I think one of
the greatest mysteries of all time is how a seed grows. I'm sure biologists have this one all figured
out. You take a seed put it in a moist
environment. The outer shell begins to
decompose which lets off gases which coupled with the moisture produce some
sort of enzymatic reaction in the seed and it shoots out something called a
radical which becomes a root. Then a
sprout develops and the seed is consumed into a plant that grows and in turn
produces more seeds.
The dandelion
is one of the most fantastic examples of this mystery. If it weren't for the lawn care industry the
dandelion would probably be the most dominant plant on earth. The shear power of its growth is
amazing. At my former church we paved
our dirt parking lot. The next spring
dandelions were pushing up through the asphalt out in the middle of the
thing. Dandelions have the power to push
through 4 inches of compacted gravel and 3 inches of compacted asphalt. If someone could find out how to tap into
dandelion growth as a power source, I think the world’s need for power could be met quite easily.
Here's some
science for you. The first law of
thermodynamics is that “energy may be transformed from one
form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.” If you apply that law to dandelion seeds, it becomes
mind boggling that in those tiny little seeds that parachute around throughout
the spring and the summer there lays dormant enough power to grow a plant
through gravel and asphalt. That's
utterly amazing and what's it say about our God who created it.
I think Jesus
himself was quite impressed with the mystery of seeds and how they grow. If you consider the latent power in a small
seed, it’s ability to transform and grow a plant, and its
ability to in the end produce an astounding number of more seeds; it is no
wonder that Jesus compared the word of the kingdom of heaven to a small
unassumingly insignificant seed.
The Parable of
the Sower is about the power of a seed, a seed that Jesus explains is the word
of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus wants us to know that the kingdom of Heaven is
like a seed and its power to grow. Just
as seeds have this latent power in them to transform, grow, and reproduce so
also Jesus, God the Son become a human, is a new seed planted into the creation
that has within itself the power of God’s very self and his love for his
creation that will end the disease of sin, end death, and in the end make all
things new. Jesus, God the Son become
physical matter is a new seed that the Trinity has planted in the entirety of
the physical universe that has the power of God to and will indeed make all
things new. Jesus, God the son become
human, is the seed of a new humanity that through the power and presence of the
Holy Spirit has been and will continue to grow as the Kingdom of heaven.
The seed of new creation,
Jesus Christ God the Son become human, is by the power and presence of the Holy
Spirit becoming the plant of the kingdom of heaven which is bearing in our midst the fruit of more seeds, which are people like you and me in whom the
Holy Spirit is living and working to make us more like Christ Jesus until the day
when we are all raised from the dead and all things will be made new and filled
with the knowing of God. Jesus is the
seed, the word of the kingdom, who died and was raised and who is being
transformed into a new humanity filled with the Spirit of God. By the Holy
Spirit’s work among people just like you and me right now humanity is being transformed to be like Christ.
The Trinity's work in us Christians is as powerful indeed more powerful than
that of a dandelion that can burst through asphalt.
In, through, and as Jesus Christ God
has reconciled all things to himself and by the continuing presence and work of
the Holy Spirit God is transforming all things to become like Christ Jesus until in the end the
great harvest of the New Creation happens and all things are made new. That’s the seed and as Jesus said it is
the word of the kingdom of heaven, a new word spoken by the Trinity, a word
that will come to fruition just as sure as creation itself came into
being. The word of the Kingdom of heaven
is a word of God about which the prophet Isaiah said, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return
there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes
out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish
that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
This seed, the word of
the kingdom of heaven is going on at all times in all places in all
things. After all the sower is very
wasteful casting seed everywhere with no strategic plan for greater yield other than it will grow where it will. As this seed is a word, a word that is
spoken, so it is that somehow we hear it and what we hear is a summons, a call
to stand before the Triune God of grace and find the answer to the question of
who are you God. Many people are hearing
the summons and wrestling with that question these days. There are many sociologists of religion who
say that there has been a great spiritual awakening going on globally since the
mid 1960's. Yet, oddly in Europe and
North America people have been awakening with a hunger for things spiritual but
have not turned to the Christian faith, or more precisely the Church, to find
the answer to who it is that is calling to them. There are many people outside the church who
say they know there is a God who is personally present in their lives and that
their lives would be incomplete without the sense of purpose that this God
brings to them. They pray and have
experiences of God. In these people, the
seed of the word of the kingdom has been sown, sown by God himself. Therefore, we can say that the Holy Spirit is
indeed at work in this world in people who are outside of anything having to do
with church and is calling them to faith.
