.

We Americans can be kind of nutty sometimes. We love to run around and say, “life isn’t fair” as if this is some great wisdom or something. Then we turn around at the very thought of forgiving student loans and go, wait, you can’t do that, that would be so unfair. They borrowed the money, they should have to pay it off! And both are right, it is exceedingly unfair, especially to those who worked hard and paid off their debt already. What is the reward for being responsible and doing right? A big stamp that says “sucker” right on your forehead.

I live in a political world that doesn’t reward hard work and responsibility, it actually punishes you. Therefore, you do not reap what you sow. The early bird does not get the worm. The best man for the job, does not get the job, it goes to someone’s nephew that just got out of prison and comes complete with tax breaks. I could go on and on, but my point being, no kidding, life isn’t fair! As Christians however, we’re supposed to be making it more fair. We’re supposed to be reflecting the grace we’ve received ourselves, the free gift, out into the world around us.

Instead, we’re mostly just terrified somebody might get something for free that we didn’t, or they’ll move into our neighborhood, or even worse, “those kind of people” will start going to our church.

So if you ask me, which of course no one ever does, but IF you had I would say, Let’s just start reaping what Jesus already sowed. Let’s stop counting our own sheaves and let’s start living like His harvest. I’m not asking to reap what I’ve sown Lord, I’m asking for supernatural, unmerited, unfair, miraculous favor to pour out all over this country, all over individuals, and all over me….

Mostly just because you are good and you are God and I trust you to make it so.