Planting the life of Jesus in the world

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Andrew’s Wickford this morning:

Most of the Bible was originally written to those living in an agrarian society, people familiar with working the land, managing livestock, and raising crops. Many of Jesus’ parables involve the farming life. Not surprisingly, then, the Bible contains many references to sowing and reaping.

At the beginning of a New Year, we can look forward to the seedtime in the Spring, when the earth is warm enough and moist enough from the early rains to best guarantee the "sprouting" of the seed once it is planted in the ground, and also to the Harvest, when we reap what has been sown. The Bible encourages us, when it comes to our giving, that the more seed that is planted, the more fruit will be harvested. In other words, those who sow generously will reap more than those who don’t. But Jesus also speaks of multiplication; of seed sown that brings forth “a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” A single grain produces many grains, the smallest seed grows into the largest tree, and the seeds which fell in good soil bore one hundred grains each. We are to sow generously and trust to God to bring about the multiplication.

Jesus said in Matthew 17. 20, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” When we face a lack of harvest, and that is what the mountain here represents, our first reaction is often to look at the lack. We think about the lack, rehearse the lack, talk about the lack, sometimes at great length. Jesus says, in effect, ‘don’t start with the lack, instead start with the seed'. Imagine a farmer needs a thousand bushels of corn. He does not start with what he doesn’t have. He starts by sowing seed in the field, because the corn he wants will grow from the seed he plants.

When we face a lack of harvest in some area of life, instead of first trying to deal with the lack, consider first planting the seed. If, for example, we were lacking friendship would it help to lament the fact of being alone? It would be much better to try planting a seed of a smile or a helping hand.

What is the seed that we plant? Jesus said that many of his parables involving sowing and reaping were told to show us what the Kingdom of God is like. The most famous of his parables involving sowing and reaping is the Parable of the Sower in which Jesus identifies the seed as being the word of God (Mark 4.1-20). This is usually interpreted as meaning either the Bible or the Gospel but, if we take account of Jesus’ own identification of himself as the seed (John 12. 20 - 26), we can see that this also makes sense of the Parable of the Sower too as John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God. On this basis God the Father is the farmer who sows Jesus, his Son, into the world as the seed which is buried before bringing into being the Kingdom of God. So, what is sown is life; the life of Jesus.

The great American writer Frederick Buechner has written about this focus on the life of Jesus. He notes that when Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," “he does not say the church is the way”: “He does not say his teachings are the way, or what people for centuries have taught about him. He does not say religion is the way, not even the religion that bears his name. He says he himself is the way. And he says that the truth is not words, neither his words nor anyone else's words. It is the truth of being truly human as he was truly human and thus at the same time truly God's. And the life we are dazzled by in him, haunted by in him, nourished by in him is a life so full of aliveness and light that not even the darkness of death could prevail against it.”

Jesus lived a life of generosity by living life for others and, ultimately, by dying for others. Jesus offered himself, his life, to come alive in hundreds and then in thousands and then in millions of others. His words were a prophecy in His death his life “will burst forth, and grow up, and multiply itself in the great spiritual harvest of the world.” “The history of all that is best, and truest, and noblest in the life of eighteen centuries comes to us as the fulfilment. Hearts hardened, sinful, dead, that have been led to think of His death, and in thoughts of it have felt germs of life springing up and bursting the husks of their former prison, and growing up into living powers which have changed their whole being” (Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers). But first he had to die and if we, his followers, are going to pass on his life then we too will have to learn the pattern of life through death. The Jesus way is what we are called to emulate. That is what we are to plant, the life of Jesus in the world, because it is what God the Father originally planted in order to bring the Kingdom of God into being.

Sowing seeds of God in the world is not primarily about teachings or words, instead it is primarily about living life the Jesus way - the truth of being truly human as Jesus was truly human and thus at the same time truly God's. Think of it like this, if God the Father gave for a specific harvest by sowing Jesus into our world, who are we to do any different. Jesus said in John 5:19 “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” We can do no better than Jesus. He did as He saw the Father do, and we should now do the same. (http://wayofpeace.net/newsletter/it-is-a-seed-we-sow/)

So, the seed that we plant is our self; our life lived the Jesus way. Jesus lived a life of self-sacrifice, of service, and of love. That is what we should seek to sow, as generously as possible, through our lives. Jesus came to give a new view of life. "We look on glory as conquest, the acquisition of power, the right to rule. He looked on it as a cross. He taught us three amazing paradoxes: that only by death comes life; that only by spending life do we retain it; that only by service comes greatness. And the extraordinary thing is that when we come to think of it, Christ’s paradoxes are nothing other than the truth of common sense; the truth of the natural cycle of seedtime and harvest.”

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Amazing Blondel - Safety In God Alone.

The indiscriminate sowing of God's love

Here's the reflection I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

I wonder whether you have noticed the strange thing about the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13. 1 - 17); something that does not make sense from the point of view of an efficient farmer. Jesus says that the parables, the stories he tells, are not easy to understand and there is an aspect of this parable that doesn’t seem to make sense from a farming point of view.

What I am thinking of is the indiscriminate nature of the way the sower sows the seed. The sower scatters the seed on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes, as well as in the good soil. Any farmer would know that the seed falling on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes is going to be wasted because it is not going to grow well and yet the sower goes ahead regardless. What sort of farmer wastes two-thirds of the seed like that?

