The great thing about soup is that if it doesn’t turn out right it can always be adjusted, it can be souped up, kicked up a notch, Bam! Sometimes all it needs is just a little more of the secret ingredient or to just let it sit for a day. Or if all else fails we can start over with a new batch of soup.
If you think about it soup is always starting over.
When it is ready the first time, the leftovers go into the fridge, the next day it tastes different after sitting and marinating, then there are usually more tasty things added to it, then a few more spices, and then it is really a second batch of soup.
I wonder what the record is for keeping a bowl of soup going? Everyday some is eaten, then some more ingredients are added and it fills back up. Kind of like sour dough starter, some is used, some more is added, and the batch that really isn’t the same batch just goes on and on, sometimes for generations. Imagine a pot of soup like that, “This is my great grandmothers pot of soup, it used to be vegetable, now its clam chowder.”
Everyday is a new start, another chance.
You know that Forrest Gump quote? “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Something like that could be said about a pot of soup, “Life is like a pot of soup, it’s always starting over.”
God must like soup.
God is a God of second chances, of starting over, of new beginnings, of both creation and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit is always showing up and stirring the pot, bringing the soup back to life.
In the beginning, the Holy Spirit brooded over the stew of creation, and every day there was something new added to the pot.
In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus begins by being “filled with the power of the Spirit”.
A creation moment is about to occur, Jesus goes back home to begin his ministry and he begins with worship and scripture. Jesus opens the scroll turning to Isaiah, to a passage about starting over.
Good news to the poor.
Release to captives.
Sight for the blind.
The oppressed are set free.
The year of the Lord’s favor is proclaimed.
Starting over, another chance for those who are left out, or who have fallen away, or who have been pushed out to the margins.
Jesus is announcing that this is what his ministry is all about, a ministry of another chance, where nothing pushes people out to the edges where they fall away and are forgotten.
No more forgetting, no more margins, no more left behind.
The Spirit is stirring the soup of creation and Jesus is the spoon. It is creation day all over again, another chance to get the soup right.
We are going to be spending a great deal of time with Luke’s Gospel this year, and for Luke Jesus is the beginning of humanity starting over, he is the new Adam.
We are to consider ourselves as the outsider being invited in, the old humanity being invited into the new humanity.
And we are to question ourselves. Are we those who push others to the margins, or who forget, or who turn a blind eye? Or will we be part of the new beginning, where everything is about invitation, and welcome, and being preoccupied with making sure that everyone is getting a bowl of soup?
May the Holy Spirit brood over us.
May the Spirit descend upon us.
May we be filled with the power of the Spirit.
This pot of soup has been simmering a long time.
It turns out God isn’t done with us yet.
I wonder what it will taste like tomorrow?