June 14, 2009 - The 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

God Promises a Harvest
Mark 4:26-34
Pentecost + 2 – June 14, 2009

So, I told you a few months ago that Andy & I were planning to plant a garden. I started some seeds awhile ago inside, so they'd be ready to plant when it was planting season. We dug up part of our backyard so we'd have a place to plant. Recently, we finally got some stuff in the ground. We have scattered our seeds and now we are sleeping and rising, night and day, waiting for them to sprout and grow.

But I'll let you in on something. I'm not feeling very patient. Pretty much every time I'm outside, usually waiting on the dog, I'm wandering around the backyard, looking in our new garden plot, checking out the herbs we planted in pots, checking to see if anything has happened yet! Have our plants that were plants when we put them in the ground grown at all? Are they taller? Are there any new leaves? And the places where we planted see, well, those I'm checking to see if there are any new signs of life. Is anything poking up through the ground? I know that it's too early for anything to have happened. Plants don't just spring up out of the ground overnight, after all. But I can't help myself. I remind myself of an old grocery store commercial when I lived in Pennsylvania. They talked about how good their produce was & how they could hardly keep up with the demand & then they cut to a shot of a farmer out in his field, encouraging his plants to “Grow faster!” As if that would do any good – but it's kind of how I feel. I want to see progress, and I want to see it now! I want to know that what we're doing now will be worth the effort in the end.

Have you ever felt that way? I'm not just talking about the kinds of seeds we plant in gardens of course. I'm talking about the seeds that we plant in our lives, the time and effort and sweat that goes into all of the things that we do, hoping they'll produce a harvest down the line. I'm talking about the seeds of faith you may be planting or have planted in your children or grandchildren that you are still waiting to poke up through the ground, let alone be ready to harvest. I'm talking about the seeds of hope & hard work that you have planted in your family and your career, hoping for a better life someday. I'm talking the seeds of kindness you have planted in the lives of neighbors, for friends, or complete strangers, when you volunteer your time to raise money for cancer research, or to build or restore housing for those in need, or when you donate food for the hungry or supplies for an animal shelter.

We plant these seeds of faith and hope and compassion, seeds of the kingdom of God, hoping that we will see signs of growth, that the earth will indeed produce of itself – first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head, just as Jesus talks about in the 1st parable we heard today.
Jesus says the kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and sleep & rise, night & day, & the seed would sprout & grow, he doesn't know how. The process of growth is a mystery. Planters do everything they can – they hoe and plant and water and fertilize and weed and mulch and watch for bugs & disease, trying to help the seed along, to help it grow into a strong plant that will produce a great harvest and seed for the next season – but they can't force growth to happen. They can't speed up the process. They can't say, “Grow faster!” They have to wait for nature to take its course.

And as Tom Petty once sang, “The waiting is the hardest part.” We trust and believe that God is in charge, that God gives the growth to all of these seeds, but so often we just want God to hurry up already! Especially in the church, even in our own church. Over its nearly 100 years of ministry, the people of St. John's have planted countless seeds. And there was a time when we were reaping a bountiful harvest – our Sunday school was bursting at the seams, volunteers were plentiful, giving was ample for the ministry needs, & attendance and membership grew so much that we had to add on this part of the building that we are sitting in now. Growth was quick and obvious.

But for a while now, those signs of new life and growth have not been so obvious. In some ways we are still reaping the harvest of seeds sown long ago, but the harvest has slowed down. Right now, St. John's is in a replanting period. We are still sowing seeds, but seeds take time to grow. There are days when we grow impatient, when we wonder what we should do, worrying over our seeds, wondering when & if they are going to grow, when we bring in the harvest, if there will be seed enough for the future.

Well, there are a few things I want to say about that. One is that the soil we are planting in has changed. The world around us has changed dramatically; & it keeps on changing at a rate faster than many of us can keep up. It doesn't mean we stop sowing seeds. But it does mean that we need to think long and hard about what we are planting and the methods we are using. We may need to try some new crops. We may need to try some new-fangled methods. And we are doing that here. New seeds are being sown in the life of this church, things that haven't been done before, or not done for a while, or not in quite this same way. A group is forming for our young adults, our post-high-schoolers and 20-somethings. This summer we'll offer worship on Wednesday nights – a different night, a different style. New seeds of service and witness, of hospitality and compassion are being planted as we reach out to our community in new ways, through something as simple as handing out free bottles of water to exploring how we might partner with other churches to combat hunger and poverty and homelessness, how we might work together as a Lutheran body to grow & strengthen all of our ministries so we can reach more people with the good news of God's love. We're working on a new website and other ways to get the word out about St. John's. And yes, we continue to plant seeds of faith through the tried and true – we still have Sunday school & youth group & weekly Bible study. The truth is, we don't know which of these seeds will grow. We don't know which ones will produce the harvest we are hoping for, but we scatter the seeds God has given us, and we sleep & we rise, night & day, because while the soil around us may have changed, God, who is the giver of all growth, has not changed.

God has not forgotten about this little garden plot that is St. John's. God is not blind to all of us who are planting seeds of the kingdom in this place. God has not abandoned us. God still sends us rain and sun; God still provides us with ample seeds to plant. God still guides us as we sow those seeds. God has the greenest of thumbs, and while not all seeds will grow up, God promises that some always will. And even though we are impatiently waiting for a harvest, pleading “Grow faster!”, God promises that there will always be a harvest, for God is right alongside of us, planting with us. It's right there in the words from the book of Ezekiel, our Old Testament lesson for today.

“Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will take a sprig...; I will set it out, I myself will plant it – in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit. I the LORD have spoken; I will accomplish it.”

God promises that there will be a harvest. Like the planter in the parable, we don't know how it happens, but we know that it will come; in its own time, and in its own way, but it is coming. And it will be an abundant one, enough to feed many, stretching out its branches so that all may find shelter. So let's keep scattering seed – a new harvest is on the way! Thanks be to God!

Amen.