Gardening
4th Sunday after Pentecost
Ezekiel 17:22-24 and Mark 4:26-34
June 16, 2024 (Father’s Day)
If we learn nothing else from what we have read in Ezekiel this morning, we cannot deny God is in control, and it is by God’s will that all occurs according to his plan.
To then hear these parables by Jesus of the growing seed and the mustard seed with very similar reading is certainly affirming of this fact. These are beautiful scriptures to read, especially on Father’s Day, when we see God as the Father providing and protecting.
In Ezekiel’s three verses, the word “I” appears eleven times! There is no mistaking that God wants you to know that it is God at work, God making things happen, and God who will accomplish all that is in creation.
In these scriptures, we see God as the gardener. God is planting the seed, giving it nourishment, and its growth is dependent upon God’s will for the seed.
Many of you love to garden, and when you prepare the soil, and plant the seeds, you expect growth. However, that growth is dependent upon many events as to whether the seed matures into a plant to bear fruit. Many of these events are out of your control.
I’m sure like me, many of you have planned and planted the same seed the same way year after year, and get a different result almost every time. This is because we have no control over how the seed will grow. We can do all the right things in preparing the beds, planting the seeds, and giving it the nourishment we can provide for it to survive, but ultimately, it is up to the blessings from God to provide the crop we are to harvest.
We can scatter the seeds, and we can pray over them, but we can’t force anything to happen. Although, we do see in these scriptures that there is promise in a seed’s shortcomings, a crop can still be produced at God’s will. The low tree can be made high, the dry tree can flourish, and the smallest can be the greatest. There is always hope!
There is fullness in God’s promise of new creation. Even when facing frustrations in the process, there is potential in the blessings from God that we cannot possibly perceive at the time the seeds are being scattered.
The Bun Run is a perfect example. We know the potential from year to year, but until the crop is fully grown, until all is blessed by God, the harvest cannot be gathered.
Through shortcomings and frustrations, God has blessed us with a bountiful harvest. Even though there is a starving in the process, we wait until the garden is ready to gather, and in the gathering, there is sharing and in the sharing are blessings of nourishment of food and goodness of heart. It is a love that has grown from the blessings of God, and in the harvest, the promise is fulfilled.
When we consider our church body as the gardener, we scatter the seeds, and we never know from that scattering what might grow. We can only act, and God provides the nourishment and fulfillment from there.
As in the Bun Run, our mission may be to raise more funds for Break Bread Together to feed the hungry; however, consider how many lives are touched in the process. For every life that is touched, a seed is planted for God to work and accomplish his will. There may be seeds planted unawares to us that may grow into a loving home filled with hope and promise. The growth may never be realized by us, and that is not important. What is important is that we scatter the seeds.
Like the mustard seed, Christ’s journey was planted before us to prepare us through grace in his death and resurrection that we continue to plant in the world. We claim the faith that through nourishment and growth, the harvest will come. The kingdom of God will come to bring a time of peace and justice.
Like the mustard seed that grows tall and strong, it provides security for the birds nesting in the branches, just like the cedar in Ezekiel. The plants produce fruit and provide shade and shelter for the birds providing an unexpected result.
As God’s people, our mission is to become the means by which God provides security so that God’s will continues to flourish and create new harvests.
Nothing can stop God’s healing in creating, and so we wait for Christ’s return to harvest the crop to bring peace, wholeness and justice. We may be starving for peace now, yet we wait, and in the waiting, we continue to plant seeds.
Our waiting is not with idle time, but time spent continuing the ministry of Christ feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, speaking in favor of peace and against violence, showing love rather than hatred. In the work, we have faith that God will provide the blessings that will bear fruit. I love that this congregation is always willing to put in the work.
At our Thursday evening Pub Theology discussions, one of the questions was whether or not it would be wise to have a wandering band of disciples in our modern times. The table was silent momentarily while I watched wheels turning, and then one person spoke up and said, “You mean like the twelve disciples?”
