Comments for Sandy      Other sermons

She was standing in her backyard, the other side of my fence last week. With scarcely the blink of an eye she challenged me for not having done something that actually seems rather bizarre – to place a few things somewhere beyond my reach; to forget about them; and then to trust that disposing of these items in this way would reap rich dividends.

It seemed very normal to her, and she couldn’t conceive why I hadn’t disposed of these items long before. Why was I hanging on to them? Why was I keeping them in my basement?

Actually, what she said was, “Hey Sandy, how come you haven’t planted your bean seeds yet? You gonna let ‘em lay in your basement and get old?” Didn’t even blink an eye, my gardener neighbor.

And I suppose you wouldn’t either. Seems very normal to take a risk and place a seed in the ground, cover it with dirt, and walk away. You count on the warmth, water and dirt waking that seed and causing it to spring to life, pushing the tender shoot of a plant through the surface. You count on it because you’ve seen it happen so often before. You know that’s what bean seeds do.

Even though, when it comes right down to it, you are completely unable to make the seed germinate by yourself. Completely powerless. That’s the miracle of new life that only God controls. But you know the part you’re to play, and so you do it.

No thought about leaving the seeds in their package, with overwhelming fear of what might happen if you take the risk, let go of the control, open the package and plant the seeds.

[story adapted from a sermon by Rev. Ken Gehrels, Calvin Christian Reformed Church, Nepean, Ontario.]

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”

And borrowing from the Exodus account of Moses going up and down the mountain relaying the word of God – “the people were unanimous in their response: Everything God says, we will do. And Moses took the people’s answer back to God.” (Ex:19:8)

The harvest is plentiful, Jesus says. There are human beings in fields, cities, suburbs and villages. God’s people needing healing, compassion, a kind word, a life with meaning. Get out there laborers! God says so. Will you, like the Israelites, do what God says?

The sermon title in your bulletin needs to be amended. I’m calling it Green Beans and Human Beings. It’s a word play, beans and human beings. You know the line about God or fathers planting a seed? The seed grows into a human bean. It’s preschool logic that works, for awhile anyway.

Today’s Gospel text is about being the church, growing the church. The church, each one of us, we are to be about healing, teaching, and proclaiming the good news. We are on the move, not sitting or standing still. There are many at CCC, in this Indian Spring neighborhood, in the hamlet of Silver Spring, in the nation’s capital of Washington, DC and in the hills of Hampshire County, West Virginia, not to mention the rest of the world, that are hungry, some are starving, for some good news. Good news for their soul and therefore their life; good news for their life and therefore their soul.

This weekend is not only Father’s Day and GLBT Pride celebrations. The Central Atlantic Conference Annual Meeting is also happening, (or wrapping up right now.) This meeting is where the business of the conference along with a good bit of networking takes place. Merlene Bagley, Winifred Roberts, and Leslie Wilson are there as CCC delegates. Susan and I were there awhile along with Gordon Forbes and Bill Neal. Bill presented an amendment, In Support of Physician Assistance in Dying, which passed following a lively discussion. The Conference Board of Directors will do a little word- smithing and then it will go to General Synod for review. Synod is the UCC national meeting which convenes every other year. Congratulations Bill and thank you to the several that helped guide and support Bill. I believe Bill answered a call to follow Jesus, to labor alongside Jesus in extending compassion to those who are dying.

The Annual Meeting theme was IMAGINE, A New Church Is Possible. Workshops and keynotes endeavored to have us think outside the box or to examine the box with a different lens. I attended a great workshop entitled “We’ve Welcomed Them, Now What?” Led by the coordinator of the UCC Still Speaking initiative, Felix Carrion, we laughed and pondered while sharing stories of succeeding in getting people to visit our church and then blowing it through unconscious messages.

Writing this sermon in my head all week, I was struck by today’s gospel, while never mentioned, was front and center in our discussion. Jesus is charging the disciples to go out and share the good news. Not the good news of belief systems and philosophical theological arguments. Rather, the good news of God’s compassion, forgiveness, and invitation to belong.

Here are a few seeds concerning beans and harvests. * Educate the congregation regarding who owns the Church. ALL of us belong to Christ’s church. As we are reminded on Communion Sundays, Christ sets the table and invites us to it. It is not our table. It is not our pew. It is not our board or our committee. Visitors and new members are welcome! We must say this in our attitude and practices. * If you’re going to make a promise, you had better keep it. Nothing is more deadly than raising expectations and not following through. Several folk took the risk to enter into a UCC sanctuary thanks to the Still Speaking ads. When they encountered a not speaking community, they left. * Small groups which allow relationships to form are essential. Seekers come to experience authentic care. Most everyone wants to feel known in some way. * It’s the details that make a masterpiece. Can people read the times of services from the street? Are the classrooms clean? Does the church home page communicate service times? Is the website current? * In order to keep folk, visitors, new members and the rest of us need to “mix it up.” From the get go, groups and committees need to be integrated. While we are mixing it up, the establishment needs to listen to the visitor and new members. If we dominate the conversation rather than invite storytelling if you will; if we perpetuate the same leadership clusters void of new people, the new people will not stay. But we have tried, you say. Then those ways don’t work. There is more than one way to do just about anything.

Bean seeds. Working with them has risks. Last year the squirrels harvested my seeds before they had a chance to become beans. There are seeds we plant and let go. ‘Tis better to plant than leave the package on the shelf. I need to either plant them or give them to someone who will. That’s what seeds are for.

There are at least two directions this seed metaphor can go. God gives us seeds. The seeds of the gospel, the good news. News of a reality that we have experienced and hopefully, we desire others to experience too. God gives us seeds of personality, talent, insight and faith. These gifts are seeds to plant, to share for they help bring God’s kindom to earth.

A second way to consider seeds is that God plants seeds. God creates and nurtures human beings. These human beings people the earth. Human beings are both fragile and resilient. Each one of us has been hurt. Each one of us carries wounds. Each one of us longs for healing. God’s people, all people hunger for meaning. We long to be known – by others and by God. There is a song and a dance within each one of us.

The harvest is plenty. The laborers are few. Let us go forth and do what God has asked us to do. And like the Israelites, we can complain, we can have second thoughts, we can even fail. However, God is a gardener for the long haul. God will not give up on us. For God knows and loves the treasure that we are.

Amen.

Return to CCC Home Page