With God, It's Always Planting Season

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

July 16, 2023

Year A, Proper 10: The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 25:19-34

Psalm 119:105-112

Romans 8:1-11

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

With God, It’s Always Planting Season 

In previous sermons, I’ve already established that Sue and I are not great gardeners.

But, since we have the privilege of living in our beautiful rectory, surrounded by what feels like our own personal park, we’ve been trying our best.

And, you know, we want to have the full Greenspring Valley experience!

So, back in the spring, Sue did some planting around the house, including in the two large flowerpots that guard the walkway to the front door.

And, during the long weeks when we had very little rain, it was my job each morning to fill up the watering can and make my way around, giving all of our flowering plants a drink.

I’ll admit that I was kind of proud of how well they were all doing, especially the colorful petunias in those two pots – they really looked nice.

A couple of weeks ago, Sue and I were away for a few days, visiting wonderful friends of ours in Asheville, NC. It was a great trip and Asheville is a really nice town, but it was also good to get back home.

When we arrived back at the house, we were mostly focused on our three cats – seeing how they got along without us – checking to see if they were holding a grudge for leaving them.

The cats were just fine but not long after getting home, I looked out the window and couldn’t believe what I saw: there was no sign of the colorful flowers in the two pots.

I went outside for a closer look and I still couldn’t believe it. It was even worse than what happened to our pollinator garden last year. Not only had the deer (I assume it was the deer) eaten the petunias, there was no evidence that the flowers had ever even been there – there was just nothing left.

So, you know, I gained grudging respect for our deer neighbors. Somehow they knew we were gone, saw their opportunity, and ate everything in sight – leaving behind what sure looked like barren soil.

And, never having been super-committed to gardening, Sue and I haven’t found the energy or time to start over and plant again.

For us, planting season is over.

But, fortunately, God is much more patient and persistent.

No matter the bad soil, no matter the risks, no matter the slim chances for success, with God, it’s always planting season. 

In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Matthew, we heard one of Jesus’ best-known parables: the Parable of the Sower.

Most scholars think that this parable was offered in response to a question faced by Jesus, by Matthew and his community, and by Christians down through the ages, including us here at St. Thomas’:

Why does the Good News take root and flourish in some people, while in many others not so much?

For us here at St. Thomas’, we are blessed with so many of you who have remained faithful in good times and especially in not so good days – blessed by you who have continued to come here even when our beautiful church is closed during roof replacement and we are forced to worship in the Parish Hall – which is perfectly nice but, let’s admit it, just not the same.

But there are others who used to be vital members of this community and have fallen away and have stayed away – and also others who came a couple of times and seemed really happy and excited, only to vanish, never to be seen again.

I confess that earlier in my priesthood, this used to bother me a lot. It still saddens and disappoints me when people don’t stick with us, who don’t find what they need here, but I’ve come to accept that God is the sower, not you and me.

Our job is, with God’s help, to cultivate the soil as best we can – cultivate the soil by welcoming everybody, cultivate the soil by offering our best in worship, cultivate the soil by being good stewards of our buildings and grounds, cultivate the soil by being who we say we are – by really being a church in service to the community, like how we just welcomed the Paul’s Place campers and counselors for a great week – cultivating the soil by providing opportunities for people to learn and grow, by studying the Bible and prayer and our faith.

God is the sower and we are the cultivators.

And God just does not give up.

And no matter how messed up we may be, no matter how messed up our families may be, with God, it’s always planting season.

For example…there is Israel’s founding family – Abraham and Sarah and their descendants.

For the past few weeks we’ve been hearing stories about this remarkable family – how Abraham answered God’s call to leave home and journey to an unknown land – how God blessed old Abraham and old Sarah with Isaac – but there have been other, less an inspiring stories – how Sarah was jealous of Hagar and her son with Abraham, Ishmael - so jealous that Sarah convinces Abraham to send them away with hardly enough supplies to sustain them.

Messed up.

And then there is today’s tale of sibling rivalry between the twins Esau and Jacob – a rivalry that began at birth, as Jacob held onto Esau’s foot as they both entered the world – trying for that lead position and all of its privileges.

As we heard today, it took a while, but Jacob finally got what he wanted – convincing a famished Esau to sell his birthright…for bread and a bowl of lentil stew.

And you thought your family was messed up!

But, with God, it’s always planting season.

And so, God doesn’t give up on the family of Abraham and Sarah, no matter their faithlessness and cruelty, no matter their oddness and mistakes, God continues to plant seeds in and among them.

And the same is true for us.

We are a church of imperfect people and yet God has been busy here, planting seeds no matter the season.

Sometimes those seeds don’t take root, at least not yet – the programs that don’t seem to work – the events that are not well attended – the people who come here and don’t find what they’re looking for.

But, sometimes – often - the seeds do take root – we welcome and nurture Afghan refugees, more and more of us study the Bible with new excitement, and new parishioners find their way here, overcoming fear and uncertainty, and begin to put down new roots in this old place.

So, about our rectory garden.

After the setback we endured while on vacation, I resumed my morning practice of watering what was left, hoping that we could cultivate a little more beauty, and that the deer would go back to keeping a respectful distance.

Nothing much seemed to be happening, but then, the other day, I noticed a little spot of color in the driveway.

I took a closer look and saw that it was a little petunia just like the ones that had been devastated by the deer.

Somehow a seed or two had dropped into a tiny asphalt crack and in that seemingly inhospitable place, it had taken root and bloomed. 

I know that we could attempt a transplant but I think I’m going to leave that little flower right where it is – a little sign that, no matter how low the odds of success, no matter how poor the soil, God just does not give up.

With God, it’s always planting season.

Amen.