RAIN

By Nathan Attwood

Pastor, Marianna First United Methodist Church

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

Matthew 4:44-45.

We have had a good bit of rain in the past month. After a pretty dry May, the heavens have opened up and kept our lawns and gardens green.

Once upon a time, I probably would have complained about rain. Certainly, children associate rain with being stuck in the house, unable to go out and play. When I was a child growing up in a pre-cell phone world, my bicycle was my ticket to freedom. Back then, parents weren't afraid of letting their children roam free. I would ride and ride through midwestern suburbia getting into untold adventures with my friends. A rainy day was a real drag. It meant getting stuck at home playing with my GI Joes and watching old Munsters reruns.

Well, now I'm old and rain means something different to me. These days, the condition of my lawn matters more to me with each passing year. One of these days, I'll find the time and money to get my irrigation system running correctly and rain won't be quite as important to my grass. But at this point, I give time out of each hot, dry, summer day to water the lawn and keep it from turning to dust in the blazing Florida sun. Even a light drizzle makes an enormous difference.  This year, the patchy parts are coming together beautifully, the shrubs and flowers are glorious, my whole yard is thriving due to God opening the heavens and watering his good earth.

I've lived in every conceivable kind of community, from big city to smaller city to suburbs to small town to caution-light-crossroads-rural-America. The larger the city, the less the community is aware of its dependency on rain. In a big city, rain makes the long, congested commutes even longer and more congested. When I was a country pastor in Pittsview and Hatchechubbee, Alabama, the people included rain in their prayer requests most Sundays. When everyone farms, everyone knows how desperately we need the earth to be regularly renewed through God sending the rains.

The Bible was written, of course, in agricultural communities. The people in Jesus's time relied more desperately on rain than we do in our rural small town Florida community. Throughout the Bible, rain is seen both as a literal gift from God providing for the sustenance of his creation, and also as a metaphor of all the good gifts God gives to maintain our lives and allow us to thrive. Among the promised blessings for obedience to the Hebrew people entering the Promised Land in Deuteronomy, Moses tells them God will send, "...rain for you land in your season... (Deut. 11:13). Isaiah 55:11 compares God's Word to rain. Joel 2 promises literal rain as God's act of renewal to the nation and then promises God will pour out his Holy Spirit, a promise the New Testament quotes on the Day of Pentecost.

Who gets the rain? Who does God bless? Who does God offer provision? What life does God sustain? If God were like us, perhaps He would be a bit more careful in the distribution of his blessings. But God is not like us. Jesus teaches us otherwise. He says that our heavenly Father sends the rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous.

Imagine two Jackson County farmers who were blessed by the recent gentle rainfalls upon our community. Imagine one of the farmers is an upstanding citizen. He works all week on his farm and shows up on Sunday to church, puts his tithe check in the plate, maybe even teaches his Sunday school class. He follows the law, loves his wife, dotes on his children while carefully instilling values into them. He greets everyone he passes in the aisle in the grocery store, always has a kind word, is completely respected and trusted by all. He wakes early and works late, helps his neighbors when they need a hand. When someone has a birth or sickness or loss, he and his wife bring a casserole. When it starts to rain, he looks up at the sky and acknowledges God, thanking his heavenly Father for providing the gift of life and abundance.

Now imagine another farmer. This one is a real scalawag. He's drunk half the time, his place is a mess, broken down machinery litters his area. He's known to be mean to his family, who fear and resent him. He's got a terrible temper, a terrible reputation, a filthy mouth. He's always on the take, never reciprocates a favor, can't be trusted in business or, really in anything. When the rain starts, his only mention of God is a muttered blasphemy.

To whose farm does God send the rain? The one who deserves it? Yes. But also the one who doesn't deserve it. The one who is grateful for it? Yes. But also the one who has zero gratitude and even contempt for the giver of the gift. The one who asked for it? Yes. But also the one who never lifts a prayer to God. 

When Jesus sees the rain, he notices something we tend to miss. He notices that God's grace, love, provision, kindness, goodness is indiscriminate. God sends the rains to everyone. He sends the rain to those who deserve it, appreciate it, ask for it, and pass its blessings along. He also sends the rain to the undeserving, the unappreciative, the ungrateful, the selfish, the ones who take advantage. When it rains, who gets wet? Everyone. When God sent his Son, for whom did he die? Everyone.

Well, that's all and good. But Jesus doesn't stop there. He says that being his child is all about being in the family business of being indiscriminate in the good we do to others. Love your enemies, he says. Do good to those who persecute you, he commands us. Why? Because God is our Father and we are his children and in this family that's what we do. We don't discriminate. We love our families and our friends and the people who agree with us and the people who we like. But we are just as good to the mean people, and the people we've never met, and the people we think are wrong about everything, and the people who we just can't understand, and the people who wouldn't know a "thank you" if it knocked them over the head. We are good to everyone. 

Jesus says all people are good to the people who are good to them. If you are nice to people who are nice to you, who cares? Everyone does that. God is good to everyone. So we, his children, are called to be good to all the people who get wet when it rains. That's everyone.

I'm grateful for the rain. I'm grateful my grass is green. I'm especially grateful that if God were choosy about the people to whom he sent the rain, my lawn would look like the middle of Arizona. I'm the recipient of indiscriminate and underserved grace.

You, too, have been gifted with grace you did not deserve, love you could not earn. When it rains, give thanks. Also, when it rains, remember to offer the gifts you have received so graciously to all for whom Christ died. That's everyone.