Now, I know many of you here have green thumbs and are beautifully skilled at gardening! I, however, am not one of those people. To be honest, I’m still amazed that I can keep the plants in my office alive… which is part of why Emily bought me a fake plant for my office when I was on internship. Yet, to my amazement, sometimes despite my lack of gardening skills, plants still thrive. For example, this spring I looked out on our deck to see that the strawberry plant from last summer was growing again…the same strawberry plant that was growing next to all of our dead plants from last summer that I still haven’t managed to bring down to the compost bin. Despite our neglect of this plant all through the winter and spring, including letting it freeze several times, our plant went on to produce at least 10 berries before we knew it. Now, that might now seem like a lot, but we got more berries from that plant in one week this year than we did all of last year! Even now, there are more and more little shoots growing out of this plant! Although, when I checked this weekend, the shoots are not so little anymore, and some have managed to migrate to the next pot of soil over… I have barely even remembered to water it!
It is this strawberry plant that I think of when I hear today’s Gospel reading. The strawberry plant and how God and God’s creation work in mysterious ways beyond our control. Both in gardening and in preaching, I think it helps me to know that I do not do this work alone, but God is right there present and active with us. I actually really love the parable of the sower because it is so helpful for thinking about life too and about how we don’t always get the results that we are expecting or hoping for. Once the seed is planted, we do all that we can to care for it, but ultimately it is never fully in our control. This can be really difficult to actually accept, both in life and in gardening, and I know that when I feel the world is out of my control, I often look for ways to try to control it. I think I especially needed to hear that this week as I have had lists upon color-coded lists going to make sure that everything is prepped at church and that we have everything packed that we will need for my time off. How many times do we try to control the world around us? That number, even on a daily basis, is embarrassingly high for me to admit. And, it’s sometimes even harder to admit that the world keeps spinning, often with little regard for my attempts to control it.
Whenever I hear the Gospel stories about plantings or read today’s Isaiah passage, I also find myself thinking of Advent. Now, I know it might be weird to be thinking about Advent in the middle of July, but it’s because I have been trained to think about it as the season of waiting. Plus, I think all of the “Christmas in July” advertisements have made their way in too! Now, we know that we don’t just wait during Advent, even in the church, so I love that we get to expand this out to other times of the year. Patience is a virtue that I don’t always have, which is why the garden metaphor is actually really good for me too. Because when we think of seeds, they don’t sprout overnight. They must be hidden away in the dirt for a bit as their roots begin to take shape before they start to grow up toward the light. In the time that the seed is in the ground, we have to trust that it is growing, even though we cannot see it. I think in many ways, it’s such a good example of our faith too because we trust that God is up to something in the world, even on the days when we have a hard time seeing it. We cannot always quantify our faith or the way that it is changing, yet we know that it is. And, I think about other plants that are required to look like they are dying for us to know that what they have produced underground is ready to be harvested. There is no one way that plants look and grow, just as there is no one way that our faith grows either.
How lucky are we to be surrounded by such a beautiful and amazing created world that exhibits such diversity! And, to be called to trust that God is ultimately faithful. I hear the promises of God in Isaiah today, the not yet fulfilled promise that the Israelites will return from their exile in Babylon. A sign that even though they felt God had abandoned them, the seeds were still growing, and God was continuing to remain faithful to them even when they kept turning their backs on God. This promise is surrounded by this incredible imagery of the hills and mountains singing, the trees clapping (Isaiah 55: 12), musicality that we don’t always think of but are surrounded with day by day. I love that God’s promises are made known through creation, through what God continues to do in the world through creating and re-creating the world around us. Today’s Isaiah reading is one of intense hope! And, I think in many ways our Gospel is too. Hope that we will see God’s work continue around us and that we may be surrounded by good soil to continue to grow in our faith. We may not always know what kind of soil we are going to be surrounded by, or have the right things to grow, but like my strawberry plant, may we trust that God continues to equip us for growth.
Before I conclude here, I have to say that when I told Emily that I was going to tell this story about the strawberry plant this week, she wanted me to make sure that I clarify for you all that the moral of the story is not “neglect your plants and they will turn out alright.” The strawberry plant kept growing despite my lack of care for it; but I think it’s trying to get its revenge because yesterday I noticed that it was trying to grow into our house… But I think the strawberry plant and the seeds in today’s story are reminders that we can only do some of the work, but we are called to at least participate in the process. We are called out into the world to be in relationship with one another, to care for creation, and to try to make our space even just a little bit better. And, we have God’s help in that. In both the call, and the work itself. In many ways, I see the growth of seeds as a sign of God’s faithfulness because seeds can keep growing, despite what it is happening around them above ground; but, tending to them often helps them grow better…. So, may we continue to look at seeds as signs of hope, both that we can see, and that we can’t as they begin their growing process beneath the soil, both in gardening and in our everyday faith lives. But, please don’t be like your pastor and try to remember to water your plants!