Thrashing Threshing Series

Oh, men and women, let us stand up with David and admit it, “I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly.” It is not productive to blame others for who you are and what you do. Yes, of course there were influences on you. Yes, of course, we are products of our parents, our neighborhoods, our cultures. That’s true. But the Bible tells us that we are ultimately responsible for our own souls and at the bottom line we are the ones who must take the consequences of our actions. The prophet Ezekiel saw it clearly when he said, “The soul that sins, it shall die,” and taught us not to blame our fathers nor to charge our mothers or our friends or “them”. It’s on us. There are consequences for what we have done, and we have to own up. Everything else is thrashing. Anything less than, “I alone have sinned” is thrashing about, trying to find a foothold, but never getting on firm ground.

It’s only when I accept the consequences of my sin that my thrashing is on its way to threshing.

III

So what about this “threshing” thing I’ve been alluding to? I’ve been making a distinction between thrashing and threshing. Thrashing is flailing around, doing anything and everything, to get out of the mess we’re in, but it always puts us in deeper. Thrashing solves nothing. So what is “threshing”?

Threshing is a process used in sifting grain. It is a shaking and a sifting to separate the useful grain from all the waste around it. When a farmer takes his grain to the threshing floor, he tosses it into the air so that the useful kernels fall back in place, and the waste is pitched off to the side. Threshing is a separating, a discovery of the good stuff in the midst of all the negative stuff. If you can get threshing in your life, you can go beyond simple forgiveness, you can go beyond admitting consequences. You can have joy. You can have fulfillment and peace. Threshing means that we are ready to grow and to change, we are ready to pitch aside those things that are wasteful and harmful and harvest the nourishment. Threshing is discerning what is right and what is wrong and choosing the Lord’s way, leaving all else aside.

And so David, forgiven of his sins, aware of the consequences of his terrible choices, makes his way to a man named Araunah, who ran a threshing floor in Jerusalem. David goes to Araunah to buy that threshing floor, there to erect an altar and offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to God. After all, whoever is forgiven much is moved to turn around and give much. Whoever has sinned greatly and is released has so much gratitude to God, he just wants to give and give.

To David’s surprise, brother Araunah offers him the threshing floor free of charge. “Let me give you the threshing floor, King David, and more than that, here, I have oxen you can slaughter and wood you can burn – take it all, my king, and use it.” For whatever reasons, Araunah spurns a lucrative opportunity and says, “I’ll just give it to you.” I tell you, we have not recently seen the likes of Araunah here in Washington – turning down a lucrative government contract? Not on your life.