The tyranny of seeds

As I look ahead to this Sunday’s texts, I see a theme that used to be one of my favorite topics: seeds. Today, it’s not my favorite topic, as I’m pretty annoyed with the seeds I know.

Annoyance doesn’t make much sense, because these seeds are just doing what they do: they’re growing. About a month ago, I hopped on the grow-your-own-vegetables bandwagon and planted a vegetable garden from seeds. I’ve been composting for a few years now, so I had mixed in a heap of compost to prepare the soil for planting. So, it’s not only the seeds I planted which are now growing–there are all kinds of who-knows-what plants growing out of the compost. (I used to think this was kind of cool. Now that I have a plan for my garden, thankyouverymuch, I find it, well, annoying.)

So now my garden is full of green things–almost none of which I can identify, having never grown vegetables from seed before (or grown them at all, for that matter). I’m afraid most of them are acorn squash, which I have no interest in growing. (Note to self: squash seeds go in the trash from now on, not the compost!) And even if I knew which plants to take out, I can’t really do the weeding now after a minor car accident which makes that kind of kneeling/bending work difficult. So I think it’s going to be survival-of-the-fittest out there for a while.

Which brings me to Mark 4:26-27: “Jesus also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.’ ” Kingdom of God aside, that’s pretty much how it’s working out there in my yard. Jesus goes on to compare the kingdom to a mustard seed, a tiny seed which was known for getting into gardens and growing all over the place (even more than acorn squash).

Unlike me, Jesus does not seem annoyed by this. Perhaps his approach to planning gardens is different from mine.

Photo: “Mustard Seeds Germinating” by Swami Stream, licensed by Creative Commons.

The opposite of vocation

Two weeks ago, I was leading an informal discussion with the local interfaith clergy group on one of my favorite topics, vocation discernment. I’m rather averse to concise definitions of these terms, preferring “descriptions” instead, for example:

• “Vocation is bringing who you are to something you’re a part of.”
• “Vocation is who you are and the way you live, not ‘what you do.’ “
• “Vocation is more a verb than a noun.”

So, I didn’t have a ready definitional answer to a question early in the conversation: “What’s the opposite of vocation?” If you’re not living your vocation (if that’s even possible), then what are you doing instead? I’m reminded of this question again–and the possible answers that surfaced in conversation–after this morning’s gospel.

Jesus’ version of NHFOB

Today’s Bible reading covered Genesis 42-43 (Joseph’s brothers show up in Egypt to buy food from Joseph) and one of my favorite chapters in the gospel, Matthew 13. That chapter has those evocatively brief (or briefly evocative?) parables on what the kingdom is like (i.e. a mustard seed, yeast, etc.). It also gets about as close to the concept of “new houses from old bricks” as you can get in the Bible.

Matthew 13:52 says, “He [Jesus] said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.’ ” Could it be that Jesus is inviting each of us, like the householder, to be creative in the ways we understand the “treasures” of Scripture, adding our new interpretations to the old stories?