Last week I mentioned that one of the things that I’m
thinking about a lot over this summer is the fact
that fifty years ago this summer the final votes and by-laws
alterations were being done in order
to make one united church officially and legally
from the two federated churches.
And so I was only half joking when I said I am thinking both
about fifty years past but also of fifty years down the road.
What is our fifty-year plan?
I love Wendell Berry’s poem Manifesto where he writes,
“Ask the questions that have no
answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant
sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the
forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.”
We live from paycheck to paycheck, from budget year to
budget year,
From election cycle to election cycle,
And perhaps, the more prudent among us, from five or ten
year plans –
But what about a fifty year plan?
What about making our main crop that which we did not plant
and that which we will not live to harvest?
How can this church be about the work of passing on faith
and wisdom, love and community to the next generation?
It’s hard to work for that which you will not see the
results of.
That’s not part of our training as Americans.
But this is precisely what Jesus calls us into when we
become disciples of his way.
We inherit a way of being human that was around long before
we came along,
And will continue to be long after we depart.
When I was doing research last fall about the origins of Acworth
as a town,
I was amazed to find out that fields that I have passed by
numerous times on my way to work
Are fields that have been in cultivation since the first
year that a settler came to this town.
There are fields that are being mowed for hay
That were cleared over 250 years ago.
And it makes sense that that would be true,
but it somehow struck me to realize it - all the same.
As Christians we have been given a field to tend,
a garden to keep that was cleared thousands of years ago,
And we are invited by the one who said
‘Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to every
creature.’
In today’s reading Jesus compares the kingdom of God to
someone who scatters seed in their field.
The one who scatters the seed then goes about the other chores
that need doing.
And the farmer does not know how the seeds grow, but they
do.
And yet, all the while, the farmer trusts that this will go
on
and continues to do the work of the day and to get good
sleep at night.
The farmer is not staying up worrying and stressing about
the seeds
because the farmer trusts that in the soil they will grow.
The farmer continues on in the work that needs doing and
pays attention to the growth
And when the grain is ripe, cuts in with the sickle.
The kingdom of God is like a growing season on a normal
field of grain.
When we were dating Rachelle and I planted our first
vegetable garden together.
It was at my house and so I was the primary person
responsible
for watering and tending to it.
Two jobs I royally failed at keeping at.
The garden was a flop.
It wasn’t just that I would get distracted from
Watering and keeping the garden.
There was a bigger problem than that.
Even though Rachelle thought it wasn’t a good idea and told
me so,
I had gone ahead and ordered seeds that I knew
And remembered my family growing in the New Hampshire
spring.
The only problem. I
wasn’t in New Hampshire.
I was in South Carolina.
But even though the garden as a whole was a flop,
I can remember the bush beans turned out okay.
And they were the first to come up of what actually grew in
that little plot.
I remember the wonder of walking outside one Saturday
morning and seeing all of the green bean plants having come up seemingly
overnight –
with their wide pointed leaves opening up.
As I walked out there, I was like the farmer in the parable,
I did not know how it happened,
but I was full of wonder.
Later in the summer, I became full of frustration and a good
bit of humiliation
when most of the other plants either didn’t come up
or worse, they did come up, and then proceeded
to wither and die in the South Carolina sun.
But those green beans did alright.
Besides some cracked and fairly unflavorful heirloom
tomatoes,
they were really the one harvestable produce of that small
garden.
And I picked them and had them with spaghetti one night
when I made dinner for Rachelle.
They were dry and not very tasty,
but there was something of success in them all the same.
And so it gets me to thinking.
As we consider our fifty year plan.
It’s not good enough to merely plant seeds in soil.
We need to be attentive to the different soil conditions and
climate
Or our seeds will not grow.
This is not directly what Jesus is getting at when he talks
about the farmer scattering seed.
But it’s something that follows, I think.
The farmer is unknowing, does not know how the seeds grow in
the hiddenness of the soil,
But that does not mean that, like myself in South Carolina,
the farmer is inattentive to the growth or indifferent to the conditions in
which the farmer grows the plants.
The farmer in Jesus’s parable was likely working with
generations and generations of traditions about how to farm well in that
place. There was a consistent and stable
cultural tradition that the farmer came into and participated in.
