07.16.17
By The Rev. Randi Hicks Rowe
​Perhaps some of us are gardeners. John Leax, is a retired poet, professor of writing, a Christian and a gardener. He wrote this about gardening in his book In Season and Out.

“My garden has taught me to think ahead. For it to be fruitful, I must plan. I must build soil, plant, and nurture what I have planted. It has also taught me to hold the harvest lightly. Over the course of a season I can lose a crop to spring rains that rot the seed, slugs that eat new shoots, rabbits that eat everything, hail that breaks the strong, and drought that withers the weak. I can lose a crop because of my ignorance or my carelessness. Until I have the fruit in storage, where it can also spoil, I live with uncertainty. I do my best, work faithfully, and hope.”

Gardening, even if you plan and do everything right, is an inexact science – perhaps because it isn’t really totally science. We can’t control everything that happens with every seed we plant. We can plan and work and do the best we can, but, when all is said and done, the harvest belongs to God. We plan and plant and work faithfully and then we hope and pray.

Spreading the Gospel is like that too. We – the church – and (of course, all of us are the church) are called to go around spreading the good news of Christ. We are called to plan and think about the best ways and best times to do this. We are called to work faithfully to try to find good ground for this Gospel – we are called to do the very best we can. But in the end, we are called to hold the results of all those labors lightly. We can’t control how others will respond to the Gospel. And while our all-powerful God can control everything, God chose to give each person free will – so that means God won’t be forcing anyone to accept that Gospel no matter how hard we’ve worked. We hope and we pray. The harvest belongs to God.

Sometimes we work hard at our ministry and may become discouraged because that person we love so much has not responded – or because we see a world, a town, a country so in need of following God but not being willing to do. We fear a meager harvest for all the work we’ve done. The good news is that God loves everyone so much and so desires the best for  everyone that God ultimately brings in a bountiful harvest. God does work through events in people’s lives to bring them closer to each other and to God. The Holy Spirit continues to nurture that seed of the Gospel that we have planted – the Holy Spirit continues to nudge at people until ultimately most of them do accept God’s love and accept the invitation to be part of the community of God – the church. At about the time when we mortals feel discouraged, God may be just getting started in the life of that person or that community.

In 1912, a medical missionary named Dr. William Leslie spent 17 years in a remote corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He traveled throughout the region teaching the Bible and promoting literacy and fighting tropical illnesses and injuries caused by wild animals. He didn’t think he was making much of an impact, returned home and died nine years later.

But in 2010 – almost 100 years after Leslie had first started his ministry – another team of missionaries traveled to that area and something miraculous had happened. In each village within the area where Leslie had served was a thriving congregation with a gospel choir.  They also found a 1000-seat stone cathedral that people walked miles to attend. Mark Ellis writes in a Godreports blog that this cathedral had become so crowded by the 1980s that new churches had been started in several villages even beyond those of Leslie’s original travels.

Dr Leslie thought the seeds of the Gospel that he had planted had all landed on rocky soil or had been choked by secular concerns. He thought all was lost. Instead, God had brought from these seeds a great harvest. Something had happened during and after Dr Leslie’s faithful, courageous ministry that Dr. Leslie could not see. Perhaps Dr. Leslie was too close to the situation to realize what had happened. Or perhaps his expected timetable of 17 years for the harvest was simply too short from the perspective of an Eternal God.  What happened was the miraculous harvesting power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps some seeds did have trouble taking root, but enough of them landed on good soil, that a sustainable, reproducing church was formed. And, in God’s time, the harvest was bountiful.

We – the church – are called upon to be faithful farmers – faithful scatterers of the seed of the Gospel – faithful bearers of God’s love. Sometimes we become discouraged, because it seems that those seeds aren’t taking root as we’d like. But we have hope and a promise. If we scatter the seed, the all loving God, giver of all good things, will, in God’s time, grant a miraculous and bountiful harvest.

Amen ​

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