Was it because the sower was uninformed about the principles of farming or unconcerned about the harvest? Perhaps, instead, the actions of the sower are telling us something significant about the nature of God. The seed was sown indiscriminately, even recklessly. Those places that were known to be poor places for seed to grow were nevertheless given the opportunity for seeds to take root. Doesn’t this suggest to us the indiscriminate and reckless nature of God’s love for all?

The seed is the Word of the Kingdom and the Word, John’s Gospel tells us is Jesus himself. So Jesus himself, this parable, seems to suggest is being scattered throughout the world (perhaps in and through the Body of Christ, the Church).

Some parts of the Body of Christ find themselves in areas like the path where the seed seems to be snatched away almost as soon as it is sown. That may seem a little like our experience in a culture where people seem resistant towards Christian faith and the media revel in sensationalising the debates that go on within the Church.

Other parts of the Body of Christ are in areas like the rocky ground where it is hard for the seed to take root and grow. We might think about situations around the world where Christians experience persecution or where the sharing of Christian faith is illegal.

Other parts of the Body of Christ are amongst the thorn bushes where the worries of this life and the love of riches choke the seed. Again, we might think about our situation and the way in which our relatively wealthy, consumerist society makes people apathetic towards Christian faith.

Finally, there is the good soil where the seed grows well and the yield can be as much as a hundred fold. Again, there are parts of the Body of Christ who find themselves in good soil. “Currently, there are more than 2.3 billion affiliated Christians (church members) worldwide. That number is expected to climb to more than 2.6 billion by 2025 and cross 3.3 billion by 2050. But it’s not just numerical growth, Christianity is growing in comparison to overall population. More than one-third (33.4 percent) of the 7.3 billion people on Earth are Christians. That’s up from 32.4 percent in 2000. By 2050, when the world population is expected to top 9.5 billion people, 36 percent will be Christians. Those positive numbers are due to explosive growth in the global south. Only in Europe and North America is Christianity growing at a less than one percent rate. In Africa and Asia, the rate is currently more than double and will continue to climb.”

We can rejoice in that growth, although it is not an experience we currently share in the UK, and can support its continued growth through our mission giving and partnerships. We should not be discouraged because that kind of growth is not our current experience in the UK. Growth does still occur even when we are on the path or the rocky ground or among the thorn bushes.

For example, in our most recent Annual Report, we noted that much of “our mission and outreach, including Messy Church (bi-monthly on Saturdays), the Gateway foodbank (Ecumenical initiative), Open the Book (Schools work), ministry in care homes (monthly services in four homes), and other initiatives, is enabled by teams drawn from across our three churches” and we “are increasingly developing mission initiatives related to our context including: Contemplative Commuters - a Facebook group for any commuter wanting quiet reflective time and content on their journeys to and from work; Saturday Solace - 10-minute reflection and Christian mindfulness sessions between 10.00 am & 12 noon on Saturdays at St Andrew’s; and Unveiled – an arts and performance evening which attracted an average of 25 people per event, with events including artist talks, concerts, dance performances, exhibition viewings, heritage talks, lectures, and an Open Mic Night.” Seeds have taken root even in the hard ground that is our current experience overall here in the UK.

This happens because God’s love is indiscriminate wanting all to have the opportunity to receive the seed of his Word. He sows Jesus, the Body of Christ, into the poor soil as well as the good soil knowing that some seed will not grow or be as fruitful but wanting all to have the opportunity to receive the seed of his Word. He knows too that ground which at one time was perhaps rocky ground can become good soil in which spectacular growth can occur. In this country we need to pray that our culture which currently feels like the path or the thorn bushes will in time also become good soil once again and, in the meantime, celebrate that growth that does occur on the path and among the thorn bushes.

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Michael McDermott & Heather Horton - A Wall I Must Climb.

The indiscriminate and reckless nature of God’s love for all

Here's the reflection I shared in today's Eucharist at St Andrew's Wickford:

I wonder whether you have noticed the strange thing about the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13. 1 - 17); something that does not make sense from the point of view of an efficient farmer. Jesus says that the parables, the stories he tells, are not easy to understand and there is an aspect of this parable that doesn’t seem to make sense from a farming point of view.

What I am thinking of is the indiscriminate nature of the way the sower sows the seed. The sower scatters the seed on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes, as well as in the good soil. Any farmer would know that the seed falling on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes is going to be wasted because it is not going to grow well and yet the sower goes ahead regardless. What sort of farmer wastes two-thirds of the seed like that?

Was it because the sower was uninformed about the principles of farming or unconcerned about the harvest? Perhaps, instead, the actions of the sower are telling us something significant about the nature of God. The seed was sown indiscriminately, even recklessly. Those places that were known to be poor places for seed to grow were nevertheless given the opportunity for seeds to take root. Doesn’t this suggest to us the indiscriminate and reckless nature of God’s love for all?

The seed is the Word of the Kingdom and the Word, John’s Gospel tells us is Jesus himself. So Jesus himself, this parable, seems to suggest is being scattered throughout the world (perhaps in and through the Body of Christ, the Church).

Some parts of the Body of Christ find themselves in areas like the path where the seed seems to be snatched away almost as soon as it is sown. That may seem a little like our experience in a culture where people seem resistant towards Christian faith and the media revel in sensationalising the debates that go on within the Church.

Other parts of the Body of Christ are in areas like the rocky ground where it is hard for the seed to take root and grow. We might think about situations around the world where Christians experience persecution or where the sharing of Christian faith is illegal.

