“Weed Seeds” of God’s Kingdom                                                                                                

by Meg Illman-White   

July 3, 2005

Text: Matt 13:1-9, 18-23 ; 

This Sermon is about God’s possibility, and our participation. It’s about hearing, understanding, and bearing fruit.

There is no time like the birth of a baby to remind us of God’s lavish love and no time like Baptism to remind us of our utter and complete dependence upon God.  When a baby is born we remember again – or perhaps for the first time - what it is to love without restraint. We love this small, utterly dependant baby and she also loves us (with no regard for our faults or past history). With a baby, we know ourselves to be a “new creation”, the past is truly gone and we are free – with her – to begin new.  As Nellie McClung says in her novel “Sowing Seeds in Danny”: “A little child is a bundle of possibilities and responsibilities”. As Cory and Randy, Desmond, Nicky, Jessica and Breanna have welcomed Ashley to their family so we welcome their whole family into God’s family this day. We pray that they will find a place for themselves here: a place of generous welcome, of stillness, of mystery, a place of thanksgiving and praise, a place where they can rejoice in the possibilities that God holds out to them… to us.

Jesus’ parable of the Sower is a parable about possibility beyond our wildest expectation. Parables use everyday images to teach about God and about the kingdom of God. Parables can have many different layers and levels of meaning. In today’s story we find a farmer out sowing seed. The farmer flings the seed around lavishly with no regard to where it lands. The seed goes everywhere. We might wonder: “why is this gardener not more careful? Why is this gardener spreading mustard seed? It’s a pernicious weed (mustard seed can literally grow anywhere… has the ability to choke out other things, can spring up and thrive even in rocky places or beaten down ground). I wonder, why would that gardener do that?

God’s ways are simply NOT our ways. GOD is that generous lavish farmer, showering us with blessings and spreading love everywhere. There is no miserly concern for the wasting of love. There is trust that the seed will land… somewhere, perhaps somewhere unexpectedly good… God’s word is powerful stuff… has the constitution of a hardy weed. God’s hope for us, for our world, is worth everything to God. God doesn’t count cost nor does God fear to look foolish. God offers freely and abundantly. What’s more, the parable reaches into our cynicism about life and challenges it at its deepest level. If God’s Word is “mustard seed” for the world, then the possibility that God holds out to the world is phenomenal. How many of us have seen weeds like mustard, or dandelion or even bleeding heart… creeping out of a crack in the hard pavement, or a hole in a brick wall? Just where there appears to be no hope of life, new life springs forth.

That is God’s hope for the world. Just when we think our hearts are hardened tight, just when we think there is no more room for God in this world… we look up and we see it… God ALIVE in our world, God surprising us out of the concrete prisons of our cynicism and despair. The Word of God is more powerful, more all pervasive than we know. All that is left for us is to believe, and to prepare fertile, receptive ground in and around us and to hear and cultivate the Word so that it may bear much fruit in us.

As the world watches and we move towards next weekends’ G 8 in Scotland, there is a growing momentum of Christian and secular activists… working together to “make poverty history”…  The Christian churches are coming together around the world, to put pressure on governments to cancel the debts that paralyze the developing nations. Bob Geldof’s Live 8 concerts riveted listeners around the world yesterday, people are wearing the white wrist bands that show them to be in support of the end of poverty in our world… one person, one vote at a time… till all are fed and have clean water and a safe place to live, education and dreams and possibilities that equal those we claim for our children.

God rejoices in that possibility. It is there in Ashley, in Breanna, and in Jessica. We cannot know what will take root in their lives, what God has in mind for them. We only know this: that God does have something unique and important in mind for them and for every child, every adult, every youth... rich or poor, white, black or first nations, gay or straight, male or female.

Later, Matthew’s gospel finds Jesus talking to his disciples and explaining the parable to them. We can hear the Word. That’s God’s word. It is given to us in many ways: shared stories of faith, biblical story, the life of Jesus, the workings of the Spirit… The word is the Seed… But if we hear and do not trouble ourselves to understand… then the Seed falls as if on a too well traveled path and it is trampled. If the seed falls on rocky ground, it begins to grow but then it fails to take root and dies. We participate in the Kingdom by preparing the ground of our hearts and minds to receive God’s Word.

God’s Word is here for us. We have choice… and endless possibility. We can choose to prepare the ground of our lives for understanding and witness, or we can choose to ignore the gift that holds such promise for us. How rocky and hard is the ground of your being? Has concrete of a hardened heart crept into your mind and heart and sealed off your hope?

The parable teaches that God’s love is not dependant on our action. The mystery of God’s unfolding creation, God’s tender yearning for this world to become a new creation, God’s never failing hope for the world… these things are a given; they invite us, and seek us out. Our participation in God’s unfolding creation requires practice… spiritual practice.

I hear lots of people say: “I can be a good Christian out enjoying nature on a Sunday morning”, or “I practise my Christian faith by coaching hockey… after all… sports embrace some of the same important life morals. I agree that our Christian faith affects how we coach, that nature walks and reverence for creation is one part of spiritual practice, but I disagree that Christian faith can grow in isolation from the faith community. The Christian faith is not a solitary, individual act. It’s not about “Jesus and me”.  Christian faith is not just about embracing good morals. It is about being in relationship with God. Like any relationship, it takes effort. It takes effort… but the yield God promises is beyond our wildest expectation…

Christian faith is an hourly, daily, weekly celebration of unexpected action of God. In Jesus, God has re-claimed this creation, the whole of creation as being of infinite value and worth. A Christian life of faith unfolds in community. It unfolds in worship (both communal and individual) as we hear God’s story, and approach God’s mystery.

If a ball player is to improve she must learn skills, understand rules, and practice everyday and learn from more experienced players...  Understanding Christian faith requires spiritual practice… prayer, reading the scriptures, learning from the great theologians – those in our pews and those whose work is immortalized in books. Becoming Christian is a process that demands mentoring, community, regular attendance at worship and looking at the world through God’s eyes… finding hands and hearts that are soft enough to receive God’s Word and to then throw it wide with reckless abandon… believing in the tenacious power of God’s promise and possibility.

God’s word is full of that promise and possibility. It invites you to participate, and by participating, to bear much fruit. Open up the ground of your living – God is near… God is here. God will not… ever… let us go!

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