Growing as Christ, gaining God’s vision, is a gift of God, a mystery that grows in you even as you learn the skill and craft of being Christ in this world
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 11 B
Texts: Mark 4:26-34; 2 Corinthians 5:6-17
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
This past Lent, in our Sunday rite of confession, we asked God to call us “from certainty to faith.”
The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty. To believe you know all that needs knowing. To know you’re right and another is wrong.
But what about this sower? Jesus asks. They cast their seeds and then live their life. They go to bed at night, and get up in the morning, and the seed grows. As if the earth produces the stalk, the head, the full grain, all by itself. Even the sower doesn’t understand how.
Every farmer I’ve known has this deep awareness of uncertainty. Weather can change, plants can struggle, yet every spring there’s a green tint of hope in the once barren field. Farmers know about faith, about living in uncertainty, because very little of their life is certain.
So what about them? Jesus asks. Can you learn anything from them?
Paul has a beautiful mystery of growth today, too.
Paul says that in Christ we’re given a completely new point of view. We normally see the world and others through our eyes, our human perspective. But now we see through God’s eyes, as God sees.
So we look at the world as Christ, Paul says, and see a new creation in every human being. We look and see that all that is old is becoming new, all that is broken is being repaired, all that is wounded is being healed. We see hearts beating with God’s heart and bringing life and love to the world.
New things have come into being in Christ, Paul rejoices, and we know it and can see it. Because now we see with God’s eyes.
But hold on, you say. I don’t know how to see that way. To see every person as God’s image, or to see hope in the despair of our world, or to see God’s love moving. It’s like you’re talking about a great tree that gives life and shelter and all I can see is barely a seed.
And this week I was tempted just to encourage you to work on that.
A sower has to learn the skills and ways of that vocation. So does a metalworker or mechanic. Or a doctor or teacher. To do anything well, we need to be taught, we need to practice, we need to work at our craft.
So we could consider the life in Christ as a craft to learn, a way to practice, a skill to hone. It is in loving, and trying to love, that we become loving. It is in forgiving and praying for those who hurt us that we become forgivers.
And if you want to see with God’s eyes, you could work on that, too. You could learn to pay attention to how you see others. You could embrace God’s Word and learn from Scripture how God’s vision works, and try to embody that. You could be taught by others, be shaped by effort and prayer, and learn to see as God sees.
And that’s a good goal. A worthy effort. Except Jesus has a deeper understanding of how you will become like Christ. It’s the mystery of these two parables.
Jesus says the growth comes from God, and you don’t have to understand how.
This way of being Christ, of seeing as God, loving as God, is a mysterious, miraculous thing that’s really hard to understand. You look at yourself and see a small seed, nothing worth mentioning. You look at the world and see nothing different.
But take heart, Jesus says. God takes what is tiny and unimportant and grows it into something huge. A seed becomes a protective tree that provides shelter and shade. Your eyesight develops into the new vision from God’s eyes, not yours, so you can see the new creation God is making. Even you are being made a new creation, while you go to bed and wake up and go to bed and wake up, day to day to day.
You don’t have to understand it, Jesus says. Just trust it. Trust the Spirit is in you, making you new, giving you growth and life. So you become that protective tree that cares for your neighbors and your world. So you see, as God sees, the precious image of God in everyone you see or know. Even your enemy. Even those you despise. Even yourself.
And it is a good plan to also learn the craft as you are able.
The sower knew how to cast the seeds. And the sower knew how to wait: they weren’t digging up the seeds every few days to see if anything was happening. They knew their craft, their way, their practice. But they also knew to trust the mysterious growth only God can do.
So learn the craft of being Christ. That’s why we study and talk with each other. Each of us has different experiences and insights with God’s vision, God’s point of view, and we can help each other.
And learning the way of Christ, practicing it, honing your skills, will help you be open to the new paths the Spirit calls from you. It will make you eager, not afraid, to try something new as Christ, to step a little further into God’s vision and dream.
And it will help you see that growing tree in you when you might not have before.
And this will be your hope.
Just as with the sower. Because if you see the shoots of this new vision growing up in you, it’s like the germinating seeds appearing above the soil. It’s not fully there yet, but you know it’s coming. When you see it growing in your neighbor in this community, you find the joy that they, too, are becoming Christ.
So do the work you can, go to bed, get up – and trust God is at work in you doing the actual growth. And how this works? None of us understand.
But you know what? With the eyes of faith God gives, you’ll see it. The whole world will.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen