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July 13, 2008- RCL Year A, Proper 10

The Rev. Mark Byers

 

Gardening for Beginners

 

My in-laws have a summer house, up in Willow, New York. It’s a two hundred year old farm house, with a stone cellar, broad plank wood floors, and exposed beams. A beautiful place, although not entirely safe for small, curious children, Jessi and I have learned. When we were there, we had to keep a close eye on Fiona. Gorgeous, though, and peaceful, with a little diner nearby where we like to eat breakfast, and a farm with rescued livestock, all sorts of pigs and cattle, chickens and geese, goats and sheep, that need never, ever fear a barbeque.

 

But behind the house is one of the truly wonderful things about it: the back yard. There are flower beds, a beautiful lawn that slopes down to a nice, flat area. Louis and Bobbie got a wading pool for the kids. And Louis will go out with Fiona to work in the garden. He waters plants with her, and she finds various ways to get extremely muddy. On one side of the back yard is a large garden, divided into vegetables and herbs in one part, and flowers and ornamental things in the other. Louis loves to garden, and when we’re in Willow, it seems like most times there is something good to eat in the vegetable plot, or beautiful to look at in the other part.

 

As I’ve grown more and more fond of eating, or from watching devoted gardeners like Louis, or even from reading the planting and harvest references in scripture, I’ve started my own garden. It’s not big: some containers and three raised beds, 2 feet by 6 feet. This year is my first year of actual success: I tried in Virginia, unsuccessfully, to grow some things. Then last year, I planted out here, but nothing grew. But until the heat really kicked in, I was getting lots of tomatoes and squash, a few cucumbers, some sweet basil, thyme, and sage. Not everything grew, but most of the things did.

 

I have to admit that, in spite of seeing Louis and some others garden, and in spite of reading about tending crops in scripture, I didn’t really put much work into my gardens before this year. What I planted didn’t thrive largely because I didn’t do the small but necessary things that seeds and seedlings need in order to thrive and bear a crop. I didn’t prepare the soil. I didn’t weed. I didn’t water regularly enough. And in the absence of that sort of care, my previous gardens died off. There was nothing wrong with the seeds I planted. They were the right type of plants, and they did sprout. It had to do with the work I didn’t do after the seeds were sown.

 

Hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, from Matthew:

 

At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.

"What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

 "Are you listening to this? Really listening?" [Message, Mt. 13:1-9]

"Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.

"The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.

"The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.

"The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams." [Message, Mt. 13: 18-23]

There are very few places on earth that can’t produce a harvest, if the right care is taken. And even better, every human being is capable of receiving the seed of the kingdom of God. But this is important: there are things that prevent or limit the flourishing and harvest that God wants. God is gracious and loving, and also respects certain limits. We have what is called sometimes “free will.” Meaning that we are able to make choices with our lives; God doesn’t decide everything for us. What does this mean for a person, especially a person of faith, or seeking faith?

You and I know that wishing doesn’t make something happen. “I want to be a gardener,” I said one day. I want to BE a garden, a believer or potential believer might say.

A seed, even the seed of the kingdom, must have certain things in order to grow. It must have soil that will allow it to take root. For a believer, this means that we are not so “hard-packed” that we will not allow something to grow within us. Jesus once told a Samaritan woman he met at a well, someone he shouldn’t even have spoken with, according to custom, that “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.” Gardeners know what water can do: it soaks into hard soil and makes it possible to loosen it, to allow a crop to be planted. It flows from moist soil into the plants themselves, allowing nourishment and growth. Believers know that water, the water, for instance, of baptism, can prepare us in this way, can turn a parched, hardened soul into at least a potential garden. Without it, nothing can happen. With it, possibility: Jesus represents the source of that water for human beings.