Other parts of the Body of Christ are amongst the thorn bushes where the worries of this life and the love of riches choke the seed. Again, we might think about our situation and the way in which our relatively wealthy, consumerist society makes people apathetic towards Christian faith.

Finally, there is the good soil where the seed grows well and the yield can be as much as a hundred fold. Again, there are parts of the Body of Christ who find themselves in good soil. “Currently, there are more than 2.3 billion affiliated Christians (church members) worldwide. That number is expected to climb to more than 2.6 billion by 2025 and cross 3.3 billion by 2050. But it’s not just numerical growth, Christianity is growing in comparison to overall population. More than one-third (33.4 percent) of the 7.3 billion people on Earth are Christians. That’s up from 32.4 percent in 2000. By 2050, when the world population is expected to top 9.5 billion people, 36 percent will be Christians. Those positive numbers are due to explosive growth in the global south. Only in Europe and North America is Christianity growing at a less than one percent rate. In Africa and Asia, the rate is currently more than double and will continue to climb.”

We can rejoice in that growth, although it is not an experience we currently share in the UK, and can support its continued growth through our mission giving and partnerships. We should not be discouraged because that kind of growth is not our current experience in the UK. Growth does still occur even when we are on the path or the rocky ground or among the thorn bushes. We need to pray that seeds will take root even in the hard ground that is our current experience overall here in the UK.

This happens because God’s love is indiscriminate wanting all to have the opportunity to receive the seed of his Word. He sows Jesus, the Body of Christ, into the poor soil as well as the good soil knowing that some seed will not grow or be as fruitful but wanting all to have the opportunity to receive the seed of his Word. He knows too that ground which at one time was perhaps rocky ground can become good soil in which spectacular growth can occur. In this country we need to pray that our culture which currently feels like the path or the thorn bushes will in time also become good soil once again and, in the meantime, celebrate that growth that does occur on the path and among the thorn bushes.

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Tears for Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love.

Assets and abundance

This morning I preached at the Watling Valley Partnership's Annual Covenant Service held at All Saints Loughton. The Watling Valley Partnership are a Local Ecumenical Partnership of the United Reformed Church, Methodist Church, Church of England and Baptist Church, who are also HeartEdge partners.

Here is the sermon I preached:

The Royal Horticultural Society says that sowing seeds outdoors is very straight forward – just think of how many plants scatter their seeds and they grow where they land as soon as it is moist and warm. The secret to success when sowing seeds outside is to prepare a good seedbed, free of weeds and with a crumble-like soil-surface texture. Beds should be dug over in advance to allow time for the soil to settle. Cover the bed to suppress weeds then level the surface and create a crumble-like tilth picking off any remaining weeds and debris. Other problems to be addressed include pigeons and other birds which can be a pest.

Just as in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13. 1 – 23), the RHS guidance is that seeds are less likely to grow well where there are weeds, debris like rocks and stones, or where birds can eat the seeds. Seeds are likely to grow well in good, well-prepared soil. So far, so good; so far, so similar – the secrets of growing good crops were really no different in the time of Jesus from those of today. Given that as much was known then about sowing seeds as is known now, there is just one strange element to Jesus’ story and that is the fact that the sower deliberately sows seeds in the areas where seeds are less likely to grow, as well as in the prepared soil where the seeds are more likely to grow well. The sower is profligate with the seeds in a way that goes counter to the advice from the RHS which, as we have seen, is consonant with the understanding of sowing demonstrated by the parable. So why does the sower ignore good practice and deliberately sow seeds on the path, the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes? Does this strange aspect to the story tell us something significant about God?

The seed is the Word of the kingdom and the Word, John’s Gospel tells us, is Jesus himself. So, it is Jesus himself who is being scattered throughout the world as the seed being sown in this parable (perhaps in and through the Body of Christ, the Church). As the seed was sown indiscriminately, even recklessly, there was a breadth to what was going on here as the places that were known to be poor places for seed to grow were nevertheless given the opportunity for seeds to take root.

This suggests to us the indiscriminate and reckless nature of God’s love for all. It means that no part of our community or our world is off limits to Jesus or to us as the body of Christ. Within HeartEdge, the international, ecumenical movement for renewal within the broad church that has been initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields and of which the Watling Valley Ecumenical Partnership is part, we express this in terms of churches seeking to be at the heart of their communities whilst also being with those who are on the margins or at the edge. By being at the heart and on the edge our mission and ministry will have something of the breadth with which the sower scatters the seed in this parable.

As we recommit to God in this service through the Covenant Prayer, may we commit to loving others in the way that God loves; at the heart and on the edge, with a reckless, indiscriminate love that welcomes all, including those who may not return that love and welcome.

The sower scatters the seed indiscriminately because the life of Jesus can spring up and flourish anywhere. This means that the life of Christ grows outside the church as well as within it. As a result, our task as Christians is not simply to take the love of Christ to all parts of our community and world but also to be actively looking to see where the seed of Jesus is taking root, growing and bearing independently of anything that the church has done. Another of the key concepts for HeartEdge is that God is continually sending gifts to the church of people who we don’t expect or recognise as being Jesus. The renewal of the Church has not come from those already within it, so instead it is likely to come from those who are currently outside of or on the edge of Church.

