(Homily for Gayton Road Christian Church's Sunday Worship on March 19, 2017, Lent III, 30th Anniversary Celebration)
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Where Babies Come from
Before I was born, perhaps even before I was a twinkle in my parents’ eyes, I was a prayer in my brother’s heart. Or so I was told this past week. While catching up over breakfast, my brother shared with me a story I had never heard.
My brother is a real extrovert: he loves to be around people. For four years of his life, he was an only child. It was only natural that he wanted a little brother. Having learned from my parents at home, and from Sunday School at church, that prayer changes things, he started praying. For me!
And lo and behold, my mother became pregnant. Well…that was simple enough, my brother thought! Months later, I was born, and my brother was ecstatic. All that prayer really had paid off!
Of course, I have no doubt that my brother’s prayers did play their own part in my birth. It’s just that there was a little bit more involved than my brother knew.
Seeds Already Sown:
A Church Already in Full Blossom
In today’s scripture, Jesus quotes a proverb that was common in the ancient world: “One sows and another reaps.” So it was for my brother, who reaped the rewards of a baby brother. For all he knew, it was completely his own work. But in fact, my birth had involved a bit more.
In Jesus’ day, “One sows and another reaps” was another way of saying that life is not always fair. Sometimes you do all the hard work, but someone else ends up with the reward. But Jesus reframes things. Rather than lamenting the prospect of unrewarded work, he points to the good news that there are always already seeds sown that are bearing fruit.
When I joined you as pastor a year and a half ago, I myself entered a field already sown with many seeds, a field already full of fruit. I had done little more than set my foot within the door, and I encountered a church already in full swing—in full blossom, you might say. There were greeters in the narthex, making visitors feel welcome, handing out little bags of popcorn that asked them to “pop back in” again sometime. There were volunteers from the congregation delivering a thoughtful message each week in the company of our children. There were elders already supporting and praying for individuals in the church.
I hadn’t done an ounce of church work. All of this came from seeds sown long before me—seeds sown, perhaps, back when the field looked much emptier, when the church was meeting in storefronts and living from week to week.
Reaping What Others Have Sown
“One sows and another reaps.” How true those words echo in our own experience.
In the last year and a half, I’ve heard the words of former pastors quoted time and time again, another reminder that today we reap what others have sown. On more than one occasion, when it has been suggested that I as the pastor simply make this or that change, before I can even say a word, someone else has responded with a saying that Revy Debbie preached: “This isn’t the pastor’s church. You are the church.” She sowed a seed deep in your hearts, reminding you that this church is the responsibility and joy of us all, not one individual. On other occasions, when all sorts of ideas are flying about, I’ll hear someone quote Pastor Skip, “Better for a small church to focus on doing two or three things really well, than to spread itself too thin and burn itself out.” Skip sowed a seed deep in this church’s consciousness that bears fruit now every time we share in conversation about the future.
And today we are celebrating the rich harvest of seeds such as these. Many of us are reaping what others have sown. You’ve probably heard stories about our church history: about how our first members wandered about a bit like Abraham and Sarah—meeting in various storefronts and then a trailer; about how they knocked on doors to spread the word about Gayton Road; about how they would always be re-arranging the trailer and then this sanctuary for different gatherings and especially for meals together. If you didn’t know know Carl France or Dave Cheverton personally, you probably know all about them through the stories that are told. And kids—do you know who painted your room in the Fellowship Hall? The kids who came before you. I remember the day we painted: I was worried there’d be more paint on the youth than on the walls!
I wonder what memories you have today. What fruit can you see today in our church, that comes from what others have sown? Take a moment to reflect, and then if you’d like to share, please stand up and say a word or two.
“One sows, and another reaps.” Today the abundant life that we feel in this church—Jesus calls it “eternal life,” or “the life of the age to come”—this life is not something we have achieved on our own. It is fruit reaped from what others have sown.
Celebrating the God Who Gives Growth
You know that feeling you get sometimes when you look at a dark sky full of stars, that dizzying feeling that there is so much more out there, that maybe you are not the center of the universe? I get that feeling when I start to think about the seeds that have been sown here at Gayton Road Christian Church. I lose my sense of balance, and suddenly I find myself falling backward in time and space. Everything that we do at this church—from welcoming folks and sharing in holy conversation with our children, to supporting and praying for each other—all of this is fruit reaped from what other Christ-followers at other churches have sown. If we traced each good and godly thing that happens here at Gayton Road, asking, “Where did that come from?”, and if we kept asking that question, we would find ourselves traveling back through the centuries, across the globe, from one church to another. And eventually, I believe, we’d find ourselves at the hands and feet of Jesus, whose love is the seed from which God’s kingdom—God’s garden—grows.
All of which makes me think: today’s anniversary and celebration is a little bit like when my brother celebrated my birth, thinking that all his prayer had paid off! Because the truth is, we have done much. But much like my brother’s prayers, what we have done is only a tiny part of all the seeds sown and work done that have borne fruit here at Gayton Road.
It is perhaps a little bit tempting on a day like this, to twist our praise of God into self-praise. But that would make this day much smaller than it really is. Because what today really is, is a celebration of countless seeds that we did not sow: unseen deeds and forgotten words, memories that inspire us and dreams that pull us forward. Even what we have done, we have not done: it is God’s love that has inspired all the sowing and watering and tending and growing; it is God’s love that has cultivated our ordinary lives and transformed them into an extraordinary garden. Today we celebrate not ourselves but God and this little plot of God’s garden. Paul said it well: “Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives growth” (1 Cor 3:6-7).
“One sows and another reaps.” Today we find ourselves on one side of that equation. Tomorrow may we find ourselves on the other side. And all the while, may we entrust this little garden plot to God, whose love is our life—whose love is what gives growth in the first place.
Prayer
God,
Whose love has taken root
Among us
Through simple words and deeds:
We celebrate
The abundant life
You have given us;
May our reaping
Become sowing,
And your garden
Be ever growing
Among us and others. Amen.
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