Father Peter F. Hansen
Sermon for Rogation Sunday
May 16, 2004
Planting Hope
“ And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people”
Rogation Sunday begins a short season of prayer for the Church. Rogation means to pray or to ask God for something. Classically, this something is that the crops we plant will grow to a successful harvest so we may eat during the coming winter. An agrarian society knew a lot about prayer because they understood that the success of their planting was entirely in the hands of God . They knew nothing about chemical fertilizers, pesticides, Round Up, or crop-dusting aircraft. They were so primitive as to believe that God made the plants grow and that His protection kept pests and beasts that devour their crops from finding and eating their food. So they would ask God for a plentiful harvest at this time of year.
I've wondered why Jesus often used farming as His illustration of God's character, His ways and means. The Parables of Jesus were more about plants, farms, vineyards, bread and grain than anything else . This may have been because people were more familiar with growing things than with anything else. But then His parables could also have been more parables about soldiering , or about raising animals , or worship in the Temple , or the ways of donkeys , or going to the marketplace , or about home life . Not one parable was about carpentry , even though that was Jesus' father's and His own familiar trade.
I believe that planting seeds or young plants has a special meaning for us, and that it is still a useful metaphor for the things of God. Even if you have never planted anything, you understand that there is something dynamic about growing plants that speaks of hope.
Planting means to hope . A plant is a living thing. We plant a seed in ground that we've prepared. Dirt is broken up, fertilized, furrows dug, irrigation trenches established. Then we drop the seeds at intervals and cover them up with earth. We drown them with water and we must wait . What is happening down there invisible to our eyes is a miracle. The dead little seed softens up, takes in water, and senses the time and environment are just right. It sprouts a root that knows down from up, and thread-like penetrates the earth as it seeks the life-giving nutrients. It shoots up a stalk, a tender white spear that seeks the surface of the ground and the sunshine. Moving toward the warmth, it goes up and up, finally bursting out in the tiny opening of two green leaves.
What more ample symbol of the soul's search for God's grace can there be? We are lost in a dark world. We seem dead and truly nothing good is in us except something that has died and been laid up in store. That something senses a call: the water of God's Spirit has reached us and our hard hearts begin to soften. Life comes forth from death and we reach down to draw up food for our souls. We are drawn to seek God's face and we extend ourselves to the heat and light. As our hopeful journey toward Him brings us bursting out of our dark world we raise two small hands to praise Him and to offer our prayer.
There is nothing certain about farming . A lot of seed just doesn't germinate. Many that do are eaten by pests the minute they emerge from the ground. Rain may come too often, or not at all. A little too much water and the roots drown, the plant dies. Too little water on a hot day and the plant shrivels. Weeds compete for the precious resources your little plants need; they grow faster and are greedy for water and nutrients. Stray cattle or goats can eat a field of nearly ripened grain. Birds or locusts settle on your fields and chew up the harvest.
There is nothing certain about the creation of human beings . God plants us in the earth, living souls. He made man and gave him many miraculous powers and abilities. One of these abilities was to choose for himself who to love and what to do with this life . There is no telling what a child will become later in life. His environment will add something, and the tending of his parents, the training and education and examples shown to him. God sheds His divine grace on every life and shines His heavenly light and warmth to every germinating human soul. But souls are lost every day.
I am not a Calvinist because I see this in evidence: God is a farmer, not a machinist . Oh, God's creation is full of marvelous mechanical things: the stars and galaxies and nebulae and planets are evidence that He is the Great Inventor and does extremely good art. He charted the paths of the stars before all time and the ways of the comets are in His Hands. Our earthly seasons come according to His sovereign will and the weather in the tropics and the arctic regions follow His directions. But God made life as well, and in this He is a farmer, not a machinist. We are not machines, or not mere machines. Daily we discover marvelous evidence of God's handiwork in the human cell and its genetic make-up. Trillions of tiny mechanisms in each living cell make up the blueprints for our bodies and speak of a brilliant creator, a divine mind behind the miracle of life. But life is unpredictable . Even with the intricacies of God's eternal and infinite genius, He did not determine the weather and seasons of our thoughts and actions, our choices or paths to walk. These we have chosen, because He made us in His image and after His likeness and among all creatures, even every living being, we are most like Him in our ability to create, to chose and to dream.
God planted man on this earth that He created . What for? To see us degrade ourselves every day with bloodshed and evil practices, sexual lust and pride? No, of course not. His plan for us was far better, but He gave us free will so we might choose Him freely and love Him as our decision. God planted us on this earth as a divine act of hope. His hope was to see at least some of us attain to His heavenly kingdom as His sons and daughters, to live in this world according to His patterning and to live in the next world according to His merciful redemption. It doesn't have to happen because He doesn't force us to accept His terms. He may do many things to help us see the way. He may send us people to speak truth into our lives and give us a clue about what we're doing wrong. He may convict us of sin and send us spiritual report cards showing clearly what is wrong with us. All this is evidence of God's hope that we turn around and come back to Him. All He wants for every one of us is that we turn to Him and never stray again.
You wouldn't plant a tree or a seed or a bush unless you had a strong desire to see that plant grow and produce something wanted. If it's a tree, you may want nuts from it in five or six years. Or you may seek a spreading shade tree to shelter under from the hot Chico sun. If you plant a seed, you may be looking for flowers to cut and arrange to bring the beauty of nature inside the house. Or you want carrots, radishes, green beans and lettuce. If you plant a bush, you are looking for it to grow and provide some greenery for your backyard, maybe pomegranates, or hibiscus flowers or the sweet smell of jasmine or gardenia. The point is, you plant with hope . You have a desire to see that plant survive and bring you something needed, something good. Planting is always a hopeful enterprise and we are more like plants than mountains. God made us, planted us on earth, not to follow exact directions and obey mindlessly, but to grow by His grace, hopefully toward His light.
When God promised better times for suffering people, even people He was punishing for their badness, He often used planting as His message. Ezekiel, at the very time of the Babylonian conquest, reports what God told Him about the future: “…the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, … And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land… Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God.” Ezekiel 34:27-30 God's first deed on earth after its creation was to plant a garden and plant a man in it: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” Genesis 2:8 The true picture of a grace-filled life was, as the Psalmist sang: “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.” Psalm 128:3
We are God's planting. H e plants with Hope, not cynically, not critically, and not with the deterministic certainty of a maker of bicycles or manufacturer of widgets. He may make 6 billion of us at a time, but every one is different and unique, every one is free to choose his or her Maker. And we are made like Him, planters as well as inventors. We plant with hope, not cynically . When we plant, whether it be crops or fruit trees, or our own children, or the kids we teach, we plant hopefully that our efforts will be rewarded. We ask for God's provision, His good weather, His grace and abundance and favor, and when we ask, He is always able to supply. Jesus said, in our Gospel today, “ Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” We pray like we plant, with hope. If not, our prayers are dead letters that do not arrive anywhere. When you pray, pray with hope, as you plant a seed or a seedling . Your prayers have life and God remembers each one of them. God's promise of our Christian life is “ that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3 When we grow and flourish and bring forth fruit, God's hope has not been cheated and His glory will abound.
PFH+