When a Seed Dies

I know a lot of people are spooked by cemeteries; they avoid visiting them whenever possible. Myself, I’ve always kinda liked them. Especially the old ones with unique tombstone shapes and meaningful – or at least interesting - epitaphs.

I used to stay each summer at a church camp in Pleasantville, and take regular strolls through the nearby cemetery. One tombstone was shaped like a large dog (that guy sure must have loved his pet), a second was heart-shaped, and many others were unique and eye-catching. Under the shade of towering pines, hundreds of graves lay peaceful and quiet (except for the chattering of squirrels and the thump-thump of pine cones falling to the ground).

But some of you are shuddering at the suggestion of finding peace and quiet in such a place. So…maybe it would help if we thought of a cemetery as a garden. That’s what it is, isn’t it? Row upon row of many seeds, planted and awaiting germination.

Edward Markquart, a Lutheran pastor on the West coast, once consulted Dr. Gibbe, a professor with a Ph.D. in plant physiology. Pastor Markquart informed the prof that he was planning a sermon on John 12:24, and asked him, “Can you tell me what happens when a seed dies?.” In a sermon entitled "When a Seed Dies," the pastor shares what he found out:

“He told me that inside every seed is an embryo, and in that embryo is a root which goes down into the ground; and a shoot that goes up into the sky. Every embryo has a root and a shoot; and inside that little embryo, (and this is really a miracle), there is an ‘on’ and ‘off’ switch. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that seeds have ‘on’ and ‘off’ switches. But they do…

“And when you plant a seed into the ground at 40 degrees for 40 days, that mechanism goes on, but if the temperature is at 20 degrees, the mechanism stays off… Now there is also a thin coat around that seed which protects the oxygen from coming in prematurely. And then when this dormant seed is planted into the ground, for 40 days at 40 degrees, the switch goes "on" and the seed takes in water, and it miraculously begins to expand, and the seed coat is broken, and it begins to mature and produces sugar and protein; and then out comes the little roots and the little shoots, and the shoots produce more seeds which produce more fruit. ‘And that’s what happens when a seed dies,’ said the professor. ‘It's a miracle.’”

What will come forth from that broken, dead seed-coat? The garden gives a hint. Those pink-coated corn kernels my dad and I used to bury in the soil were given new “bodies” – towering, tassled, and ear-laden. Tan seeds, large and flat, came up as golden butternuts squash. And the zuchinni seeds… well, need I say more? It’s all much more, much better, much grander, than what was originally planted.

Which makes the grave of each who have died in the Lord a mystery-filled place, bursting with eternal potential, just waiting for the switch to go “on”… and a split-second germination process to be fulfilled.

Almost makes you want to take a walk in a cemetery, doesn’t it?

See You Later!

When our children were very young, our family prepared for a big move. We were leaving the only home and environment the children had known, packing up and relocating to Erie, Pa. To help make the transition, a friend gave them a book titled “Little Duck’s Moving Day.”

Little Duck was moving, too. He was putting his familiar toys and books and precious possessions into a box, and as he did, he told each one of them goodbye. Overhearing him, his wise mother said, “Little Duck, you will be seeing those things again when we get to our new home. So instead of saying goodbye, why not say, “See you later”?

Or to put it another way…

C. S. Lewis and his friend Sheldon Vanauken often met for lunch at Oxford’s Eastgate Hotel. Vanauken relates that after their last meeting at the Eastgate, “when Lewis had said his farewells and crossed High Street to the Magdalen side, he looked back at ‘Van’ with a big grin and roared across the noise of the traffic, “Besides, Christians never say goodbye!”

They never need to. There will always be another meeting – if not here, then there. That is the direct result of the resurrection of Christ. Because He lives, we shall, too. Eternally. Together. It’s cause to celebrate the risen Christ - and it’s incentive to be praying and witnessing to those who don’t yet know Him.

There are still some big moves ahead for all of us. Some major relocation and separation and transition. But let us not grieve as those who have no hope. Let’s not be putting precious things in a box and telling them a final goodbye – not if they know the Christ we know.

Let’s muster a grin, and shout across the noise of pain and sorrow and temporary separation, “Christians never say goodbye!”

“See you later!”

The Big Picture

I once quizzed a group of teens on Bible history, a quiz similar to the American history questions Pastor Rick referred to in Sunday’s sermon. Questions like… Did the Flood occur in the Old or New Testament? Did the apostle Paul live before or after Christ? Who was the most famous writer of the Psalms? The results were eye-opening and discouraging.

