John 12:20-50
Today's reading contains one of my favorite images from the gospel. Jesus tells his listeners, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels -- a plentiful harvest of new lives."
When the racks of seed packets show up in stores in late winter, I usually buy a few, even though I don't have any room left in the garden. Those cheery little packets of seed with the bright, colorful pictures of flowers or vegetables contain so much promise. I love them. I buy a few and put them in the box in the garage with the other seed packets (opened and unopened) that I've acquired over the years. And there they sit.
Those seeds have great potential, but sitting in a packet, they're nothing. They're dead. They'll sit there for years and years, and every time I go look at them, they're still just seeds. Nothing's changed.
And the bulbs I have stored in a box look like dried pieces of wood or clods of mud. They do not appear to have any life in them at all. If I don't get them into the ground soon, they'll shrivel up and really die.
When Jesus spoke of the kernel of wheat, he was speaking of his own death. Like a seed being planted, Jesus would have to die and be buried. And then like that seed or that bulb, life would burst forth from something that seemed dead.
But Jesus wasn't just speaking of his own resurrection; he was also speaking of reproduction, of multiplication. The seed not only springs to life, it produces even more seeds which, if similarly planted in the soil, produce even more.
When we speak of starting a new church, we call it "church planting." The image is fitting. Jesus began with 12 disciples -- 12 seeds, if you will -- who spread the gospel message throughout the region, planting more seeds that grew into churches that produced more seeds, . . . and the cycle continues.
We are the current crop of seeds carrying the gospel message, but too often we're quite content to sit in a packet in a box on a shelf, a picture of great potential that will never be reached.
Unless we get down in the dirt.
Drew Clausen
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3 comments:
ah-- your last statement --such a challenge to us all! Do we take it serioulsy that we should be spreading the 'word'? If every committed Christian did, how many more would there be in the kingdom? It is terrifying to sit with your acquaintances who you know are so limited in faith or have none, and contemplate sharing Jesus. It is like a bomb you might set off if you bring up His word. I know some confirmed atheists. Talk about a challenge! But here is the deal. The years are emptying out for all of us each day. What is our purpose? How can we know the truth and still be silent. If a fire were buring in your building would you be silent? Of course not. Does a fire burn in your heart for Jesus enough to shout out to the world --"He is alive, He is real, He is your only hope, your life is short here, it is long in eternity, what more can you ask for then what Jesus has done for you?"
Pray to be led to what we as followers ought to be doing for the world of friends around us. Let them know God is with us.
I read about this really cool experiment done with a simple grass plant. Scientists let the plant grow for four months in a greenhouse, and then they carefully removed it from the soil and began measuring all the tiny roots and root hairs that had grown.
In four months that plant had set forth 378 miles of roots -- 3 miles a day -- in 14 million distinct roots. When they calculated the root hairs -- those microscopic little bits, they came to 14 billion root hairs. In a single cubic inch of soil, the length of root hairs totalled 6000 miles.
The mind boggles at such things.
When I think of Jesus statement about a kernel of wheat planted in the earth, and the result of that apparent "death," I think of all those little roots . . . wow.
Anyway, that doesn't exactly relate to the passage, but it's pretty cool!
Well here is another elusion to all of this. I think your grass story with all the roots is marvelous. Who knew? No wonder grass holds the soil together. It has to be this way or it all disappears. How brilliant of God. Now apply it to us, as all sorts of little roots out in the world doing what we do- praying, reading the word, worshipping, sharing the faith, acting as best we can like Jesus-- all sorts of little stuff that holds it all together. If we all stopped, it would all dissappear. Right?
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