Rototillers. Especially the old stand byes with the Briggs and Stratton engines. I have a long and difficult history with these.
I have spent years trying to start them, pulling that rope over and over, adjusting this and that.
Years of being dragged behind, bounced and kicked like a mule. I have tumbled down hillsides with them, like wrestling an alligator.
I even had to use one that only worked going backwards. That’s the one that lasted the longest. I think it liked chasing me.
Once the tiller got going I had to keep my eye on it, no looking back. Except if it was that backward running tiller. Now that was really awkward, keeping an eye on it and looking back over the shoulder at the same time to see where I was headed. It took all my attention and coordination to not get tilled over into the garden.
Hand to the plow. God’s kingdom is like that. No looking back, no getting to it when I have a chance.
The kingdom call is always urgent and uncompromising, always now, not later. It breaks the pattern, it shatters the chains, it snaps the locks, busting the bars.
I want to live the life of freedom, just not yet, just one more bit of slavery before I join God’s mission to take captivity captive.
The plow of God’s kingdom is up and running, it won’t wait for us, it won’t settle for slavery to endure, no compromise. Freedom starts now, or that row will never get tilled.
For Freedom Christ has set us free. This is Paul at his best, these are the earliest writings and understanding of the experience of faith, and grace, and the relentless approaching encroaching of God’s kingdom.
Freedom. An elusive thing.
How do we know it? How do we test it?
That was Paul’s big project, testing life to see if we have our hand to the plow of the kingdom or shackled to slavery.
The works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit. Which one pulls me along?
The works of the flesh are self-evident, Paul tells us, they boil down to using others, lives of self-indulgent divisiveness that always finds good reason to put down, use, control, manipulate, inflict and afflict others.
Slavery has many names, many excuses, many words of false logic and perverse justifications.
The bottom line: I am lifted up and someone else is put down. In the American south we are experts at these games. We are so good at using God to hurt others.
The work of the flesh is a lot of work, putting someone down and keeping them down so I can be lifted up, it takes everything, 24/7 as we slowly erode and slip into the power of death and hell.
Freedom looks different, it is a contrasting fruit. Paul names nine fruit. They are not virtues to strive for, but rather evidence of God’s Spirit at work. Where do we find these fruit in the world, in our lives? Go there, that is where the Spirit of God is setting the world free from the bullies of slavery.
Once we have our hand to the plow of God’s Spirit, freedom pulls us further and further, deeper and deeper into the freedom of God.
God sets us free so that we in turn share that freedom by serving others, lifting up others at our own cost. It is the Gospel of the Cross of Jesus, paying the cost that we may be free. We have been set free for freedom.
Hand to the plow or shackled to slavery?
Which is it?
Choose freedom. Choose love. Now. Not later. God can be trusted with the mystery of the journey.
God brings freedom. Bottom line. And freedom bears very particular fruit. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Generosity. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.
Jesus sets us free from the shackles of death and hell. For freedom Christ has set us free.
Hand to the plow. Hand to the plow.
Even if it’s a backwards running rototiller, work with what you got right now.
Hand to the plow.