"Ripe" | Reflection by the Rev. Heidi Thorsen

When I hear the word “ripe,” the first thing I think of is my daughter’s smelly diapers.

Perhaps that says more about me, as a new mom, than the word itself. However, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that “ripe” was one of the last words that people wanted to sign up for in our Words in the Wilderness Lent reflection series. “Ripe” has just as many negative connotations, as it has positive ones.

Consider fruit: there is a fine line between an underripe, crunchy pear; a perfectly delicious pear; and an overripe, mushy pear. The difference is a matter of days, even hours. It doesn’t take long for something to cross the threshold from ripe to, well, ripe.

In the Bible, the word “ripe” is used to describe people who are ready to go deeper in their faith. I wonder if people, like pears, sometimes cross the threshold into that “too ripe” territory. I am thinking, specifically, of some of the fundamentalist religious communities that I grew up with – communities that left a bad taste for Christianity in my life. It is possible to become so deeply invested in one specific view of Christianity that we lose sight of Jesus. Our faith can become overly sweet, even rotten.

Thankfully, people aren’t pears. While a rotten pear can’t go back to being perfectly ripe, people can change – for the better. Our faith calls us to be the best that we can be, and it is never too late to return to the goodness that God intends for us.