Then I asked them to consider whether or not they considered themselves as today’s modern disciples. Again, the wheels were turning.
My answer to the question is, “Yes!” Each of you show your sharing of Christ’s ministry today, in our modern times, by asking people to join you at church, by feeding the hungry, by getting up early on a Saturday morning to meet Beth, Sue and the Mission Committee to help gather the harvest at the Bun Run.
And the funny thing is that you think you are there to gather the harvest, but you are doing so much more. You are scattering seeds of fellowship, kindness, caring, encouragement and of love.
What a glorious group of modern day disciples you are! It’s more than your coming here on Sunday mornings, it’s all you do in community. Sunday morning is just a recharge to pause, to reflect, and to connect with God through beautiful music, prayer and to hear a few words that might speak to you through the Holy Spirit and by God’s will.
Jesus tells us two parables, of seeds being planted, their growth and all that they provide. While the gardener plants the seed expecting a harvest to be gathered, it is the unexpected results, or as one of my commentaries labeled it, “Holy serendipity,” that is grown from the seed that not only provides the harvest, but the security for the birds that is the surprise.
Here are a few examples of Holy serendipity:
- In 1928, scientist Alexander Fleming found a strange fungus growing in unwashed dishes. After realizing the fungus had killed off all the bacteria surrounding it, a building block for penicillin was developed.
- In 1941 a Swiss engineer went for a hike and was annoyed by the burrs that kept sticking to his pants. Realizing their sticking power, Velcro was born.
- Pharmacist John Pemberton was working on a cure for headaches using cola nuts and coca leaves. After mistakenly pouring carbonated water into the mixture rather than plain water, a sweet drink called Coca-Cola was realized.
God provides what we don’t expect. We may be asking in prayer for one result, and get something totally different and unique. God multiples our efforts. It is with open eyes and spirits that we recognize the blessings that God places in our lives, especially when we are not expecting them. When we offer our gifts to God, we can trust and have faith that God will bless them and multiply them beyond our imaginations.
Jesus’ parables call us to step out, and act in faith. We do what we can, what we are able to do physically, and trust that God is working through us. But great things cannot happen if we stop planting the seeds. And so we continue, day after day after day, until God’s kingdom is realized.
As we consider the gifts of the many good Fathers on Father’s Day, let us not forget our Father God who is always working, all that is being created, and all that God can accomplish.
I would leave you with these thoughts. Look around you, and consider, are you planting seeds in your daily life? Are you speaking kind words and showing love, even in the worst of mishaps that may befall you?
Are you planting seeds so that the crop is sprouting now? Through all the bad news we hear around the world, I ask you to look through all the bad, to look beyond the horrors, and ask yourself, “Is God’s kingdom sprouting now?”
(Silent Reflection)
[PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and THE LORD’S PRAYER]
Father God, we come to you today recognizing there are seeds we are holding that are waiting to be planted. We are eager to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and scatter the seeds of love that we hold in our hands. We pray that we have visions of seeds of love being scattered and planted in our community. We ask that your blessings inspire us through the Holy Spirit to reach beyond ourselves to help those we see in need around us. Help us to be mindful of the words we speak that can cause harm to others, even when we speak from the pain that lives within us. Father God, show us how to turn over the pain of anger and depression so that we might live in the security of your shade that you provide. God of unexpected results, we ask that you would change the hearts of those filled with hatred and greed in our nations, and to be mindful of the people they serve, rather than the riches they store in their pockets. We pray that acts of evil be thwarted to result in acts of love. Healing God, we are faced with so many that are in need of healing physically and mentally, and we pause now to remember all those who have asked for our prayers________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________. God of Blessings, we pray that you rest your healing hand upon all these, and all those who suffer with ailments unknown to us. Trusting in your promise, loving God, we pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, and turn them over to you, as we pray together the prayer Jesus taught us to say, Our Father, who art in Heaven……………….