There are many people and organisations of good will in our communities with which we, as churches, are not yet engaging who nevertheless are well disposed towards the Church and will give some form of support, if the right connection can be made. Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, tells a story of talking with a politician whose mother gave an annual donation to the Christmas Appeal at St Martin’s. When asked why someone who lived a long way from London would give regularly to St Martin’s, the answer came back that St Martin’s cares about what is important. The more we seek to be blessing to our wider community, the more we will find those locally who will support the church and partner with it, regardless of whether or not they are able or willing to attend.

There are also many people and organisations of good will in our communities with which we, as churches, are not yet engaging who nevertheless are acting in ways that bring Christ to others by giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting those in prison. We need to look for signs of God within our communities and then come alongside those people in solidarity and support for the ways in which they are bringing Christ to others.

The story of St Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar outside the gates of Tours has been an inspiration to us at St Martin’s. The story has inspired our congregations over the years to show compassion and care towards those in need, particularly those who are homeless or refugees. But the story has a twist, that night Christ appeared to Martin in a dream as the beggar to whom he had given half his cloak. Martin had thought he was the one sharing the love of Christ with the beggar. In reality, it was the one who was outside, on the edge, marginalised and in need, who showed the face of Christ to Martin. In the same way, we need to be alert to all those within our community who can show the face of Christ to us.

As we recommit to God in this service through the Covenant Prayer, may we commit to discerning where the Spirit is already at work within our local community in individuals and organisations becoming a blessing to the community by getting involved in the work that the Spirit has already begun and receiving a blessing as the face of Christ is shown to us in new ways.

The love of God as shown in the Gospels and in this parable is abundant, profligate, indiscriminate, and reckless. It is, as Jesus says elsewhere, pressed down, shaken together, poured out and overflowing. Jesus came to give us life in abundance, life in all its fullness, yet, within our churches we often operate with a mind-set of scarcity.

The church is getting smaller and becoming narrower. Those regularly attending worship are fewer. The church’s reputation and energy are becoming associated with initiatives that are introverted and often lack the full breadth of the gospel. In response we often focus on what our church doesn’t have, who isn’t there, and what problems it faces. In a deficit culture we begin with our hurts and our stereotypes, and find a hundred reasons why we can’t do things or certain kinds of people don’t belong. As churches we are often quick to attribute our plight to a hostile culture or an indifferent, distracted population or even a sinful generation; but much slower to recognise that our situation is significantly of our own making. In the imagery of this parable when we focus on our deficits, we are focusing on the path, the rocky ground and the thorn bushes.

By contrast, in HeartEdge, we believe that churches can do unbelievable things together by starting with one another’s assets, not our deficits. We believe churches and communities thrive when the gifts of all their members are released and they build one another’s assets. We are enough as local communities because God has given us what we need in each other. We also believe that God is giving the church everything it needs for the renewal of its life in the people who find themselves to be on the edge. Wisdom and faith are found in the places of exile and rejection. The rejected are to be sought out because they are the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. If you are looking for where the future church is coming from, look at what the church and society has so blithely rejected.

The life of the church is about constantly recognising the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrating the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives. Thus is deficit turned to plenitude, threat turned to companionship, and fear turned to joy. This is the life of the kingdom. The life of the kingdom of God is found in recognising the abundance of the seed that is continually being sown. The life of the kingdom of God is found when we expect and look for the growth of that seed at the heart and on the edge, often in unanticipated ways, in surprising places and in unexpected people.

As we recommit to God in this service through the Covenant Prayer, may we commit to being a people who live out of the abundance of God, rather than our scarcity, by beginning with our assets, not our deficits; both those within our church and those without.

Let us pray: God of hope, in Jesus you made heaven visible to earth and earth visible to heaven: make your Church a community at the heart of your kingdom alongside those on the edge of society, that each day we may seek your glory, and embody your grace; through Christ our Lord. Amen

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Come, let us use the grace divine.

Start:Stop - Small Action Big Difference

Bible reading

‘He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”’ (Matthew 13: 31 & 32)

Meditation

This year’s BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal for St Martin-in-the-Fields uses the slogan ‘Small Action Big Difference’. This reminded me of the statement made by Brother Lawrence that ‘We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.'

The Parable of the Mustard Seed is an illustration of this truth. In this brief parable a small action, the sowing of a small seed, leads to the growth of a large plant. Jesus says that, in a similar way, the kingdom of God has small beginnings but grows to become something much larger. As a result, we should, like Brother Lawrence says, in no wise despise small actions.

We see this illustrated in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. Long centuries have come and gone but all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings and queens that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of human beings upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the ultimate expression of a small action with a big impact.

We could respond to this by thinking what small thing can I do today that will have a big effect but the reality is that we are rarely able to accurately predict future effects. Instead, we can learn, like Brother Lawrence, to value small, mundane actions in the knowledge that, if well done for the love of God, these actions can have significantly larger impacts.

Prayer

Lord God, enable us not to be weary of doing little things for love of You, recognising that you regard not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. Please take and use the little that we offer and multiply it to your praise and glory.

As we do small things for love of you multiply the impact of our actions.

Enable us to sow small seeds of Your love through our actions in those we know and in our communities and workplaces. Bring those seeds to fruition and make their growth be greater than the seed which was sown.

As we do small things for love of you multiply the impact of our actions.

Teach us to value the doing of small, mundane actions recognising that You are equally present in the small things of life as in the great. Give us the eyes of faith to discern You as You come to us at each moment of our daily routine - truly present, truly living, truly attentive to the needs of each person.

As we do small things for love of you multiply the impact of our actions.

