October 5, 2003
World Communion Sunday
Heb. 1:1 Long ago God
spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways
Hearing a statement like that reminds me of the
world’s oldest profession, and I have brought just a few items
that are vital for that vocation,
A spade
A hoe
and a watering can
For the world’s oldest profession goes all
the way back to the garden of Eden, where it says in Genesis 2: 15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to till it and keep it”. Gardening, tending to the soil, growing plants, trees,
shrubs and plants of all kinds of shapes and varieties has been the
vocation of our brothers and sisters throughout the centuries.
Gardeners have learned the ways to tend to their crops so that food is
produced, medicines created, and beauty enjoyed. In fact one author
boldly proclaimed, we cannot look at a loaf of bread without being
aware of the whole universe within it.
Back of the loaf is the snowy flour
And back of the flour, the mill;
And back of the mill is the wheat and the
shower,
And the sun, and the Maker’s will...
What a wonderful gift, and the good news is that
God is still at work today. God plants in us a word, that like a seed
grows in our souls to nourish us, and inspire us the rest of our lives.
Hebrews is written in fact to a people whose belief
is wavering, they have lost their initial enthusiasm for converting to
the way of Jesus, and now are facing hard times. The author writes to
stimulate their faith, to help infuse them with hope. So the author
gives them the tools they need to nourish their souls, and so we too
can be nourished by the words even today, many decades later.
First, the spade. Every Gardner knows that
preparation of the soil is important. A spade is used to break up the
earth, and give roots a place to grow. Fertilizer can be worked into
the soil so that proper nourishment is given. Our souls have been
prepared for the seeds of faith by God in two important ways. First,
Hebrews 1.3 tells us that Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory
and the exact imprint of God’s very being and Jesus sustains all
things by God’s powerful word. God has already been at work in
our souls, we need the word of God, we need to feel the Holy Spirit at
work in our lives, we need to see Jesus alive and well. This is just
our nature. Just as plants need to be nurtured , so do our souls, we
are not meant to be left alone.
The second way God prepares our souls is to bring
others to our lives to help us on our way. If we had time today, I
could call on each person here to talk about what has brought them here
today. If we could, we would hear many different reasons, some have
come because of a crisis in their lives, some because they want to sing
praises, some because they are searching, some to be a part of
community, others want to learn, some to teach. The list goes on and
on. The point is, although we come for different reasons, and from
different places in our lives, God calls us together to be a community,
to proclaim God’s name in the midst of the congregation. Further
we have united purpose in the world, to bring goodness into a world so
full of hurt and shame. We come to hear God’s word and we may
hear God in different ways. Some through visions, some through dreams,
or meditation, or prayer , or song, or study or doing justice, again
the list goes on and on.
The second way God nourishes us is once we have
answered the word, and our faith begins to grow, we need to stay
focused. The hoe reminds us that weeds need to be excavated from our
seed beds. There is so much in the world that demands attention. And
there are many distractions that can keep us from following the call of
God in our lives.
Pastor Leith Anderson tells of calling Chemlawn to
take care of his suburban weed-infested lawn, only to have them reject
his lawn as a client because it was so bad! One member of his church
volunteered to totally remove his old lawn and start a new one., an
offer he was almost ready to accept when a former farmer gave him some
advice; Don’t worry so much about getting rid of the weeds. Just
grow the grass, and the grass will take care of the weeds. The
Anderson’s took his prescription and did all they could to grow
“the good stuff” After a couple of years, the lawn looked
just as good as everyone else’s (Anderson, A Church for the 21st
Century <Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1992>, 125-26). Sometimes it
feels like the weeds of our lives are taking over. We lose our jobs, we
get a pay cut, we are involved in an accident, we receive bad news from
our doctor. It is vital that we do all we can to grow in our faith, to
keep our focus on the one who sustains you. Another way of saying this
is focus on your strengths, give from your strength, and even if it is
not like everyone else, you will find your souls nurtured and
strengthened.
Thirdly, we need to make the choice to continue to
water what God has planted. In a humorous way, Red Skelton talked about
his tips for a happy marriage.
-two times a week my wife and I go to a nice
restaurant, have a little beverage, then comes good food and
companionship. She goes on Tuesdays, I go on Fridays.
-We also sleep in separate beds. Hers is in Ontario
and mine is in Tucson
-I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding
her way back.
-We always hold hands, if I let go, she shops.
-He reminds us that marriage is the number one
cause of divorce!
-But seriously he states that he married Miss
Right, I just didn’t know her first name was Always!
All this good humor aside, our souls need the life
giving water of God, so the question is, how can we cultivate our
capacity for hearing, receiving, and cherishing those moments when
God’s word comes to us with power? For me it has been simple, the
voice of God is most clear when I am in the outdoors, and when I loose
touch with my vocation, and feel at loose ends, a hike in the woods,
camping out under the open sky, or simply sitting under a tree is the
way I recover my connection to God. For one young man, the son of a
preacher, had a tough time finding his way in life, at one point he
felt a call to ministry, wanting to follow in his father’s
footsteps. At one point he wrote, “ As far as one can remember,
in our family... there has always been... one who preached the
gospel”. Unfortunately, he was not successful in his theological
studies. He attempted, however, to continue his religious vocation by
becoming a missionary to the poverty stricken miners. His desire was to
follow in the steps of Saint Francis, but he failed at this as well.
After he was dismissed from the mission field he wrote, “Nobody
has understood me. They think I’m a madman because I wanted to be
a true Christian.” The ministry’s loss was the art
world’s gain as he left the mission work to begin his career in
painting. However, even then he did not have an easy time at it, his
father argued with him about painting, to which he replied, “ One
preaches from a pulpit, another from a book or a painting”. Yet
even then, the inner peace he sought escaped him, and he only sold one
painting in his lifetime. However, many art critics consider Vincent
Van Gogh’s painting , Starry Night, to be one of the most
profoundly spiritual artworks of all time. (Quotations from Vincent Van
Gogh, Copyright, 1969 by Marc Edo Tralbaut and Edita Lausanne, Quoted
in Reel Faith, Vol. 1 No. 3, Abingdon Press, 2001.) We have a choice,
to quench our thirst for God or to let the seeds dry out, and die.
God calls us, and we have the free will to follow
or not. But if we do choose God, and to bring goodness into the world,
than our lives will never be without meaning and purpose. Further , our
lives will always count, our suffering will always be redeemed by the
one who lived and died as one of us, who even now, loves us more than
we can ever comprehend in this life. So what do you say, are you ready
to join the world’s oldest profession? Are you ready to plant the
seeds of love and peace and joy? Are you ready to weed out all that
threatens the lives of God’s children in all parts of the
globe” Are you ready to keep the faith by watering your soul with
God’s word? If so, let us all say, AMEN!
