Skip to main content

A Sower...

 A sower went out to sow and they tossed out love out in the world, but it just bounced off others thick skin. 

A sower went out to sow and they tossed out compassion which momentarily bloomed, but apathy won the day. 

A sower went out to sow and they tossed out gospel but the world was too busy with their own cares to notice. 

A sower went out to sow and they planted justice, kindness, and humbleness and it produced fruits of thirty, sixty, and hundred times the efforts to grow into it. 

Sowers went out to sow racial equality and a true community where all are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.  They were denied, beaten, jailed, and killed. They continued to sow and won small and large victories, but still the system and the story is stuck in the past. The weeds of injustice, racism, sexism, antisemitism, and islamophobia are still present and strong in our country and around the world. 

The seeds and the weeds are not people, they are ideas, paradigms, systems, beliefs, theologies, theories. People are the soil, and though some may be beaten or rocky or shallow, they all have the DNA, created in God's image and are loved, enough, and worthy. 

The church can be the sower of the seeds of love, compassion, gospel, justice, kindness, and humbleness. And, at times, it should be strategic and smart with its resources. But with love, if we really are planting the love of God, we should not be stingy, but extravagently and wildly reckless. How many trees and shrubs and plants have we seen growing on the side of a cliff in our area? We don't know where love will root and grow, it will live in the most unlikely of places. 

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was quoted as saying, "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." I ask that you put your hand on your heart and picture one person, one group, or a leader in our nation that believes the color of our skin matters more than the content of our character. Let light, warm and life-giving, shine around them.  Share with them in repeating after me, "God loves you".... "You are enough".... "You are worthy"....

Amen.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Tale of Two Females

 In a book called, "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs, he tried to follow all 435 commands found in the Torah or Pentateuch. One of those commands was that you couldn't touch a woman while she was having her period so he wouldn't hug, kiss, or hold the hand of his wife during her cycle. She learned that he couldn't sit where she sat, so when she became frustrated with him she would sit on every piece of furniture in the house so he would have to stand or sit on the floor the whole day. We don't know what kind of hemorrhaging this woman in the crowd was suffering, but for her to be so afraid of Jesus and the crowd that she didn't ask for healing, but just touched his cloak and had faith that she would be made well, we have to assume that she has spent twelve long years not being able to hug, kiss, or hold hands with her family and friends. This physical and social isolation seems to be more damaging as she persisted with this illness for twelve ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Covenant of the United Church of Christ

That they may all be one! This was the dream of the these different denominations and churches coming together in 1957. That they may all be one! While many denominations were splitting and continually finding reasons that they couldn't be siblings with those Christians over there, a group of mainline Protestant leaders came together that united and uniting was the future of the Church. Yes, it was mainly four major denominations which are: 1. Congregational 2. Christian 3. Reformed (German) and 4. Evangelical Synod (Lutheran). There were many other smaller groups that joined as well, that included Back, Native, and Hungarian. But if you look at the first General Synod picture, it was pretty much white, middle class men. With global communication becoming easier, travel, television, and the United Nations, they had a dream and vision that all Christians could live together, worship together, and be one as we are one in God with Christ.  That they may all be one! is the United Churc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sabbath

 In the Five Books of Moses where also known as the? (Pentateuch) What was the last thing written of the Pentateuch, the last story? Hint: it was a poem. (The First Creation Story) The Seven Day Creation Story was put in its final form, the first time it was written down was while the people of Israel were in the diaspora spread throughout the Babylonian Empire in the sixth century BCE. It became widely shared because the prophet Jeremiah told the people to marry amongst the people wherever they were at and to settle in. Yes one day, they would return to the towns and Jerusalem, but for now, continue to live. The people of the nation of Judah were there for about seventy years, so there were a couple of generations happening and their children and grandchildren were forgetting their language, their heritage, and their God. Then, the poem about God creating the world in seven days was used as a reminder, a balm, and a way to remember who and whose they were. It centered on the sabba...
Post a Comment
Read more