Sadly we had technical difficulties and the service was not able to be broadcasted or recorded, so I have incloded my Sunday message for you to read.
Mark 4:26-34 (24, 26-29) 3rd Sunday after Pentecost June 2021
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Jesus wasn’t a farmer, but he made some outstanding statements about how farming works.
I’m not a farmer, I grew up in the city, but among the members of St. Peter’s we have people who plant their own vegetable and herb gardens and people who have grown up on and around commercial farms, who might agree.
Jesus made no attempt to pass himself off as a farmer, but he did want the people to understand that farming depends, very much on God, on good graces.
Farming, especially in the time of Jesus, was burdensome and depended upon the proper reading of the seasons.
A farmer needed to prepare the soil with a plow or other such tools before the planting and then scatter the seed in the most efficient way possible, going from field-to-field planting additional crops.
But, after this work was complete, the farmer’s work was limited.
The farmer could do very little to supply the crops with the needed water; there was little in the way of pesticides and, for the most part the farmer had to rely on the nutritional value of manure for his crops.
That isn’t to say that the farmer sat on his hands and did nothing until the crops were ready for the harvest.
There was livestock to take care of and there were hoes and sickles, baskets and wagons to care for and ready for the harvest.
And there was the job of protecting the crops from wild animals (and their own livestock) and from insects; walls were never enough; rabbits and ground hogs, deer and other plant eating animals were in great number and found their way into the planted fields; there were many things that could devastate the crops before the harvest.
Plagues, for example, of locusts and such were beyond the farmers, as they are pretty much today, but especially then without the aid of pesticides; these insects could do a great deal of damage right under their noses.
The message of Jesus was first, that the seeds would sprout and grow (most of them), and the stalks and heads and the grain would appear, pretty much on their own; the farmer knew not how, except for the grace of God.
The real work of the farmer, after the planting, would not resume until the moment the crop was ready for the harvest.
Picking and gathering, cutting and carrying the sheaves to the place where they would separate the shell from the usable crop, and then where appropriate grinding the grain to make flour needed to be done quickly; for all the crops, the farmer would need to haul them to market and put some into their barns and homes.
Second and of even greater importance was the truth that the church of Jesus Christ was God’s great planting, and God was the one who was growing Jesus’ church, just as God grows the crops for the harvest.
Today as the pandemic restrictions, regarding gathering, are quickly allowing for more and more in-person activity, church leaders are actively questioning, what will happen to the church, post pandemic.
Will the people return to their churches; will they support again the work of the church; will God’s great planting of the church be trampled underfoot, left uncared for or be subject to wild beasts and the pests of society?
The answer is “no; and Jesus’s parable, in today’s Gospel, speaks directly to this concern.
God did not plant his word and grow his church, to see it damaged or wither and die.
As God sends needed rains to the farmer, as God provides life and growth to plants, God provides for the church all that is needed.
But that is not to suggest that we can just sit back as though there is nothing to be done; the talents we have been given are to be used as God expects, and for the church.
Someone, with the appropriate gifts, from among our numbers, is needed to chase away the creatures who might threaten God’s good planting.
Someone is likewise needed to separate from among God’s good planting those plantings that might get in the way of God’s care and block the hearing of the good news of Jesus Christ and the receiving of Holy Communion.
The Holy Spirit has given to us all the tools that we will ever need to grow and care for Jesus’ church; it is up to us to share Jesus’ love with all those, who within the church, who are growing and maturing their faith in Jesus Christ.
As the farmer is not a spectator who lazily sits back only to savor the bounteous work of God, so our place in the church is not to be that of a spectator.
We may not be able, on our own, to grow faith, as this is done by the Holy Spirit, still there is much that we can do; we can use our gifts of the Holy Spirit to support the church; we can help grow the church by sharing Jesus’ words with those inside and outside of the church, in words and by doing deeds of love, following Jesus’ example and by giving generously to the ministry of Jesus Christ, the ministry of the church.
As each farmer is essential to the work of growing our food, so we are essential to the work of growing faith and preserving the church that God has built for us.
A third purpose of Jesus message Jesus’ is to give to us hope.
We are reminded that God is actively working, to grow his good planting of the church, and is providing all that is needed for the church to grow.
St. Peter’s ministry has never been in jeopardy of failing, just as the church of Jesus Christ has never been in jeopardy of failing, in spite of the past and present struggles suffered; and this will continue to be true, so long as we do what any good farmer would do, observe how the church is growing, protect God’s good planting from the enemies that might harm it or weaken it, and be ready, for any call from God to prepare God’s plantings to venture into the Glory of God.
God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit has not, is not and will not leave us to do God’s work alone.
The church is and will be as strong as our trust and commitment to Jesus and his ministry.
Pandemic, war, human stupidity, corruption, natural disasters, Satan, nothing can destroy the Church of Jesus Christ, unless that is, God’s good planting, people like you and me and Christians in general, stop trusting in Jesus and turn away from our commitments to God our Father.