Oh? You Gotta Plant It?

Some years ago, my doctor told me that I should shed a few pounds.  How?  “Go find a gym or fitness center that you like, and join it.”   At my next visit, she said, “You haven’t lost any weight; you’ve actually gained!  Did you join a gym?”  “Oh, yes.”  “Well, how often do you go there?”  “What?  You’ve got to GO there?!”  So this weekend’s scripture lessons are for those of us (most) who’d like to try some heavenly gardening–maybe tomorrow…

For some of us, the announced reading from the Hebrew Bible is a passage from Ezekiel’s oracles, 17:22-24.  The Lord God is planting a twig from a well-developed cedar tree (the fabled Tree of Life?), “in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit…”  Winged creatures of every kind will find refuge and security in this new tree.  The prophet, as a child of the Babylonian Exile, reminds his hearers that God is still growing a holy tree in Israel:  not only shall the House of David be restored, but Yahweh’s power over all things will reforest the barren hills of the desert.  This is good to hear for the Church of today, seemingly the remnant of decency and justice in a profane and selfish society.

The beginning and the end of the Epistle carry the meat of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthian Church (5:6-17).  “So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord–for we walk by faith, not by sight….So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”  A gardener must “walk by faith”, because that which is planted is not fully realized ’til the end of the season.  And such gardening re-creates the pristine possibility of useful growth.  So is a garden a friendly apocalypse??

Is it audacious to talk about seeds in the Age of the Microchip?  Mark’s Gospel does (4:26-34) through two parables of Jesus:  the Patient Farmer, who plants his field and waits for God’s good harvest; and the famous Mustard Seed, smallest of all but growing into a majestic and useful shrub.  There’s a built-in plan or system to growth, which happens anyway in spite of our tweaking it.  (Paul later said that “Paul planted and Appollos watered, but God gave the growth.”)  My mother and most of the mothers of my friends had earrings with a single mustard-seed embedded in crystal:  to remind us that even a speck of faith would turn into something spectacular, when given the chance.

Gardening of any sort entails tremendous risk.  What if the clipping didn’t root?  What if the seed found the soil too rocky?  It’s really easier to keep and use what seed we have than to risk next year’s crop-failure.  If you keep your minute seed as jewelry, you’ll always have it…’course, it won’t grow into anything.  Happy digging in the dirt: till–we meet again…

God Bless Us, Every One                            Horace Brown King

My walk through the jungle of Scripture can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com