Planting Seeds

Happy Father's Day. And the collect is apt in suggesting that like the father -  we lead and act with boldness, justice and compassion!
In the name of the father, the son, and the holy Spirit!


This week in the Damascus I shared an image of a mustard tree growing in Israel. It is a huge Tree. And in other pictures I found sprawling unwieldy shrubs growing radically - almost in a crawling fashion taking over massive amounts of ground.


This famous parable of the mustard seed doesn’t often make complete sense to us, because here we think of spindly weed-like mustard.


As Billy said, at centering prayer - there aren’t any birds nesting in these mustard weeds…
But the mustard Jesus spoke of indeed grows as a great haven for birds nests. And that is yet another teaching, that the Kingdom may not look like what you expect it to….but it nurtures and provides safe space for us to thrive.


Last week I spoke about God’s time as eternal… and so we shouldn’t worry too much about the time in which our families or friends take to come to God. But rather than worry (remember Jesus said, “can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”)


Instead of worry - our role is to plant seeds…


…Physical and Spiritual and Loving.


We already physically planted a pollinator garden with the kids! And it has sprouted into flowers! And next week we will observe our garden with Maribel and Elisabeth and do some more spiritual planting!
These activities stay with us for a lifetime - and grow the Kingdom.


When I was in college I did a wood cut of a tree and I wrote a poem to go along with it. I gave it to my sister as a gift. And she has always hung it over her bed.


It wasn’t until years later when I was visiting-  and saw it on her wall - that I realized my poem was completely inspired from scripture. Particularly this scripture of the mustard seed! (Apparently I was listening in Sunday School)…


Many of my friends who grew up in faith communities, but no longer attend are faithful volunteers in food pantries and food drives and give to important charities. That influence almost always came from growing up in a faith community. That seed grew!


And that is the Kingdom shining through.
Remember St. Francis is attributed to saying, “preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words.”


Payton helps at the food pantry sometimes… and I’m quite certain he will never forget it.


The posters and pieces of scripture that I put in the classrooms and in the parish hall are designed to sink in for children - and for those who rent our space. Many of the things that they read may not fully make sense to them… but the seed is there.


When I was a child my parents put up a cabin where they are now retired. For thirteen years, all we had was a one room cabin with a loft.


I would lie there in the early morning and look at the red lettering stamped into the beams. Some letters were visible and others were not - I couldn’t put the words together. I would mix and match different letters until eventually I realized the letters spelled Kiln Dried.
And that felt like such an epiphany after at least a year of staring at them.
Wow: Kiln Dried!
Awesome.
Yet!
My six year old mind had no idea what kiln dried meant…


I’m pretty sure I asked my parents….
But it still was years later when it really meant something to me. It took time.


Like Jesus said,
“The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.


And you know what… it was fine that I didn’t know what it meant. I knew my parents knew what it meant - that they had put those beams there purposely for the good of the cabin. They were in fact supporting the very cabin.


We do not have to understand the works of God completely - to know that they are good - that they are supportive of us. So we give it over. We give over to our faith. And that relieves so much burden and worry.


As we say: Let us cast all our cares on you, oh God.


And Jesus speaks about the Kingdom in parables because it is beyond plain language. Parables help illustrate deeper Spiritual truths.


The first parable in this passage reads….


Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
basically whomever is planting doesn’t REALLY have any idea of how this all comes to be…no matter the science and the technology.


The Mystery of God is at the center of all things.


As the psalmist sings…


All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.


Life and death is our reality - but as Paul writes to the Corinthians we have confidence, “for the love of Christ urges us on… We are a new Creation…”meaning we no longer see anyone from a human point of view. A tall order: But remembering that we have died to Christ and are alive in Christ helps us to do as the collect says: walk and act with boldness, justice, and compassion like Christ… because Our seeds plant the Kingdom - and while God is at the center of all things….what we each do as co-creators with God really matters.


The parables about the kingdom are the most beautiful to me:
It is like the yeast that levens all of the bread.


It is like a treasure in a field - and we sell everything to buy that field.


It is like the pearl that we sell all our belongings to cherish…


“The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. [And]…


“when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Amen!

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