I found, gardening out here in the desert, that one of my rookie mistakes was planting in the sandy, gravelly ground. The things I was planting needed a different sort of place to grow. Gravel and sand doesn’t allow for the kind of root structure, I observed, that what I was growing required. The kingdom requires dark, rich, welcoming soil, too. Jesus tells us that there are people who “hear and instantly respond with enthusiasm.” Most of us have experienced young love, and perhaps at the time, we said, “Forever.” It happens sometimes also in other things: hobbies, political trends, cultural fads, stock market bubbles. “This is wonderful! I don’t know what I did before I discovered eight track tapes.” I have a set of inline skates in the garage, and a saxophone. I’m not saying I’m never going to learn to skate or play saxophone, but I do know I’m capable of being a person who “responds with enthusiasm,” but without enough “soil of character” to develop that enthusiasm into actual accomplishment. Kingdom-growing soil requires the development of a type of character that creates richness and receptivity to what is growing in it. Gravel and sand don’t cut it.

As seeds grow, with water and good soil, so come the weeds. A sprout of something here and there doesn’t probably matter too much, but the danger for me, as a new gardener, is this: I can’t always tell my seedlings from a young weed. At first, I thought this left me with three choices, each with some risk involved. First, I could do nothing, and hope that the weeds wouldn’t choke out the vegetables. Second, I could take my best guess at which plants were weeds, and which were desirable, the ones I meant to grow. Third, I could wait a while and pull the weeds when they were far enough along to tell from the ones I planted. Like I said, each one has risk involved, and I’m not really sure that risk taking is a virtue in gardening.

Of course, the best thing would be to be able to recognize from the very beginning which ones I planted, and pull all the other ones as they pop up. Then, it would be more and more obvious, as mine grew larger, and the new weeds were comparatively obvious, being so tiny, which ones need to be removed. This involves learning from someone else, either through a book or personal teaching, how to recognize which plants bear a crop, and which plants choke out their neighbors, but don’t have value to a gardener.

We are asked, as citizens of a highly advanced civilization, to do a great many things at once. We’re taught that doing many things at once is a strength. But doing many things at once, some of which are quite harmful or distracting, might be a profound weakness. We allow some things to exist side by side that are mutually exclusive, a choking weed next to a tomato vine, because we imagine or have been told that both will give us food, but one of them may only produce thorns, and also kill the other.

Think for a moment about your life as a garden. Do you know how to tell weeds from the food-bearing plants? Most of us believe we do. Jesus tells us that there are things that grow in us alongside the Gospel that threaten what God has planted in us: worry and greed among them, but there are more besides. Our danger is that some of us, either new gardeners, or self-taught, or taught by an unwise teacher, are growing weeds either unaware, or with the illusion that there is value to them.

There comes a point, as a gardener, when you begin to succeed. Or at least, I’ve seen it happen in other gardens. I wouldn’t call mine a success yet. But success in gardening is an incredible thing. (Again, I’ve heard…) If you succeed in gardening, if you prepare the soil, ensuring it is rich and moist, and free of stones… If you tend the good plants and weed out the bad… Two things happen.

First, you get a crop. Even better, eventually you will get more than you can eat. And then, you get to share with others. I got to give some squash and tomatoes away to my neighbors. Joanne then brought me back a delicious zucchini relish that I love to put on hotdogs. It is fantastic. A good harvest feeds you, and it feeds others, and even in feeding others, it continues to feed you. Do you see what I’m talking about? The kingdom builds within you, if you tend it, if you make choices that allow it to flourish, and it will nourish you and others around you. It is an abundant harvest: taste and see that the Lord is good!

Second, you learn to love gardening. Not just, like with me right now, the eating of the food, but the watering and loosening of the soil, enriching it and planting it, tending it and ensuring that the things that were planted are the ones that come to maturity. And with that love comes the desire to share with others not just the fruits of the garden, the abundant nourishment of the kingdom inside of us, but the knowledge of how to help others do it too. Do you know what comes of gardeners gathering together, sharing with one another and those around them? Feasts and kingdoms, life and richness and generosity. If anyone ever asks why you’re a Christian, do you realize how much you have to share? And if you’re searching, if you are in your faith as I am in my backyard, still learning and eager to know more, you’re in the right place this morning.

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