And it’s been like that in many different times in history
where the faith,
the spirituality given by Christ
Was able to be taught and passed down with much less
difficulty,
Because the generation that passed it down
shared the same culture, the same language,
with the generation
to whom they passed it down.
But we live now in a world of rapid changes in culture and
ways of life,
and among many and various cultures and subcultures.
And it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a way of carrying
forward the faith that we have been given,
The vision that we have found to be life-giving.
But it does mean that we cannot merely pass on the faith of
one time to the people of a new time without paying attention to the changed
soil conditions and climate in which the faith will be believed and practiced.
One practical problem that has come about through cultural
change that I’ve noticed is
How in a society where people are overworked and often made
by their employers to work on Sundays,
it is very difficult for many people to make it to regular
gatherings for worship on Sunday mornings.
It’s also the case that partly because of changes in the
work-week,
and a majority people that don’t go to church,
family events like soccer games are scheduled on Sunday
mornings.
These are observations about changes in the soil conditions
and climate for our garden.
To respond by bemoaning the changing culture and lack of
respect for traditions may be a natural reaction,
But it doesn’t help the garden grow in the new conditions.
I’ve also noticed that there is a greater amount of demand
on organizations like the Fall Mtn. Food Shelf.
People are working weird hours, multiple jobs, and still
needing to line up at the Food Shelf.
People who can’t make it to church gatherings may still be
interested in spiritual conversations and being a part of a community of
mission and mutual care.
The human longings are the same even as the climate and soil
conditions are changing.
We are still gardening, but we have to be aware of when and
where we are gardening….
Is it New Hampshire in May or South Carolina in May?
In our fifty year plan I think we should consider how we
might become more flexible
in our ways of being the church,
responsive and responsible to the time and place that we are
given.
If suddenly there was a massive immigration of Quebecois
refugees into our midst,
The practice and shape of our common faith may become more
diverse,
We might have our worship in both English and French
-- I hope that we would have the courage and the trust in
God to change and be hospitable to the new climate and soil conditions in which
we would be carrying forward the garden.
---
Jesus doesn’t end with this parable of the garden.
He goes on to describe how the kingdom of God,
The healing of God’s creation,
Is not only like a garden.
But also like a mustard shrub.
It takes only the smallest of seeds
And in the hidden nurture of the soil,
The plant emerges and becomes the biggest of all… shrubs.
But the shrub provides shade, a welcome place for the birds
and all small creatures
who might wander in need of protection from the sun or a
haven from adversaries.
The kingdom of God that comes about in our midst, in our
hearts,
and all of those places outside the church where the hungry
are fed,
the naked are clothed, and people are shown the love that
God has for them.
The kingdom of God is a place of welcome and nurture
A place of education and of common work for the good of
community and world.
The congregation is not the kingdom of God – the
congregation witnesses to this much bigger reality.
Jesus doesn’t just tell us about the farmer who trusts God
and does good work,
not knowing how God gives the growth,
Jesus gives us a vision that is ever ancient and ever new
Of the healing of human hearts and human community
And the creation of a space of welcome – that is modest, the
largest of the shrubs,
But is nonetheless a place that does not exist for its own
sake,
But for the sake of the delight of its Creator
and wellbeing of all the wanderers who find their way to its
shade.
In our fifty year plan.
Let’s take seriously the need to be attentive to the garden
that God has given us to keep
in all of the changing soil and climate conditions.
But not perpetuate the garden for its own sake.
Rather – for the sake of all who may wander in from the
wearying heat of the sun, or the frigid cold of a New Hampshire winter.
May we be a place where someone who is brokenhearted might
find compassion.
And where someone who is despairing from the chaos of modern
life,
Might find a place to be confused and hopeful in good
company.
Change, as they say, is the one thing constant.
And all we have to do is consider the massive diversity of
ecosystems around the world
to realize that there are millions of ways for life to exist
on this earth.
Gardens in Acworth will look different than gardens
elsewhere,
But the same principle of organic life is at work.
It’s the same for the changes that happen in one place over
time.
It’s the same faith, hope, and love,
But it will grow under different conditions.
May we be responsive and responsible to the changes in our place,
And faithfully witness to God’s love in the time and the
place that is given to us.
May we never grow weary when we do not see the growth or the
harvest,
But trust in the God whose patient care endures forever.
