“Waiting for Growth”
July 23, 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Okay, I’ll admit it: this weather has been all over the place. We’ve gone from hot to thunderstorms, and earlier this year, we went from warm to cold and back again a lot. However, especially if you’ve been driving around a lot in the last couple of weeks, you’ve probably noticed one benefit of this going from hot to rainy weather: the corn has been growing pretty fast. As at least a few people have pointed out lately, we say we want the corn to be “knee high by the Fourth of July.” Well, the corn was not only knee high, I guarantee it was about as tall as my neck in places. And only a week or two ago, it started tasseling already. From what I know of corn, if it keeps growing the way it’s growing, that means the farmers are hopefully going to have an early harvest with a high yield, to get everything in and sold. Even the beans in the fields are looking nice, fluffy, and green. So, I definitely encourage all of us to pray for continued good weather for the crops in the fields; to keep the weather from getting too hot for too long, like it’s supposed to be the rest of this week; to protect them from bugs or disease; to keep them safe from any more hail like we had recently; and even to protect them from getting eaten by other critters. During this growing season, we look forward to what God is doing to help the crops around here blossom and yield much fruit; and, we also pray for Him to bring us growth in our hearts, faith, personal lives, and in our church family. Even though we went through a time of uncertainty, hardship, challenge, conflict, during covid and for a year or two afterwards, God is causing growth to happen again. Perhaps not in numbers yet, but He definitely has been showing us a few things, even challenging ones, to help us be able to move forward, grow, get back to where we need to be, and start blooming again. He has been tending us His garden by renewing and refreshing us with renewed fellowship; being able to worship in this space as we did before covid; and showing us new possibilities for how to reach out to our community with His love again. He is taking what was lost, and restoring it. He is turning things around and bringing them back on course.
The most important way God brings growth is through His Word. As God, speaking through the Prophet Isaiah says in today’s First Reading, God’s Word always does what it accomplishes. Even if we don’t do anything on purpose, God’s Word still does what it needs to do to cause change, growth, and transformation. One thing I’ve learned over the past twenty years of being a Pastor is that the most important, and most effective thing you can do is just to preach what the Bible says and let God do the rest. Not everyone may be receptive to hearing what the Bible says, and not everyone may understand what is being said in the Sermon. There may be some who, may be like the path where the seed fell on in today’s Gospel reading, who may hear, but it doesn’t have any affect. Still others may, for whatever reason, have hearts like stone, resistant to the message being said, whether because of past hurts, prejudices, or anything else. And still others may have hearts choked up like thorns, distracted from hearing because of overwhelming worries, stresses, or anything else that’s keeping growth from happening. And, for others, the message “hits” in a certain way that brings life-changing results right away. But in all the years I’ve been preaching, I’ve learned that God knows how best to implement the message being spoken, and so all the work is ultimately up to Him. Sometimes we may hear things said we don’t expect, but God is still speaking, and, if we listen, we are able to grow. Once we start growing, we are able to transform, and then bloom and blossom. Even though we’ve gone through periods where, whether personally or as a church family, we’ve withered and dried up, God has caused something to happen to give us an extra refreshment, to satisfy our thirst for whatever we’ve been missing, and has opened us up to let us be ourselves and let our true personalities blossom again.
But we always have to remember that growth is a process, not an event. We can’t rush ourselves to get to where we need to be. If we do try to go too fast or get there too soon, we might end up putting ourselves in a bad situation. Think about it like this: if we have to drive somewhere, and we end up trying to go too fast to where we need to be, we end up losing control of our vehicles, crashing, or worse. So, we can’t rush the journey – we have to go at a safe speed. In order to become who we are personally, we have to allow ourselves to change and transform slowly, to be happy, healthy, and the best we are meant to be. Those of you who have gone through rehab as well know that healing is a process that can’t be rushed, or you might end up with a worse injury than before, or cause more permanent damage: slow and steady progress brings the best healing and recovery. Taking baby steps is generally the safest route. Which also means, growth involves a lot of patience.
As Paul says in our Second Reading, “If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Which also means, staying committed to growing. Just because growth isn’t happening right now, and you, or we, aren’t where we need to be, or at that end goal, doesn’t mean it isn’t ever going to happen. And, as Paul also says, growth can involve even more struggle, even pain, at times. To go back to the rehab example, for those of you who have been through it, you know that sometimes doing the exercises can be painful. We might be comfortable where we are, but in order to get to where we are meant to be, it might mean moving somewhere new. Some of you, with your gardens, have probably had to move a few plants and flowers to places where they are able to get better sunlight, less sunlight, better soil, just grow better in general. In the same way, God often needs to move us from somewhere we think is where we need to be, but where He knows we can be to be able to blossom best.
As Gerald May says, “True growth is a process which one allows to happen, rather than causes to happen.” Yes, we have to water and nurture our plants and flowers to allow them to grow healthy. But at the same time, we also have to sit back and just let them grow the way they’re going to grow. It’s the same way with us: we certainly are to continue to let ourselves grow and blossom as Christians by praying, reading the Bible every day, and being active in the life of our church family. But there is actually a lot of being passive, of letting go, and letting God take control, that sometimes we forget. As cliché as it might sound, a lot of what we have to do is really just let God be God. That’s really what faith is: letting God be the one in control, passively allowing Him to cause things to happen for us.
In one of the Frog and Toad books, which I read when I was smaller, and which I now read to Josie every so often, there’s a story where Toad plants some seeds in the ground, and he’s so eager to see them spring up that he starts shouting at them, “Now seeds, start growing!” Frog then tells him that they’re probably afraid to grow because Toad’s shouting at them so much. So he suggests just letting the seeds grow, while Toad does the watering and all the calm things to help them grow. For us, growth isn’t something that can necessarily be planned, mapped out precisely, or have exact results: if that is our approach, then we end up getting frustrated and angry with ourselves, and end up afraid because we’re not growing the way we think we need to. So, instead, we just need to trust our lives to God, and put them in His hands. Let Him transform us and help us grow the way He knows we are meant to. And in the meantime, just enjoy the life He's given us to live; take advantage of everything He offers us to enjoy; and live in the present moment we are given.
And, as we grow, and have patience with ourselves, and God, we are also to have that same patience with each other. We each bear different fruit. We are each at different places in life, on different journeys, and on different paths, and, as a result, we are each blooming and blossoming in our own unique ways. We are actually not expected to think, act, or be the same way: if we were, we would be a cult, devoted to conformity instead of to blooming. And that’s actually what we can be expected to do as a church family: allow each other to blossom and bloom. We have to let each other be who we really are, and encourage each other to blossom and become who we are meant to be. We are also to recognize that each of us are at various stages and abilities, and that maybe our purpose is not to contribute, but simply to be. Bearing fruit doesn’t always mean that we are all working for the same cause, or even that we are on the same path, but that we are coming together as our own unique individual selves, valuing each other for who we are, and being a family together. If we notice anyone withering or shrinking back in some way, we are to reach out and see how we can help refresh and renew them. Then, we can enjoy the fruit we offer each other: fruits of compassion, support, genuineness, helpfulness, and love. Even as we are growing, we can help each other grow – even as God is helping us all to grow and blossom.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
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