Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

Hymn: Now the Green Blade Rises – 379 ELW

Our backyard is a microcosm of the world of seeds. Acorns abound, but there are mostly maple seeds which helicopter down upon the deck, on the lawn, and into the wood mulch. The plethora of whirlers will be swept up from the deck and lost to the lawnmower blades soon enough. But among the wood mulch the seeds will be lost and forgotten until they begin to sprout up into tiny trees. 

It’s evident that something had to give way in order for something else to happen. The buried seed, after a period of dormancy, germinates, as little green shoots appear between the brown mulch. Something had to die for there to be new life. 

The passage from 1 Corinthians 15 seems to echo Jesus’ teaching in John 12, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies…” The body must die in order for there to be new life – a resurrected life. Paul says, “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” 

There are references to seeds that lie scattered throughout scripture. They are names as signifiers and sources of the renewal of life in creation (Genesis 1:11-12, 29). The law includes them as a way of giving back to God; a tithe of seed from the ground is seen as “holy to the LORD” (Leviticus 27:30). The prophet Isaiah describes the capacity of God’s word “to accomplish what God purposes” with the analogy of a seed’s capacity to produce food for the table (Isaiah 55:10-11). In a parable, Jesus likens the sowing of seeds to the proclamation of the Word, which finds root in us and then may either wither, be crowded out, or come to life and produce fruit in abundance (Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:1-15). In another parable, Jesus compares the reign of God to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a source of shade, shelter, and new birth (Mathew 13:3; Mark 4:3032; Luke 13:18-19). 

All of these references to seeds point to the emergence of life, in which the ordinary reveals the extraordinary realm of God, revealing God’s glory. 

For Paul, our bodies bear traces of the dust that we are and the dust that we will become one day. But we also have available to us the realm of God in which we reveal God’s glory in our being. We become as Christ, his very death and resurrection, in which we die to ourselves in order to bring about life and that which is greater than ourselves. 

The psalmist reminds us, “Do not be provoked by evildoers; do not be jealous of those who do wrong. For they shall soon wither like the grass, and like the green grass fade away. Put your trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and find safe pasture.” 

Those who deny climate change and its devastating effects upon the world are at work to undermine the work of those who have taken God’s call seriously to be good stewards of creation. 

We are reminded in the words of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you,” and “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” The measure that we give will be the measure that we will receive, in turn. We are called to live as Christ in the world, to give ourselves over for the sake of others. Life is sacred and is to be revered in its many manifestations which reveal the glory of God. 

May the seed of God’s Word that is planted in us bear the good fruit of God’s love for all Creation in all that we say and do; in the name of Christ. Amen.