Spread the seed

Mark 4:26-34                                                                                                          Proper 6

Seeds and sprouting and growing. What do these parables have to do with us today? Every church I have been in for 23 years has only wanted one thing, growth. We want to see our congregations filled with people. We want to fill our pews, so in turn our pledges will be higher, so we can gain financial independence. At least this is part of it. The other thing is they want children. They want to see a younger generation brought up and stick to this faith tradition. We want growth, but do we want to scatter the seeds which encourage growth?

We forget this part. Growth can only happen if we are willing to scatter seed far and wide. What does it mean to scatter out the seed? Well, it is like another parable we know some falls on rocky soil, some falls and withers, and some sprouts good plants. The thing is we don’t get back all the seed we scatter out in the world, and we have to be willing to risk this. Risk spreading it and not having a seed grow is scary, but it is something we need to be willing to do.

This is the biggest misunderstanding of the church. Build it and they will come. Say something a certain way and they will flock to our doors. We forget to scatter any seed and scatter it abundantly. It doesn’t matter whether it sprouts now, later, or not at all. Scattering the seed is what we need to be about. Communities who decide to scatter the seed are the ones who are seeing growth because they have dared to give of themselves to the wider community and not expect anything in return. They also have done something new, listen. Listen and build relationship with others.

Talking with our neighbors is one way to scatter the seed. Grieving with them in their loss of patients at the hospital is one way to do this. They have tended the sickest, been their caregiver and then have watched them die. Giving them a way to express the grief they feel is scattering seed and not expecting anything in return. It is holding space for them to be vulnerable and have a place to put their loss. It is an example of hearing them, acknowledging the wider community hears and sees their grief.

Another way is to go door to door. Chantel Morales McKinney noticed the congregation in Winston-Salem did not match the community they were planted in. She went door to door for a year listening to her neighbors and asking what the church might do for them. In this way people felt heard and the church started offering things which connected the community to them. This is one of the biggest multi-cultural churches in the area now. All because the seed of listening was planted, and the actions taken for the community were heard by acting upon them.

Planting seeds means daring greatly, to be vulnerable, to risk, and to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Risk is the hardest thing for the church to do. We like to do the build it and they will come model instead of going out into our community. Instead of sharing why we love our place and inviting others to come. Sometimes risk would be in just surviving the heat and doing a worship on the front lawn where people can see us visibly and see that we are alright, maybe even stop by and hear something which might bless them. It takes us surrendering old ways of being the church and daring to be church in new ways.

Maybe this is in looking at the music we use, or the liturgy we have and asking what would make this inviting to more people? How could we scatter the seeds of encouraging another group of people to fall in love with who we are if we just tweak things a bit here and there. Some of this has meant putting words in Spanish into the bulletin, for some it has meant putting the words up on a tv or monitor so we don’t have to hold onto things or feel like we are disconnected from the worship by looking down all the time.

Scattering seeds means sometimes dreaming big, which is sometimes easier for the small church, because it already wants to do something in order to be known in the community. We scatter our seeds in the blessing offering we take every week and then give out to organizations who need support like the Salvation Army or the Bulldog Food Pantry. We scatter seed when we offer an appreciation dinner for teachers, the football team, and most recently the Public Safety Department. Chief McMillen responded by thanking us for our support in a difficult time. They felt loved and cared for by our community because of what we have done. He even expressed we reached out in the same way outlined in Matthew 25, giving someone the food of kindness when this is what was lacking.

Scattering seed is a blessing. It blesses others and sometimes we never know what will sprout. It is like putting the seed into the soil when you were a kid and seeing something emerge and grow. We are not patient with emergence. It takes time, tending, and care for the seed to come forth and yet it is a mystery as well. If we knew what the right answer was for growth, we would all be doing it and growing mightily. The thing is Kingdom work is never this easy. It is a development over time and the risk is trying and failing, and sometimes succeeding.

The kingdom of God takes our time and talent in order for it to develop and come to fruition. It is hard work to discover our distinct and unique gift and then to dare greatly and see how the seed might bring forth fruit. It is well worth the risk and the blessings abound when we spread the seed far and wide, joining the mystery of God in the world around us. So go and scatter the seed.  Amen