Third Sunday of Easter, Year A
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A


The idea of Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket is a helpful image.

If you have ever been around chickens especially, it is easy to understand.

The warning often goes, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." And the intention behind the warning is if you put all of your eggs in one basket and something happens to that basket, then you might lose all of your eggs (eggs being a valuable commodity in this scenario).

This saying is really about Trust.

IF you are going to put all of your eggs in one basket, you sure as hell better know that basket is strong and true and safe.

HOWEVER, we all know it is often too risky to put ALL of our eggs in one basket. There are too many dangers. Too many things could go wrong. Foxes, faulty baskets, clumsy basket couriers...there are lots of ways you could lose all of your eggs at once. 

SO, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Disperse them. Don't trust just one method of getting your eggs home or to market. Put some in your pocket. Maybe try a few different baskets. Trusting one mode is not smart. Even if it is a basket you have had for a long time and you trust completely, it may turn out to not serve you well. 

This is a message we often get from the world around us: do not put your trust in Just One Thing. It makes sense. We don't want to have one accident or misstep cause us to lose all that we have. It is why we both pay rent and insurance.

Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket.

But when we read scripture, we are essentially told There Is Only One Basket, Trust It.

"All who believed were together and had all things in common."

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

"For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls."

"I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture."

How do we reconcile our natural tendency to minimize our losses with the example from Acts of the first Christians selling all of their stuff and living communally?

How do we balance our inherent inability to not Trust with the message from Psalm 23 to give ourselves over to God?

How do we accommodate our visceral need to avoid pain with the admonition in 1st Peter that intentionally and willingly suffering in the name of Jesus returns us to the care of our Shepherd and the Guardian of Our Souls?

How do we subvert our tendency to keep our options open when we read Jesus's instruction that all others are thieves and bandits and that it is only through him that people will be saved and have life abundantly?

These are sometimes tough messages to hold together in our own hearts and minds.

For us this is another version of the classic question: How do we live in the world and not be of the world?

Being a called and loved Child of God is not easy some days.

God of mystery, of three but of one,
In a world that asks me daily
to multitask
to diversify
to hedge my bets
help me ease into knowing you...
You as the One Thing
the One Way
the Big Tent
where the world melts
away
and I am fully
Yours.
Amen.

© matt & laura norvell 2011 www.settingourstones.org we want to share this with you and hope you'll share with the world; we simply ask that you let people know where you found these words. May Grace & Peace be with you.

 

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