Blessing

Giving us eyes of faith, being present in the small things of life, bring seeds sown to fruition, multiplying the impact of our actions. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon us and remain with us always. Amen.

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Tears for Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love.

Growing bread which is broken for the world

Here is the sermon I preached for this evening's Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

A few years ago researchers at the University of Warwick devised a novel way to recycle discarded mobile telephones - bury them and watch them transform into the flower of your choice. They designed a mobile phone case made of biodegradable polymer which broke down on the compost heap into a pile of soil nutrients. And then, because the engineers included a tiny transparent window in the case in which they embedded a seed, the final touch was that the case flowers.

The seed lay dormant in its plastic window until the phone cover got dug into the ground. The phone cover then broke down allowing the seed to germinate and, as the flower grows‚ to get additional nutrients from the biodegrading phone cover.

This story reminded me of Jesus’ words from our Gospel reading: “a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains.” (John 12. 20 - 36)

Just like the mobile phone case which is hard but biodegradable and which contains a seed, “a grain of wheat has a hard, glossy husk within which its life is contained. But if it falls into the ground, then its husk softens and rots and breaks open, and from inside the seed the power of its life begins to push outwards, and the pattern of its life begins to unfold. Roots go down into the soil, and a shoot comes up into the light where it grows stronger and taller and produces an ear of corn.”

Jesus equates that picture of the hard outer husk which has to rot to release the life inside to our choice in life to be either people who love our own lives or people who hate, lose or give away our lives. Those of us who love our own lives reinforce our hard, outer husk. We put up barriers between ourselves and others in order to protect and enjoy what we have for ourselves.

Jesus says that when we live life selfishly, protecting ourselves and what we have, then we have actually lost the essence of life itself. We are dead to the world, its peoples and its wonders because we engage with what is other not for its own sake but only for our sake. When we cannot appreciate other people and God’s creation except in terms of what we can get for ourselves then we are dead to the world and all that is in it. Not only are we dead to the world and all that is in it but we are sterile as well. If we live just for ourselves; if we give nothing away to others but keep all for ourselves; then everything we have dies with us and what we have had is lost forever.

But says Jesus, if we are like the grain of wheat that dies, then we will know what it is like to really come alive and really live. If we allow our protective shell to rot and be removed; if we are focused not on ourselves but on others; if we disregard our own life in this world and follow Jesus in serving others; then we gain, then we come alive, then we see a single grain of wheat multiply and produce many grains.

Stephen Verney points out that when a single grain of wheat produces an ear of corn “there are forty seeds where before there was only one. Next year if those forty seeds are all planted in good soil they will produce sixteen hundred seeds – in the third year sixty-four thousand – in the fourth year over two and a half million – and in the fifth year over a hundred million.” “Gradually out of one little seed,” he says, “there appears a harvest, which men and women reap and grind into flour and bake into bread. So it is that one seed has within it the capacity to feed a multitude of people – if it only first falls into the ground and dies.”

“And so it is,” Verney continues, “that Jesus offers bread to the whole world … He offers himself, his life, to come alive in hundreds and then in thousands and then in millions of others. But first he must die, and if his followers are going to pass on the life then they too will have to learn the pattern of life through death.”

If we are to be Jesus’ followers then we must follow him in the way of life through death which is the way of letting go and receiving back. Then we will share Jesus’ work and he will come alive in us as the seed comes alive in next year’s harvest and we will “be reaped, and ground into flour and baked in the oven, and become the bread which is broken for the world.”

Seeds are a good symbol of the way in which the good news of Jesus is shared. Our words and actions can be seeds in the lives of people who have yet to come to know Jesus for themselves as we share something of ourselves and our faith with them. “Our calling is to live and share the gospel of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ. We have good news for a hurting world – words of comfort; words of life. To help someone else experience the love of God is indeed an act of loving service, in a world where many people ‘live lives of quiet desperation’.”

Through our words and actions we can be like seeds in the lives of those in our family, our community, our networks and our work. To be a seed we have to become open and give that thing that is of most value in our lives to others; the life of Christ. Whether it is by practical actions or by giving a reason for the faith we have in us; we become seeds when we share the love of Christ where we are.

So, what seeds will we plant in the life of others during this coming week? What seeds can we plant in the lives of family, friends, neighbours, colleagues? Will we, in fact, live our lives as seeds giving ourselves and the love of Christ away to others each day of every week and thereby seeing the grain of wheat become an ear of corn and the corn become the bread broken for the life of the world.

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Michael W Smith - Seed To Sow.

Start:Stop - Sowing and growing seeds

Bible reading

A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 13. 3 – 9)

Meditation

Business life and practice is structured to be as efficient as possible. Clear goals based on market research, structures which are fit for purpose, processes which effectively deliver high quality products or services to customers in a timely fashion. We all know the reality doesn’t always live up to the ideal, but this is essentially what businesses strive to achieve.

Our passage today is very different. I wonder whether you have noticed the strange thing about the Parable of the Sower which does not make sense from the point of view of an efficient farmer. What I am thinking of is the indiscriminate nature of the way the sower sows the seed. The sower scatters the seed on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes, as well as in the good soil. Any farmer would know that the seed falling on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes is going to be wasted because it is not going to grow well and yet the sower goes ahead regardless. What sort of farmer wastes two-thirds of the seed like that?

