Seeds Part Three

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.  Galatians 5:23-24

Having just considered a parable about planting seeds and what we might call, "weeds", the next step might be to ponder prayerfully, what is growing in our lives right now?

What kind of fruit do you feel like you are harvesting?

Is there a taste of fear in a world where if it wasn't for bad news there wouldn't be any news at all?

Is there a plateful of uncertainty? Frustration? Unrest?

Paul, after processing his pain in the first four chapters that the Galatians were not living the way Paul thought they should, lands in offering the nine fruits of the spirit.

In the next few posts, we are going to ponder these fruits. 

But first, an invitation to you.

Look over the list/litany above.

Which fruit is one you would like God to help nurture and nourish in your life?

For me, I find that fruit kindness being so important in a world that seems bent on political point scoring and name calling. 
Kindness when dealing with people who push all my buttons.
Kindness with myself that I don't have to always have to offer the best blog-post ever or having thousands of readers.

Might there be a hymn that you could suggest for each fruit?

What color would associate with each fruit?

How about an example from your life?

Be playful and prayerful with this...and may there be more than a trace of God's grace in this...and may these seeds start to grow in your life in these days.

Seeds Part Two

He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?  It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;  yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4:30-32

In the last post, we centered around a farmer...who planted a seed...sat back...did nothing.  And yet, there was growth.  The image confronts our need to be constantly in control...as if God's realm was all up to us.  As if, we can force growth.  And we know this to be true.  As Richard Rohr says, "You cannot think your way into a new way of living, you have live your way into a new way of thinking."  This is what is so difficult in our world today.  We want instant and immediate results.  We want to microwave our way through growth.  Let's change the world now!  The moral arc may bend toward justice...but the arc is long and takes time; like a seed that grows slowly over time.

And if the parable did not challenge us enough, Jesus follows up the parable with the sequel of the mustard seed.  You maybe have heard about how small the mustard seed is and the preacher talk about that is all the faith you need.  But the subversive truth is, like the dandelion, many people in Jesus’ day thought the mustard seed to be a weed.  It would pop up almost anywhere and start multiplying.  And like that dandelion, the mustard seed did have some medicinal purposes, but it wasn’t exactly a cash crop.  No one really tried to grow it, it just grew ~ and grew ~ and grew!!  It wasn’t easily eradicated, it would just keep on growing in your well-manicured, carefully maintained garden. 

And a mustard seed shrub is one thing, but then birds come to nest there.  Most farmers will tell you, they prefer to keep birds away from their land.  Hence the scarecrow.  Birds are a nuisance.  So, in the sequel parable, you get a weed that you can't control and birds hanging around that you'd prefer to go away.

And this is the realm of God!?!?

What kinds of things do you call "weeds" might just be the way God is working?
Is there something you see as a nuisance that might be the sacred getting your attention?

See what I mean when I said in the last post that parables are like a fun house mirror distorting how we see?

When we say, “Your kingdom come…” these two parables challenge and cut to the core of what we are asking God to do.  We are asking God to be at the center of our lives, we are asking God to plant seeds others in the world might call weeds, we are asking God wisdom that might just fly in the face of what the world trusts and sees as truth. 

There is usually an expectation in talking about the Bible that at this point ~  somehow ~ in some way, like Nik Wallenda walking across a tight rope ~ I now take these truths and offer to you some practical and relevant way to take all of this home with you.  Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat, I would end this post by saying, “Here is a truth.  Ta-da”. 

But I am not sure I can with these two twin parables. 

One tells us to plant, to do what we can and where, but that often growth happens even in spite of our own efforts.  Have you ever seen that plant growing in your life when you are volunteering? 

The other tells us to be careful what we call a weed, because it might actually be the way God is working and moving in our midst.  Have you ever seen that kind of mustard seed in life where initially you thought, “This is the worst thing ever” only to eventually see a blessing in that moment? 
Like liquid running up a wall, both of these defy the gravity of how we see the world.  Rather than offering some simple resolution, I want to invite us to stick and stay in the tension.  Because there are moments Jesus caused more confusion than  clarity and that is certainly true here. 

