SEEDS IN THE GROUND

Stafford Greer, Bearspaw Lead Site Pastor

In the past 5 years or so, Joe and I have been working on our backyard garden. Each year it expanded: tilling more garden beds, making raised beds, adding a cut flower section, irrigation, and so on. Joe even invested in UV lights in our basement (and then expanded that set up!) in order to start things from seed in the cold harsh months of a Manitoba winter.

Each fall/winter, we would receive in the mail the newest catalogs from the seed producers of all the upcoming year’s seeds and, like a child pouring over the Sears Wishbook (a reference only those of a certain vintage would get), Joe would plan and prepare her ordering for her haul of spring seeds. While there are many things more expensive than seeds, each order was not an insignificant investment into the future summer’s yield; some seeds for the flower garden could cost upwards of $5 per seed.

Each spring, Joe would prepare the soil, then dig a small grave for the seed, lay it in the ground and cover it with dirt. In order for anything fruitful to be produced, it required numerous little burials.

Talking about his own future death, burial, and ultimate resurrection, Jesus used this same agricultural analogy with his disciples: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.” John 12:24 NIV

The ‘death’ of each vegetable and flower seed was required for any fruit - new lives - to be produced. The temptation we all face each day is to cling to the certainty of what we can now see, observe, and hold, rather than to release it so it can produce something new.

For Jesus, he knew that the death of his life would yield the fruit of millions of people finding life in him. Being both fully God and fully man, Jesus would have had the same temptation to cling to his own life and to be unwilling to release it in faith.

As followers of Christ, we are resurrection people. The Apostle Paul would later pick up on this in his writings to the church in Corinth saying:

“But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.” 1 Corinthians 15:20-23

Because we have found new life in Jesus, we are people who should not fear death of any kind, because we know that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18). As such, we are able to sow everything in faith - including our lives, preferences, relationships, possessions, etc., - knowing that what we release from our grip and allow to “die” will be resurrected and yield much fruit. And that if we DIDN’T release those things, no new fruit could ever grow.

Each season brings opportunities for us to release various things to die so that they can bear fruit in the future. For us, at our current stage of life, one of these things is the releasing of our daughter to become a young woman. This fall she’ll be in college, living on her own, and the relationship that we used to have with her will need to end so that she can thrive. If as parents we insisted on not letting that relationship change, we would hinder her and stunt the fruit. We need to sow in faith what our relationship was so that it can grow.

We also had to release ministry in Morden Manitoba so that new life there (and here!) could begin to grow and bear fruit. As an aside, Morden Alliance just called Dan Nel - who was my Sr. Associate pastor, to be their new Lead Pastor! Praise God! If I had clung to that ministry, that pulpit, that church, I could have limited the new fruit.

You might have your own “seed” that you have clung to, fearful to release it into the ground to die because there isn’t certainty that it would grow, let alone bear fruit. Ask the Lord to reveal what it is that you need to release in faith to him and when he shows you, be obedient to his leading.

Releasing things to die is difficult. It can be painful. It can test our faith. But we trust that the Lord is good and that he will honour the sacrifices we make in faith. The Lord delights in bringing life to things that we thought were dead.

“Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.” Hosea 10:12 NIV

RockPointe, let’s be a church that moves boldly in faith to where the Lord is leading us, trusting that we serve a God that is about bringing resurrection to our lives.