A Meditation for Thursday after the First Sunday in Lent

By The Rev. Julia R. Hendrix, ‘21

When I was a young girl, my third grade teacher had us plant brown pinto beans in moist soft soil in clear plastic cups.  We were learning about the growth cycle of a plant.  She told us that soon our little pinto bean would reach out and grow roots, and then we would see the shoot of the plant begin to grow and push itself up and out of the top of the soil.  

I dutifully planted my pinto bean in the soil and sprinkled water gently over the soil and on the bean that lay below. I placed my plastic cup in my windowsill for the light to catch it and warm it.

Each night I would go to bed and be hopeful that the next morning the pinto bean would have grown a small shoot. Each morning, I got up, I immediately inspected the bean. I wanted that bean plant to sprout so badly!!

Each day, I would get up and look – each day I would be disappointed. In my 8-year-old mind, that bean sprout was never going to grow.

But just as I had about given up hope, one day, a small green nub appeared. It was as if it had happened by magic! And who would have known that the little brown bean could produce such a bright green plant?  

In the gospel reading for today, Jesus tells a parable about the Kingdom of God:  “"The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."

The gardener in Jesus’s parable does not inspect his plants daily like I did when I was 8 years old.  Instead, the gardener scatters the seeds and then sleeps.  SLEEPS.  He doesn’t check on the growth every morning.  He doesn’t anxiously worry about whether or not the seeds are actually going to take root.  Rather, he confidently scatters the seeds hither and yon, and then just as confidently goes to sleep.  Trusting.  No anxiety.  No worry.  

I have to wonder if we in the church are more like my 8-year-old self worrying about whether the well-planted, well-watered seed will grow or whether we are more like the trusting gardener in Jesus’ parable.  Do we worry too much about whether our churches are growing or declining?  Do we worry about whether we are doing too little to entice people to cross our churches’ thresholds?  What is the latest technology that we can use that will reach potential attendees?

The real question we should be asking ourselves is if we are trying to grow God’s kingdom ourselves or do we trust that God will grow the scattered seed.  God has called each of us to scatter seed.  He has not called on us to make sure that the scattered seed actually grows.  

In God’s kingdom, God’s grace alone causes all the scattered seed to grow and thrive.  In God’s kingdom, Mark states: “The earth produces of itself . . ,” meaning God’s kingdom is fertile, but still how it “produces of itself” is unknown.  And because God’s kingdom is fertile there is a big enough harvest from the scattered seed to go in and gather it in abundance!  How this happens, why it happens is a mystery to us – but it is a mystery that we must trust.  

I know for a fact that my 8-year-old understanding of how plants grew did not include the process of photosynthesis and its subsequent chemical changes within the pinto bean. I trusted that if I planted and watered something awesome would occur.

All the planning, all the spreadsheets, and all the new programs that we initiate cannot make the seeds of faith grow in others, much less in ourselves.  We have to be open to and in a continual relationship with God, the creator of all.  Being aware that we do not cause the seeds’ growth is only the first step – knowing that we become a hindrance to growth because we put our plans before God’s will should paralyze us in our tracks.

But somehow, despite our need for control, despite our anxiety about whether the seeds are actually growing, God’s plan for the planting and growing of his kingdom continues – with us or without us. Isn’t God amazing – even despite our own blunders, God will continue to work in and through us, and even around us!  Indeed, the psalmist in Psalm 71 says as much: “For you are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence since I was young. I have been sustained by you ever since I was born; from my mother’s womb you have been my strength . . .”   God is, indeed, our hope.

We should be confident that when we take that handful of seed and begin to scatter, that God has the rest under control.  So grab your pinto beans, plant them, water them, and then go take a nice long nap.

The Rev. Julia R. Hendrix, JD, MDiv, is a 2021 graduate of Nashotah House.  As rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Waupaca, Wisconsin, Mthr. Julia is actively involved in her local community trying to scatter seeds wherever she can plant them. She loves spending time with her husband Steve, and their two dogs and two cats. She has three adult children and probably the world's best grandson. Sometimes you can find her whacking at the tall grass in an effort to find a lost golf ball or walking her dogs through the local parks. Mthr. Julia reads, loves knitting and crocheting, dabbles in painting, and enjoys a good cup of coffee along with good conversation. The readings for the preceding devotional may be located here from Forward Movement.