So, where might you plant a seed in a relationship with someone, sit back, rather than try to command or control and see what happens?  Realizing that it isn’t all up to you, but God is up to something in your life. 

Or where might you reconsider what you called a weed, some experience or event, in your life right now?  My prayer is that the seeds that are growing today whether we find them to be helpful or want to dig them out the way my parents would with dandelions, the seeds might help to reform, re-frame, refashion, and remind us of the holy truth that God is not finished with us yet.  And to that I say, thanks be to God.

Seeds Part One

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29

There exists a seed right now that as a child I planted more times than I can count without realizing that in the soft, fuzzy-like seed contained numerous health benefits. 

Once this seed matures, which it can do practically anywhere, and you, like the person in the parable go out to harvest the plant, eat it, it can reduce high blood pressure, help with liver problems. 

It has been shown to relieve an upset stomach and improve digestion.  Other studies say the flower lowers bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. The greens contain significant fiber, protein, vitamins from A and zinc. 

The scientific name is Taraxacum officinale. 

But growing up, I knew this miraculous and marvelous plant by its more common name, dandelion.  And I learned from the website of the University of Wisconsin Weed Study department that while the name dandelion might seem to describe the bright yellow flower that resembles a lion’s mane, dandelion actually comes from the French name, dent de lion. 

And I find it fascinating, that there is a weed division of a University of Wisconsin?  If I'd only known that when I was looking at colleges!!

This is one of two twin parables Jesus tells us about seeds.  And on the surface, this might be one of the least controversial parables ever.  The words describes planting a seed the way you or I did in Sunday School where we would take a Dixie cup, put in a handful of dirt, sink a seed deep into the soil, set the container on the windowsill, occasionally, when we remembered, watering it, and watching as the mystery and marvel of life took shape sending a tiny fragile sprout to spring forth. 

Matt Skinner in his commentary on this first parable tells us that Mark is the only one to share this story, “Probably because it’s boring. Its plot has all the suspenseful drama of an ordinary elementary-school science textbook.”  Yet, if you dig a little deeper, notice that the one who plants the seed really does very little.  In fact, beside planting the seed, the gardener does nothing, nada, zip.  Sinks the seed into the ground and seems to say, “I guess that settles that.”  The person might be the worst farmer ever.  Nothing is said about the person watering or weeding or at least putting a scarecrow out in the field to keep the birds away. 

Yet, the seed grows!!

What does that tell us about God’s realm growing in our life?  In a culture that worships at the altar of self-definition, in a world where we love to recount to others what we moved from our to-do list to our to-done list.  In the blur of busyness, the first parable seems to suggest it isn’t all about us.  God’s realm moving in our midst may not be as dependent on us as we might think.  When dealing with a parable we always have to realize that it is like looking at mirror in a funhouse that distorts everything we think that we know. 

The kingdom of God that we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer might just grow regardless of our five-year strategic plan, regardless of how much we cling to, control, or white knuckle our lives.  For me, as a Type A person, that thought sends shivers down my spine.  Perhaps, this parable isn’t as boring as we thought.

Pause right now...consider seeds that are being planted right now in your life...and where you can trust in the slow work of the Spirit; that we can't always white-knuckle our own growth; and that God might be plotting something if we open ourselves to God's presence here and now.

And may there be more than a trace of God's grace in that for you this week. 

Stirring in my Heart Part Three

Friday Prayer

We arrive at the threshold of the weekend.
One week of working, volunteering, learning coming to a close.
Another week of our daily rhythm yet to begin.

Before we rush/race through the door.
Can we pause?

Where was that moment you felt closest to God?

Was it reading/listening/looking at some art?
Was it recognizing God's unconditional love in the face of brokenness?
Was it just sitting here for a few moments reading, breathing, and being?

Where was that moment of distance or disconnect from the sacred?
When peace felt elusive
Or love like a foolish dream
Or hope crumbled like a piece of paper tossed toward the trash can,
And, of course, it hit the rim and felt with a thunk to the ground.

