Imperishable

1 Peter 1:17-23New International Version (NIV)

17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.[a] 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Each week, I navigate the lectionary to feel out which scripture I will share with you.  As I read through the choices, there is usually a word or phrase that hits me as I read.  That word or phrase is usually the sermon title listed in your bulletin.  By the time I start putting thoughts into words, sometimes that title is relevant to the sermon and sometimes it’s not.  This week it is.  The word “imperishable” stuck out like a sore thumb within the context of Peter’s writings this week.  And I believe God reveals Himself differently to us based on our surroundings.  Perhaps it is the combination of my newest audible book I am listening to and Jake Sullivan’s testimony he shared with us last Sunday at the FCA group.  However it is that God guided me in this direction, imperishable has made it’s mark on me.  We often use words like eternal, ever-lasting and forever to describe the length of God’s existence and love.  However, I have never thought of God’s love and grace as imperishable and we will get to that in more detail later.

Have any of you visited the site of an old barn or garage or granary a couple months after it was tore down?  Chances are, most of us have seen a hundred year old barn finally lose its battle against nature and time and finally be removed from its place of former prominence.  My experience has been there is certain plant or weed that fairly immediately replaces the former structure.  Have you had a similar experience?  I have noticed that button weeds are the first to emerge where the 100 year old barn once stood.  Buried under inches of concrete or hard packed dirt that hasn’t seen sun nor rain in that span of time.  I am amazed at how button weeds will sprout almost instantly once the concrete is moved and the rain and sunlight once again hits the dry dirt.  They sprout so quickly that it’s hard for me to believe that the seed has been moved through the wind but that is perhaps the case.  Otherwise, that seed has been laying in the soil that entire time waiting patiently for it’s time to again live to its fullest potential.  I know button weeds are a pest in our area of the country and they can drop a field’s yield nearly 34% if they aren’t managed but they still do have a natural potential even if we do not approve.  In my research of these dormant button weed seeds, I came across a thread on a discussion forum that was asking some of the same questions I was.  One person shared their experience of taking out some old terraces and replacing them with new ones.  He hadn’t had sunflowers in that field for over 30 years and after redoing his terraces the seeds sprouted again.  In some of my other research, I found notes of a chinese lotus plant seed that had fallen to the bottom of a lake nearly 1,400 years ago (date is known through radiocarbon dating)  and it sprouted when discovered.  It is difficult to know if the proper conditions exist to keep a seed imperishable for the duration of the human existence.  However, that is enough digression on seeds that have been dormant for hundreds or even thousands of years.  And while we humans may never know the answer to that, God does through the Imperishable Seed He sent to live and breathe and walk with us.  

Earlier, I admitted that I hadn’t thought of God’s love and grace as imperishable before.  As I think about it now, I realize that the word choice here is important on Peter’s behalf.  Before continuing, I must preface what I am about to say with this: I did not go to seminary and spend a semester or year studying greek and many other translations use words like eternal, incorruptible, and immortal instead of imperishable.  That being said, in order for something to be imperishable, we have to understand what it means for something to perish or to be perishable and I think we do.  But the point here is this, if something were to perish, it first had to be living or unspoiled.  In other words, it has to be alive or healthy in some way.  If God’s love and grace perished like our bodies do, then His love and grace would cease to exist at some point.  This living, breathing, alive love and grace would end.  But it doesn’t.  It is imperishable.  It is something that is alive but does not die, it does not perish.  When we view God’s love and grace as something that is alive, we see it totally different.  God’s love and grace are things that are living organisms that do not perish.  We know that Jesus died and we know that he was raised again.  But I feel like we often get too lethargic about the reality of the resurrection.  We view it from afar with a sort of aloofness and distance.  The reality is that God is life.  Everything that you find beauty in derived from Him.  Your spouse, children, grandchildren, crops, gardens, rainbows, sprint cars, flowers, music, poetry, livestock... you get the idea.  Wherever you find beauty and goodness that stirs your soul is where you find God.  God is alive and His love and grace are real.  They are as real as the person sitting next to you.  They are as real as the hymnal you touch.  They are as real as the smell of your favorite pie.  They are as real as the love you feel for those closest to you.  They are real things that do not perish.  God’s love and grace are imperishable.  

Peter’s scripture tells us that we are born again of an imperishable seed through the living and enduring word of God.  Sometimes we may feel like that button weed that has laid dormant under that barn for a substantial amount of time.  We are begging for a ray of God’s love and a drop of His grace and the weight of this barn is smothering us, keeping us from reaching our potential.  It may seem like forever that we are laying in that dry, dark dirt not getting the nutrients we need to grow.  We may be that seed.  As real as the sunlight and rain are, so too are God’s love and grace.  You may just lying there waiting for that weight to be lifted and if this is the case, I offer to you a relationship with Christ.  It will take work and effort but Jesus will clean up the mess of that rickety old barn and allow God’s sun and rain, love and grace to find you and allow you to begin your walk with Him.  Peter tells us that we are born again of the imperishable seed.  You and I are capable of reaching that potential if we clean up the mess and allow Jesus to carry the weight and embrace the reality of love and grace.

If I lost you in my digression of dormant seed or metaphors, please, please hear what I say next.  God’s love and grace are real.  They are real life things as real as the sun and rain.  In them, there is imperishable life , eternal joy, and immortal hope that stretches beyond our possible understanding.