Friday, June 15, 2012

Friday, June 15, 2012


Today’s text

 Mark 4:26-29


He also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.'

Reflection

It is hard to wait. I am not sure human beings are built for waiting, and growing up in the U.S. doesn’t do much to teach you the art of patient waiting.
Twice yesterday I heard the word ‘impatient’ from people who are not at all antsy. They know about waiting. They know what it is to live with uncertainty and threat, watching and wondering what will come to them, their health, their family … their lives.

They want to see and know what the future will bring. While they wait they distract themselves from the worst of their fears as well as possible, and they live their lives.

I hope they can continue to live with hope, just knowing … that beneath the surface of their lives --and of all life--there is unseen dynamic constantly at work that will yield a great harvest of loving presence in their lives, no matter what comes.

You are there, Holy One. Always. The parable is not about seeds, but about you. And you are the hidden dynamic of love secretly growing in the soil of our lives, green shoots pushing through the hard crust of doubt and fear, our uncertainty and our struggle to trust that whatever the future holds … your love holds the future.

The sower in Jesus story acts strangely. He plants but doesn’t not weed or till, water or care for the growing seed. He does nothing to assist its growth. He waits, knowing all will be well because something good and beautiful will grow and cover the earth with fresh green life.

No farmer worthy of the name, even in Jesus time, would be as passive as this man. But passivity is not the point; patient confidence is.

Living in relationship with the Loving Mystery, who is everywhere and active in everything, we are invited to take a deep breath and live, simply knowing that a harvest of divine goodness and grace, love and blessing will come.

This hardly means we get everything we want or think that we need. Life with God is not existence in a candy store.

But we will bask in the light of and love of God. For in ourselves three grows a harvest of loving presence that will fill our souls and unite our hearts with all who know this love … and with the One who is that Love.

Pr. David L. Miller