Both moments have something to teach and tell us.
Every thing can be our teacher if we are willing to be a student.

I'd rather not always pay the tuition of life where stumbling and bumbling happen as much as succeeding and soaring...but the lessons are there in all moments...
Even in the mundane too.

What did these last few days stir in your heart?
Many all the responses...the good/bad/ugly....each offer you a trace of God's grace.

Stirring in my Heart Part Two

Literature, painting, music—the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things. Frederick Buechner 

Buechner invites us to see art not merely as something aesthetic, but as a prayer.  So, what helps stir your soul?  Is it words written on a page in the form of story/poetry?  Is it a painting that invites you to pause, see one moment forever frozen around a frame?  Is it music where one note leads to another creating a melody?

Is there a reason why that speaks and sings to you?

I love words.  I find encountering and engaging ideas awakens new insights within me.  I find music to communicate emotions that words cannot always convey.  If find art captures me with the truth that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Today, I invite you to accept Buechner's invitation.  Read...listen to music...go to a museum.

Stop - let your whole attention be in that moment.

Look - not only with your eyes, but all your senses.  What do you taste when you are reading a good book?  What do you smell when looking at a painting?

Listen - what stirs within your heart?

May there be more than a trace of God's grace in this for you today.

Stirring in my Heart

Embracing our brokenness creates a need for mercy. . . . I began thinking about what would happen if we all just acknowledged our brokenness, if we owned up to our weaknesses, our deficits, our biases, our fears. Maybe if we did, we wouldn’t want to kill the broken among us who have killed others. Maybe we would look harder for solutions to caring for the disabled, the abused, the neglected, and the traumatized. . . . We could no longer take pride in mass incarceration, in executing people, in our deliberate indifference to the most vulnerable.  Bryan Stevenson

Owning our weaknesses is not something we are taught in school or in our work life.  We are taught instead to deflect/defend/dismiss/discredit.  We are taught to blame others.  We are taught to point fingers and say, "They are the problem."

This is not unique to the 21st Century.  When a fire destroyed much of Rome in 64 C.E., Nero blamed Christians for causing it...even though there are some historians who suggest that Nero might have been responsible.  When Christianity became the state-endorsed religion under Constantine, our ancestors blamed our Jewish brothers and sisters for crucifying Jesus.  In the US, we continually blame the latest waves of immigrants for the problems (some may even remember the signs that would read, "No Irish Need Apply" that hung outside shops years ago).  Today, our two political parties blame each other for the slightest mistake.   The cycle is replayed and repeated.

Partly because we don't admit/accept our own brokenness.

We are playing a zero sum game where I need to get ahead by any means necessary and if I don't than you may end up with the nicer car/job/fame/fortune.

Yet, is that really what we are able in this world?

Am I really just my bank account balance?  Or what kind of phone I have?  Or what I hold onto as my opinion?

Am I something more? 

If we saw ourselves as both blessed and broken; we might be able to see others that way too.  If we quit trying to make ourselves look better by putting another person down, we might start to live a different way.  To get out of the dualistic mind of winners and losers is not only faithful from many different religious perspectives, it is actually what can connect us in our shared humanity.

May you and I have more than a trace of God's grace to let these words stir in our hearts and soak in our souls in these days.

Friday Prayer

Every morning when we open our eyes
God invites us to notice the blessings that ties...
Us to the sacred stirring
And relationships all around whirling
Slow down from too much gawking and blurring.

We need to be open to all that is around
To want we can see as well as sounds
To name what can help us feel ground-ed
There is so much within and around to astound.

Do we really see, sense, taste, touch or feel?
Or are we distracted, caught up in what others call, "Real",
Or use our energy to push down the pain rather than heal.
God's grace here and now is not concealed but revealed.

So, this day, is an invitation to me and you
The hours before us like a canvass brand-new,
Just like a flower last night a few centimeters grew,
So can we find more than a trace of God's grace which is true.

May God's presence surround, sustain, strengthen, and embrace you this and every day.  Amen.