The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, June 14^th
Ez 17:22-24
Ps 92:1-4, 12-15
2 Cor 5:6-17
Mk 4:26-34

Many years ago, when I was still a young fella on the farm I decided to raise corn as one of my 4-H projects. It was around the time I was getting old enough to drive a car, legally that is. I didn’t have a car yet so this patch of corn was going to be very special for me. It was to provide the necessary funds to buy that long awaited car. On a farm you need a car or life becomes all about staying home and watching the corn grow.

Well, I had some experience having helped my dad raise other crops like wheat, soy beans, and alfalfa. In this particular case my dad was being very good to me, much like a heavenly Father giving us every good and perfect gift. My dad said I could have 10 acres to raise my corn and the profit would all be mine.

In the spring we prepared the soil. We plowed, we disked the hard ground, and creating a good seed bed for the corn to be planted. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground.” (Mark 4) Once the soil was prepared and the temperature was adequate we planted the seeds and by late June the corn was about 2 – 3 feet tall. Things were looking pretty good and I was already visioning myself driving to school in the fall.

Jesus also said, “and (someone) would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” At that stage of my life I was kind of like that. Even though I was in 4-H, growing up on a farm, I would sleep and rise night and day and I never thought much about the corn sprouting and growing. It just did.

I wonder if we/you are much like that at times. We expect growth here at Good Shepherd, but we come to church night and day and we don’t know how it happens. Many of us have been trained in confirmation, in adult Bible classes, in seminars, and yet we sleep and rise night and day and we don’t know how the seeds of faith start to sprout and grow.

If we ask some of our new members about how they arrived/were planted at Good Shepherd, if we thought of these new members or seeds of faith we would likely hear many different stories about how they ended up here. One could say someone scattered the seed on the ground and we were fortunate enough to be that ground upon which the seed was scattered.

There are other parables that talk about the seed falling on various types of soil. In fact earlier in this 4th chapter of Mark we see that if the seed falls on rocky ground and the roots can not go deep into the soil the plant, the seeds of faith spring up quickly, but can not last in the heat of the day, the plants withers and die because they have no root to sustain them.

As a church, as a community of faith we need to make sure our soil is not rocky where these new seedlings don’t last under the scorching sun. It can at times get hot here in Buena Park. Let’s make sure we provide nourishment and growth to the seeds of faith that God has planted here today.

Getting back to our parable (Mark 4) Jesus said, “The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.”

As I was watching my corn grow I was felling pretty good about life. I could see the stakes of corn pushing their way up into the sky. First the stalk, then I noticed the ears of corn starting to form and life was good. I was dreaming about what kind of car I was going to buy. I wanted a fast car, something that had some real pep to it. Sometimes when we’d go to town I’d look at the car lots and put myself behind the wheel. It was fun pretending, which car I’d be cruising in.

As I said earlier sometimes we see the stalks growing, the heads forming and we don’t know how God does it, we just know its happening. As we grow older, as we take our science classes, our Ag classes we begin to understand that stalks of corn can grow bigger and better based on how we take care of the field. Do we cultivate regularly, do we fertilize, if it’s a real dry year do we need to provide some water to help the plants grow sound and tall? What does it take for the full grain to mature and for the corn to yield 100 or sometimes even 200 bushels per acre?

This is a question we need to be asking ourselves here at Good Shepherd. What does it take for us to have seeds of faith grow into full stalks of corn where the grains are fully mature, and there are many of them here?

I mentioned the rocky soil earlier based on the parable in Mark 4:3-9. This parable mentions other soil conditions that prevent seedlings from growing into healthy stocks. Seed falls on the path and the birds come and eat them directly.

We had someone who visited here earlier this year. She was different than most of us. She used some very rough language at times and was very angry at God. She had a hard time connecting with most of us. She was a seed on the path and the birds came and ate her. My heart feels sick over her because we couldn’t seem to provide the soil she needed to grow. I failed and it saddens me deeply when I think about her.