The actions of the sower tell us something significant about the nature of God. The seed was sown indiscriminately, even recklessly. Those places that were known to be poor places for seed to grow were nevertheless given the opportunity for seeds to take root and this suggests the indiscriminate and reckless nature of God’s love for all. The seed is the Word of the Kingdom and the Word, John’s Gospel tells us, is Jesus himself. So Jesus himself, this parable, seems to suggest is being scattered throughout the world (perhaps in and through the Body of Christ, the Church).

Some parts of the Body of Christ find themselves in areas like the path where the seed seems to be snatched away almost as soon as it is sown. That may seem a little like our experience in a culture where people seem resistant towards Christian faith and the media revel in sensationalising the debates that go on within the Church. Other parts of the Body of Christ are in areas like the rocky ground where it is hard for the seed to take root and grow. We might think about situations around the world where Christians experience persecution or where the sharing of Christian faith is illegal. Other parts of the Body of Christ are amongst the thorn bushes where the worries of this life and the love of riches choke the seed. Again, we might think about our situation and the way in which our relatively wealthy, consumerist society makes people apathetic towards Christian faith.

Finally, there is the good soil where the seed grows well and the yield can be as much as a hundred fold. Again, there are parts of the Body of Christ who find themselves in good soil. At present, there is “explosive growth in the global south. Only in Europe and North America is Christianity growing at a less than one percent rate. In Africa and Asia, the rate is currently more than double and will continue to climb.”

We can rejoice in that growth, although it is not an experience we currently share in the UK, and can support its continued growth through our mission giving and partnerships. We should not be discouraged because that kind of growth is not our current experience in the UK. Growth does still occur even when we are on the path or the rocky ground or among the thorn bushes. This happens because God’s love is indiscriminate wanting all to have the opportunity to receive the seed of his Word. In this country we need to pray that our culture, which currently feels like the path or the thorn bushes will in time also become good soil once again, and, in the meantime, celebrate that growth that does occur on the path and among the thorn bushes.

Prayer

God of mission, who alone brings growth to your Church, send your Holy Spirit to bring vision to our planning, wisdom to our actions, faith to our lives, hope to our communities, and love to our hearts.

Make me a part of the indiscriminate sharing of your love to all people everywhere.

God of mission, renew your Church and begin with me. Heal our land, tend our wounds, make us one and use us in your service; for Jesus Christ’s sake. Lord of the Church, make us the Church of the Lord.

Make me a part of the indiscriminate sharing of your love to all people everywhere.

God of mission, come by your Spirit and change us, let your church reflect the beauty, diversity and
hospitality that we see in you, lead us to a place of graceful concord: a self-forgetful love, a turning back to Christ: for with your grace to help we can be one, and in your strength can strive to serve and bless, and by your will can see your kingdom come. Use us to the full; and when we are empty, fill us afresh. We know you love your church, help us to love each other. Unite us in the effervescent joy of your declaring, but not just us – we ask it so that, in these days of uncertainty, the world may believe.

Make me a part of the indiscriminate sharing of your love to all people everywhere.

Blessing

Vision to our planning, wisdom to our actions, faith to our lives, hope to our communities, and love to our hearts. May all those blessings of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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African Children's Choir - Seed To Sow.

The indiscriminate and reckless nature of God’s love for all

Here is my sermon from today's lunchtime Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

I wonder whether you have noticed the strange thing about the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13. 1 - 17); something that does not make sense from the point of view of an efficient farmer. Jesus says that the parables, the stories he tells, are not easy to understand and there is an aspect of this parable that doesn’t seem to make sense from a farming point of view.

What I am thinking of is the indiscriminate nature of the way the sower sows the seed. The sower scatters the seed on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes, as well as in the good soil. Any farmer would know that the seed falling on the path, on the rocky ground and among the thorn bushes is going to be wasted because it is not going to grow well and yet the sower goes ahead regardless. What sort of farmer wastes two-thirds of the seed like that?

Was it because the sower was uninformed about the principles of farming or unconcerned about the harvest? Perhaps, instead, the actions of the sower are telling us something significant about the nature of God. The seed was sown indiscriminately, even recklessly. Those places that were known to be poor places for seed to grow were nevertheless given the opportunity for seeds to take root. Doesn’t this suggest to us the indiscriminate and reckless nature of God’s love for all?

The seed is the Word of the Kingdom and the Word, John’s Gospel tells us is Jesus himself. So Jesus himself, this parable, seems to suggest is being scattered throughout the world (perhaps in and through the Body of Christ, the Church).

Some parts of the Body of Christ find themselves in areas like the path where the seed seems to be snatched away almost as soon as it is sown. That may seem a little like our experience in a culture where people seem resistant towards Christian faith and the media revel in sensationalising the debates that go on within the Church.

Other parts of the Body of Christ are in areas like the rocky ground where it is hard for the seed to take root and grow. We might think about situations around the world where Christians experience persecution or where the sharing of Christian faith is illegal.

Other parts of the Body of Christ are amongst the thorn bushes where the worries of this life and the love of riches choke the seed. Again, we might think about our situation and the way in which our relatively wealthy, consumerist society makes people apathetic towards Christian faith.