Just ask anyone who has been involved in missional church planting. The Holy Spirit was already there preparing
the soil so to speak.
The question
that then follows is where does the seed grow from there, from this simple
uninformed and often misinformed experience of God. If the seed that has been sown is indeed the
work of the Holy Spirit sooner or later these people will look to Jesus to find
their answers for it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us personally to
Jesus not simply to spirituality. This
places a huge responsibility on us in the church. For if the Holy Spirit leads people to Jesus
sooner or later those people will cross paths with a Christian because you
can't have Jesus without the church.
Therefore, we in the church need to be darn sure we are giving them the
right Jesus.
I think that
the number one way that the evil one snatches away this seed that God has sown
in so many people is by using the church and Christian hypocrisy to run them
away. We have to make clear to all
people that Jesus has wonderfully called them to discipleship and that they can
come to him and learn and be changed and healed along the way. We need to be clear that the one who calls
them is fully found in the community of believers. Jesus cannot be known apart from his body,
the fellowship of his disciples who are wrestling with the Scriptures and
holding one another accountable to growing and becoming more Christ-like, a
true community where mutual self-giving love is the rule, a community that
worships together, prays together, and ministers to one another, and together
serve in charity.
The Holy
Spirit calls people to meet Jesus in Christian community. He calls us beyond our own private
experiences into the place where two or three are gathered in Jesus name and he
is in their midst. We in the church need
to make sure that what we are offering in our fellowship is loving,
cross-shaped community that looks and feels like Jesus and leaves you knowing
you've been in his presence.
So on one hand
this word of the Kingdom of heaven is a call to Christ and his community. But on the other hand, this very same word
can turn people away because it is costly in personal terms. Jesus places demands on our lives. As the Apostle Paul said we cannot continue
to live according to fallen human nature and have the new life in Christ. As Romans 8 says we must live according to
the Spirit. Christian hypocrisy, indeed
the seed snatcher, becomes most evident when we in the church say we follow
Jesus but we ourselves don't yield to his Spirit who is at work in us, when we
don't let ourselves be changed by grace and the result is that our Christian
fellowship winds up being nothing more than a judgmental Jesus club that
celebrates with joy when things are going well but as soon as we find ourselves
in a situation where we must stand on faith we forget we ever knew Jesus and
start blaming and scapegoating our ordained and penny-pinching and fighting
over finances.
Our lifestyles
are our greatest barrier to the growth of the seed in us. In all honesty, if we are not yielding seed
bearing fruit, it is because we are refusing to let our lives come under the
scrutiny and transforming power of the Holy Spirit who brings us too not just
them to Jesus and makes us look like him.
In all honesty we conduct our lives more by the values of our culture
than the teachings of the Scriptures.
Growth in Christ occurs, fruit bearing occurs when we yield up every
corner of our lives to the refining fire of his great love and his will and
power to heal us and make us more Christ-like.
We must remember that as the followers of Jesus Christ our way of life
doesn't look like what our culture calls being good, comfortable, and successful
people. Those are weeds. Our way of life is the cross.
Sometimes we
get stuck in our walk, in our growth in Christ and we'll stay that way for
years. And oftentimes were stuck because
we've plateaued at a point of where there are some things in our lives that we
just aren't going to yield up to the Spirit - values, core beliefs,
unforgiveness, regrets. This is the
point where we have to sincerely ask ourselves what are my weeds, not my needs
but my weeds, and find a couple of prayer partners to help us let go and let
the grace of God in.
Good soil for
the Christian is simply not letting ourselves stand in the way of the Spirit's
work in us as individual believers and as a community of disciples. Good soil is prayer partnership. If you look at the church's that are
sincerely growing in Christ, not just in number but in Christ-like-ness they
will all have in common this thing of small groups, small groups of two or
three or more friends in Christ getting together sharing their joys, sharing
their hurts, confessing their sins and praying together and who also have a
dramatic, loving effect in the lives of their neighbours. So, the question is what would it take for
you yourselves to get together in smaller groups that we pray and minister
together. Moreover, what are the weeds
that prevent it? The seed that has been
planted in us is more powerful than a dandelion. The weeds in our lives are as powerful as a
dandelion and will become as noticeably out of place among as a dandelion
growing in a parking lot. So pick up the
cross, deal with the weeds, and let the kingdom continue to grow, indeed
here. Amen.