There’s always lots of discussion when we start talking about whether or not we are a welcoming congregation. Kelly Fryer, a Lutheran Pastor and someone who talks about evangelism in the ELCA says there is no easy way to say this, but reaching out to people, inviting people to be part of our church community is a matter of faith. I usually don’t think of it that way. She asks the question – Have we met Jesus? If we have truly met Jesus in our life than why wouldn’t we want to tell others about that meeting and what it means to us?

Starting in the fall we will be starting a class called How to Become a Contagious Christian. I don’t know about you, but when someone talks to me about how excited they are about a group or an event or a place they go I become curious about why. Why are they so excited? What is happening at this event or place that is so compelling? When we have met Jesus in a real and personal way we become contagious Christians. I hope you’ll want to be part of this exciting ministry coming this fall.

The other growing constraint the earlier parable mentions is growing up among thorns and weeds. I hate weeds! I hate crabgrass! I know what weeds can do to a crop. I’ve seen crops be choked off. I’ve seen how weeds steal the nutrients. I’ve seed how weeds steal the moisture from the soil so what was initially a good looking crop turns out to be a disappointment. If you’ve ever grown a vegetable garden you know how devastating weeds can be.

Fighting weeds – there are two ways to get rid of weeds. Pull them up. That’s hard work. It’s time consuming and back breaking. You can spray for them as well, but getting the right mix of weed killer that won’t kill the good plants is tough and often expensive. A much better thing to do is make sure the soil in prepared and the seed is good seed to start with.

For us as a church we can prepare the soil of our hearts by studying God’s word. The more we study the better God prepares us for accepting new seeds of faith in our life. Drinking in the water of the Spirit is also a good preventative measure that can help keep the weeds in our own life in check. Coming soon I’d like to start a lectionary study that can help all of us stay in God’s word on a weekly basis. If you’d like to participate in a Bible study, soak up more of the water of life join us for a study soon. Perhaps we could start next Sunday after services…..

That corn crop of mine was starting to look pretty good. Those stalks were getting about shoulder high and my engine was revving. I know this was going to expand my very limited dating life as a farm boy. I could hardly wait for fall to come. Sometimes we get impatient in life when we are waiting for important milestones to pass on by.

James A. Garfield, prior to serving as President of the United States, was president of Hiram College in Ohio. One day a father asked Garfield if there were a short-cut whereby his son could get through college in less than the usual four years. He wanted his Son to get on with making money. The college president gave this reply, “Of course there is a way; it all depends on what you want your boy to do. When God wants to grow an oak tree, it takes 100 years. When he wants to make a squash, it only takes two months.”

So I’m waiting knowing that my day would come. Then one day in July the clouds staring to build in the west and we know it was going to be a pretty good storm going through. We needed the rain so I was actually glad to see the clouds so the corn would grow some more. The winds started to blow, the rain was pouring, and then it happened. Hail stones the size of golf balls. The hail cut a path across our farm and right in the middle of it was my prized corn.

It took about ten minutes, maybe less. In the blink of an eye it was over and all that was left were tattered stalks, most of which were pummeled into the ground. My heart sank as I saw the field. We had spent money on the seed, the fertilizer, the cultivating; now it was all gone and instead of having a bumper crop I had a bummer crop.

Life can do this to all of us. The world can be a brutal place at times. My dad, a poor farmer did not have insurance, so this was a big loss to our whole family. He knew it was devastating to me. He could NOT give me the money for a new car, he didn’t have it. What he did do is give me his car. It wasn’t what I had hoped for or expected, but it was what I needed. God provides what we need, not always what we want. Trusting God is all about having faith in the Father.

Remember next time you pray, ask God for just what you need. God wants to give you that, God knows what you need. Jesus told his disciples – ask and it shall be given you…..

We have new seedlings. Let’s encourage them to grow with God’s help. Let’s provide good soil for them to grow in so when they are fully grown, ‘ripe for the harvest’ as Jesus said they can be members of God’s kingdom. Seeds of faith, love them as God loves you.

Amen