Finally, there is the good soil where the seed grows well and the yield can be as much as a hundred fold. Again, there are parts of the Body of Christ who find themselves in good soil. “Currently, there are more than 2.3 billion affiliated Christians (church members) worldwide. That number is expected to climb to more than 2.6 billion by 2025 and cross 3.3 billion by 2050. But it’s not just numerical growth, Christianity is growing in comparison to overall population. More than one-third (33.4 percent) of the 7.3 billion people on Earth are Christians. That’s up from 32.4 percent in 2000. By 2050, when the world population is expected to top 9.5 billion people, 36 percent will be Christians. Those positive numbers are due to explosive growth in the global south. Only in Europe and North America is Christianity growing at a less than one percent rate. In Africa and Asia, the rate is currently more than double and will continue to climb.”

We can rejoice in that growth, although it is not an experience we currently share in the UK, and can support its continued growth through our mission giving and partnerships. We should not be discouraged because that kind of growth is not our current experience in the UK. Growth does still occur even when we are on the path or the rocky ground or among the thorn bushes.

For example, in our most recent Annual Report, we said that “St Martin-in-the-Fields is a thriving community. Its congregation is lively, engaged, inclusive and vibrant. Its commercial activities are healthy, popular and profitable. Its cultural life is dynamic and overflowing. Its relationship to destitute people and those on whom society has turned its back is as strong as ever. It reaches millions through its broadcasts and new audiences through its emerging digital ministry.” Seeds have taken root even in the hard ground that is our current experience overall here in the UK.

This happens because God’s love is indiscriminate wanting all to have the opportunity to receive the seed of his Word. He sows Jesus, the Body of Christ, into the poor soil as well as the good soil knowing that some seed will not grow or be as fruitful but wanting all to have the opportunity to receive the seed of his Word. He knows too that ground which at one time was perhaps rocky ground can become good soil in which spectacular growth can occur. In this country we need to pray that our culture which currently feels like the path or the thorn bushes will in time also become good soil once again and, in the meantime, celebrate that growth that does occur on the path and among the thorn bushes.

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Michael W. Smith & The African Children's Choir - Seed To Sow.

Planting Seeds of Hope

Tonight St Martin-in-the-Fields held an evening of silence, prayer and collective action. We joined in solidarity with people across the planet as we fasted and prayed for the climate, leading up to the UN Climate Conference in Paris, December 2015. As a symbolic action, we planted seeds of hope.

Pray and Fast for the Climate is a movement of Christians praying and fasting on the 1st of each month for a meaningful and just global climate agreement at the UN climate talks. They started off in the UK, but now include people from Australia, Canada, Europe and the US. And they hope to grow more – recently the Anglican Communion Bishops’ statement on the environment suggested that all Anglicans worldwide pray and fast on the 1st of the month! Pray and Fast for the Climate is supported by members of the ‘Faith for the Climate’ network.

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Bruce Cockburn - If A Tree Falls.

Text for 2015 - St John's Seven Kings

Most of the Bible was originally written to those living in an agrarian society, people familiar with working the land, managing livestock, and raising crops. Many of Jesus’ parables involve the farming life. Not surprisingly, then, the Bible contains many references to sowing and reaping.

At the beginning of a New Year we can look forward to the seedtime in the Spring, when the earth is warm enough and moist enough from the early rains to best guarantee the "sprouting" of the seed once it is planted in the ground, and also to the Harvest, when we reap what has been sown. The Bible encourages us, when it comes to our giving, that the more seed that is planted, the more fruit will be harvested. In other words, those who sow generously will reap more than those who don’t. But Jesus also speaks of multiplication; of seed sown that brings forth “a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” A single grain produces many grains, the smallest seed grows into the largest tree, and the seeds which fell in good soil bore one hundred grains each. We are to sow generously and trust to God to bring about the multiplication.

Jesus said in Matthew 17. 20, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” When we face a lack of harvest, and that is what the mountain here represents, our first reaction is often to look at the lack. We think about the lack, rehearse the lack, talk about the lack, sometimes at great length. Jesus says, in effect, ‘don’t start with the lack, instead start with the seed. Imagine a farmer needs a thousand bushels of corn. He does not start with what he doesn’t have. He starts by sowing seed in the field, because the corn he wants will grow from the seed he plants.

When we face a lack of harvest in some area of life, instead of first trying to deal with the lack, consider first planting the seed. If, for example, we were lacking friendship would it help to lament the fact of being alone? It would be much better to try planting a seed of a smile or a helping hand.

What is the seed that we plant? Jesus said that many of his parables involving sowing and reaping were told to show us what the Kingdom of God is like. The most famous of his parables involving sowing and reaping is the Parable of the Sower in which Jesus identifies the seed as being the word of God. This is usually interpreted as meaning either the Bible or the Gospel but, if we take account of our Bible reading tonight where Jesus identifies himself as the seed, we can see that this also makes sense of the Parable of the Sower too as John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God. On this basis God the Father is the farmer who sows Jesus, his Son, into the world as the seed which is buried before bringing into being the Kingdom of God. So what is sown is life; the life of Jesus.

Jesus lived a life of generosity by living life for others and, ultimately, by dying for others. Jesus offered himself, his life, to come alive in hundreds and then in thousands and then in millions of others. But first he had to die and if we, his followers, are going to pass on his life then we too will have to learn the pattern of life through death. The Jesus way is what we are called to emulate. That is what we are to plant, the life of Jesus in the world, because it is what God the Father originally planted in order to bring the Kingdom of God into being. Sowing seeds of God in the world is not primarily about teachings or words, instead it is primarily about living life the Jesus way - the truth of being truly human as Jesus was truly human and thus at the same time truly God's.

