Growing - Being Rooted

Growing — Being Rooted

Sunday, November 9, 2008
Rev. Janice Palm

We are 'a Christian Community, growing together in faith and in service to God.' Each Sunday you can find that statement on the cover of our Order of Worship; that's our mission statement. That is a guide for us as ministry teams, individuals, administrative teams when we consider what we are about. It tells folks what we're about growing together in faith and in service.

In last week's Order of Worship insert, and in the most recent Telescope, our weekly newsletter, the Stewardship Team considers the emphasis a little differently: it has asked that each one of us consider the many gifts, talents, and ways we might give financially to this church in order to strengthen our faith and the faith of others; the stewardship team asks this so we might strengthen our mission statement.

For the next three weeks, we'll be considering different aspects of Stewardship and hearing from a variety folks within the congregation on why this church is important and why they support this church. Fall Harvest Sunday November 23rd will be the culmination of this series when we will offer our giving of talents and interests, and estimate of financial giving. To help us celebrate we'll sit down to a meal together following the worship service.

In a newly published book, Feed the Hungry, its author, Nani Power, says that the book is about hunger. She suggests you could name it longing instead. She says hunger implies a physical need; it is an instinctual force that is relentless. It is a daily reminder of our bodies. As human beings we have a common connection to the animal, driving us back to the physical. Hunger is 'a regular sensation we can rely on, and food is the satisfaction of our needs, at least for now. It is the hunger that permeates us in a more elusive sense, beyond our daily lives, the gnawing of our spirit, which is harder to accommodate.'

It is that more elusive sense of hunger which Jesus addresses with his disciples and with us. The Samaritan woman fetching water at the well was hungry: Jesus offered her Living Water. The people who followed John were hungry. John the Baptist knew as he offered a baptism of repentance/change that he was but a prelude to what Jesus offered: Jesus would baptize folks with the Holy Spirit. Knowing the disciples would be lost and that they were hungry, Jesus transformed a Passover meal where bread and wine became more than food to feed the stomach; Bread and Cup were offered to feed their souls. Today, there is hunger still. Many roam from church to church looking to be fed because their hunger is so great. Some stay within a single church, hungry, looking for something more in life than the 3 - 11, 8 to 4, or 9 to 5 shifts. Some seek meditation, new wave media, or music. A long while ago that hunger had me going to both an Episcopal and a Unitarian church at the same time until I landed back in the United Methodist Church!

Bread is food: it feeds the hunger that is physical, emotional and spiritual. We'll be using the image of bread as we move through three aspects of Stewardship. Today we consider the aspect of Growing. We heard Jen speak of growing with our children. And Dave speak of ….

I'd like you to pull out the green insert you found within the Order of Worship. I encourage you to not just take this insert home and put it on a pile of other papers. But take it home, read it, consider it, pick it up at different times this week, be in prayer using it as a guide as you consider Growing.

For right now, to get us started, look the image on the front of the insert. A Tree? Look at it closely; you might keep gazing at it while I share a poem with you. The poem is the Water Tree.

There are t

rees in the desert
That will send down a root so deep
They will find the underground seas
And siphon up life
Other trees measure water
By the drop
And horde what they have
Make leaves like needles
That do not dance in the wind
And never come loose
The water trees live a riotous life
They carry leaves like a florist
Heading for a celebrity wedding
Their branches provide enough shelter
To put the Hilton chain in the shade
And they drop their leaves
And grow new ones
In shameless abandon
A thousand animals
And a million insects at their base
Burrow and dance in that leaf shower

The water trees care nothing
For weather forecasts
Or for cloudless skies
For they are thick at the trunk
And green at the tips
And they never grow thirsty.

—Paul Turley, Alice Springs, 2007

This tree you're viewing seems to be a water tree! Do you see the trunk of this tree and what's within it? Figures. Three. Trinity? The trunk is thick and strong. The branches full: many and green with life, leaves. The roots are plenty and of equal branching as the leaved branches above the soil. A good root system feeds and makes a healthy lively tree. Growing means both branching out and having a good root system. If you were to think of the church (you who may be visiting, perhaps you might think about your home church), what would the branches/leaves represent; what are the offshoots of faith? What does the church do because of faith? Would it be mission? Would it be getting involved in Fair Trade goods? Would it be reaching out to those who can't get out anymore or reaching out to those who have been visiting us for sometime? The roots: What would the roots indicate? As a church, what feeds our faith? Is it being in mission? Is it being a part of the prayer group or a study group, or is it being a part choir, is it connecting folks up to a ministry or an individual, might it be hearing another person's faith story? How might your gifts strengthen the roots - the branches of our church?

Let's shift our attention, a little, now and think about yourself. What are the offshoots of your faith? How do you express or live your faith individually? …. Can you think of activities or things you do? …. I know of families who, out of their faith, buy only locally produced foods.

Now, what feeds your faith? How do you grow in faith? It is good to know/search for and then practice what feeds/cultivates your faith, touches your soul. Think on that a bit. Growing means both acting out of your faith and nurturing your faith. Where do you need to grow more?

There are other pieces in this insert that might assist you in considering for what you hunger, the image of bread, and the scriptural parable we just heard read. They are all ways of considering growing - considering the 'rootedness' of one's faith and how deepening one's faith affects our stewardship.

I enjoy gardening; it's a way that I feed my soul. Mostly in the drizzle of almost rain, the last couple of weeks I have been trying to catch up on the planting of bulbs so that next spring there will be patches/ a riot of yellows and white and blues and purples sprinkled through the yard and into the woods in our backyard.. The potential that's held within these otherwise ugly, earthy looking things is just amazing. I think about that as I prepare the soil and fertilize and plant a dozen, 24, 32, on up to well over a hundred daffodils, Scilla, grape hyacinth and iris.

We heard the Parable of the Sower from Matthew several months ago. The parable is variously named as the parable of the Sower, the Seed, and the Soil. Each name indicates the emphasis one might put on the story. Today, let's consider Luke's parable the Parable of the Seed.

First century farmers didn't do a lot to the soil before the seeds were sown. Only after the seeds were sown would there be plowing of the fields which would bring up brambles, rocks, and soil, and at the same time would take under the seeds which would germinate and grow depending on what was in the immediate area.

Today I'd like us to consider the generous, extravagant Sower as God and that the Seed scattered is Jesus. That may not be so far from what the scripture says. Jesus is logos, word. Remember the gospel of John: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. ….And the Word became flesh and lived among us.' Jesus is the Word.

In this parable then, God offers Jesus to the entire world. In this interpretation, God has done the work already; Jesus is here. The Word is among us, in all places and at all times. The abundant gift of God is present everywhere. The world then is full of possibility - even when there is dry, rocky, barren ground, the divine energy is within (us) ready to burst into life at any moment.

Even when we are at our worst, when our hearts are hurting, the most doubting, the most desert seeming, the possibility, the availability of love - a love that is beyond what we alone can provide - the availability of that Love bursting into life is real.

Isn't that for what we hunger: A Love that would love us? Isn't that for which we hunger, a Love that bursts alive in us? That's the seed, the Word, Jesus planted within us. That's the bread of heaven for which we hunger; it is waiting to burst into life. That's the Seed that would grow within us if we would but open ourselves to that possibility so it just might become a reality.

Think on that & be changed.

Growing — Being Rooted

Sunday, November 9, 2008 Rev. Janice Palm

Sunday, November 9, 2008
Rev. Janice Palm