So, the seed that we plant is our self; our life lived the Jesus way. Jesus lived a life of self-sacrifice, of service, and of love. That is what we should seek to sow, as generously as possible, through our lives. This is what Jesus says in verses which have been chosen as the Text for 2015 for St John's Seven Kings taken from John 12. 24 – 25: “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.”

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Bill Fay - Be Not So Fearful.

Planting the seed of ourselves

Most of the Bible was originally written to those living in an agrarian society, people familiar with working the land, managing livestock, and raising crops. Many of Jesus’ parables involve the farming life. Not surprisingly, then, the Bible contains many references to sowing and reaping. (http://www.gotquestions.org/sowing-and-reaping.html#ixzz3NPWi1XWq)

At the beginning of a New Year we can look forward to the seedtime in the Spring, when the earth is warm enough and moist enough from the early rains to best guarantee the "sprouting" of the seed once it is planted in the ground, and also to the Harvest, when we reap what has been sown. The Bible encourages us, when it comes to our giving, that the more seed that is planted, the more fruit will be harvested. In other words, those who sow generously will reap more than those who don’t. But Jesus also speaks of multiplication; of seed sown that brings forth “a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” A single grain produces many grains, the smallest seed grows into the largest tree, and the seeds which fell in good soil bore one hundred grains each. We are to sow generously and trust to God to bring about the multiplication.

Jesus said in Matthew 17. 20, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” When we face a lack of harvest, and that is what the mountain here represents, our first reaction is often to look at the lack. We think about the lack, rehearse the lack, talk about the lack, sometimes at great length. Jesus says, in effect, ‘don’t start with the lack, instead start with the seed. Imagine a farmer needs a thousand bushels of corn. He does not start with what he doesn’t have. He starts by sowing seed in the field, because the corn he wants will grow from the seed he plants.

When we face a lack of harvest in some area of life, instead of first trying to deal with the lack, consider first planting the seed. If, for example, we were lacking friendship would it help to lament the fact of being alone? It would be much better to try planting a seed of a smile or a helping hand.

What is the seed that we plant? Jesus said that many of his parables involving sowing and reaping were told to show us what the Kingdom of God is like. The most famous of his parables involving sowing and reaping is the Parable of the Sower in which Jesus identifies the seed as being the word of God. This is usually interpreted as meaning either the Bible or the Gospel but, if we take account of our Bible reading tonight (John 12. 20 - 26) where Jesus identifies himself as the seed, we can see that this also makes sense of the Parable of the Sower too, as John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God. On this basis God the Father is the farmer who sows Jesus, his Son, into the world as the seed which is buried before bringing into being the Kingdom of God. So what is sown is life; the life of Jesus.

The great American writer Frederick Buechner has written about this focus on the life of Jesus. He notes that when Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," “he does not say the church is the way”: “He does not say his teachings are the way, or what people for centuries have taught about him. He does not say religion is the way, not even the religion that bears his name. He says he himself is the way. And he says that the truth is not words, neither his words nor anyone else's words. It is the truth of being truly human as he was truly human and thus at the same time truly God's. And the life we are dazzled by in him, haunted by in him, nourished by in him is a life so full of aliveness and light that not even the darkness of death could prevail against it.”

Jesus lived a life of generosity by living life for others and, ultimately, by dying for others. Jesus offered himself, his life, to come alive in hundreds and then in thousands and then in millions of others. His words were a prophecy in His death his life “will burst forth, and grow up, and multiply itself in the great spiritual harvest of the world.” “The history of all that is best, and truest, and noblest in the life of eighteen centuries comes to us as the fulfilment. Hearts hardened, sinful, dead, that have been led to think of His death, and in thoughts of it have felt germs of life springing up and bursting the husks of their former prison, and growing up into living powers which have changed their whole being” (Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers). But first he had to die and if we, his followers, are going to pass on his life then we too will have to learn the pattern of life through death. The Jesus way is what we are called to emulate. That is what we are to plant, the life of Jesus in the world, because it is what God the Father originally planted in order to bring the Kingdom of God into being.

Sowing seeds of God in the world is not primarily about teachings or words, instead it is primarily about living life the Jesus way - the truth of being truly human as Jesus was truly human and thus at the same time truly God's. Think of it like this, if God the Father gave for a specific harvest by sowing Jesus into our world, who are we to do any different. Jesus said in John 5:19 “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” We can do no better than Jesus. He did as He saw the Father do, and we should now do the same. (http://wayofpeace.net/newsletter/it-is-a-seed-we-sow/)

So, the seed that we plant is our self; our life lived the Jesus way. Jesus lived a life of self-sacrifice, of service, and of love. That is what we should seek to sow, as generously as possible, through our lives. Jesus came to give a new view of life. We look on glory as conquest, the acquisition of power, the right to rule. He looked on it as a cross. He taught us three amazing paradoxes: that only by death comes life; that only by spending life do we retain it; that only by service comes greatness. And the extraordinary thing is that when we come to think of it, Christ’s paradoxes are nothing other than the truth of common sense; the truth of the natural cycle of seedtime and harvest.

Those who were at tonight's Watchnight Service at St John's Seven Kings took the seeds they were given as they arrived in order to reflect on them as we prayed, then they took them home to plant as a reminder that their life is to be a seed planted and grown by God: Fruitful God, bring growth to the seeds we sow that we may be a haven to those we seek to serve. Faithful God, take our mustard seeds of faith and move away mountains that our work may grow. Amen

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Tears for Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love.