Discouraging, because this was not a group of kids off the street. These were, for the most part, children of devout parents, moms and dads who had brought them to church – and Sunday School - all their lives. These kids had heard all the stories – Moses at the Red Sea, David and Goliath, the Christmas story, the Easter story, Paul and Silas in jail… I scratched my head over their apparent ignorance. Had they been so poorly taught all those years? Or hadn’t they been listening?

And then I remembered that to me, also, these once were piecemeal stories. Accounts I knew very well… but I didn’t know how they fit together. I was probably well into my teens – or beyond – when I saw that the Bible reveals, in orderly progression, God reaching closer and closer to mankind, with a purposeful plan that will culminate in the final closing of the gap between Him and us, forever. The whole thing made a lot more sense when I saw it that way. And, if I might say it, God did, too.

Have you discovered the big picture yet? If not, here are a few suggestions…

Get a Bible timeline. Our local Christian bookstores likely have charts available. Or go to http://www.sundayschoolresources.com/timeline.htm to view one online. It’ll help place biblical people and events in sequence and perspective.

Read the Bible through. Yes, clear through. You can do it. Get an easy-to-understand version, pick it up in your spare time instead of the latest Christian novel, and take it in beginning to end. Or, if this is too daunting…

Find a good, chronological children’s Bible story book, and read it cover to cover. Don’t be embarrassed to read on their level – it might be a lot more fun and informative than you imagined. And you might as well get one with good illustrations!

Why go to all the trouble? Why make the extra effort to know when God did what He did, and how it all fits together? Well, if you’ve been struggling to trust God’s faithfulness, or hungering to know His heart, or wrestling with doubts about His love for you, or feeling insignificant in the overall scheme of things, it can help a lot to see what He’s been up to over the last several thousand years. How much you have been on His mind and in His heart.

Because He did it all to get close to you. It’s right there in the Bible. Read it for yourself – all of it.

The Call to Order

The very word “order” connotes somebody in charge. Somebody with a plan. Somebody with the power to make it happen.

“God is not a God of confusion and disorder but of peace and order (1 Cor. 14:33 Amp).” And He’s always been that way – just look at the creation of the world. He made something out of nothing. Brought order out of chaos. Meaning out of randomness and confusion.

If He’s really that kind of God at heart, that tells me a few things:

1. He doesn’t just want order in our church services. He wants it in our lives, our ministries, our homes, our relationships.
2. Where you and I are concerned, He’s very intentional. He knows where He’s going with each of our lives, if we’ll give Him permission to carry it out. And why shouldn’t we? One look at creation tells us He can be trusted to pull off something better than we could have done – or imagined.
3. He doesn’t need a lot to work with. Our insufficiency doesn’t hamper Him; the improbability of the situation doesn’t hinder Him. He’s got a history of making something from nothing, with no help from anyone else.

If these things are true, then I guess we could bring anything to Him – that chaotic job situation, the hopelessly confused marital relationship, the decision that pulls us in three different directions, anything and everything that breeds disorder and confusion in our life – and expect Him to dispel the ruckus and overwhelming helplessness, and restore order and peace. To implement a plan. To take charge. To change our world – or change us.

So why don’t you and I let Him do it… today?

Constructive Criticism

Pastor Rick acknowledged Sunday that some criticism was almost certain to come his way in response to his treatment of the topic at hand: the gift of tongues and its application in the church today.

I believe that the Lord led him to a balanced, thoughtful, and Scriptural approach, and I don’t have any criticism to offer. However, so as not to disappoint him or others who were braced for it, I do have a two constructive criticisms to offer… on other topics, and not my own observations. You might say they were overheard, and I am passing them on, for whatever good they might do us (for it is said that in every criticism there is at least a grain of truth).

The first came my way some months ago when my husband Dave, still an elder at the time, was give the elder-job of contacting a lady who had stopped attending FAC. (The idea is to let the people know they’re missed, find out what is keeping them away, see if there is anything we can do as a church for them, etc.)

When Dave got off the phone, he shared with me the reason this person had switched churches. “She said we were too serious about our relationship with God.” I smiled. It was constructive criticism, all right, well taken. It constructed in me a gladness that FAC is dead serious about knowing God personally and walking in a way that pleases Him. And it shows when people come to visit.

I overheard the second criticism while sitting in my pew one Sunday morning waiting for the service to start. Two people behind me were discussing Epic Faith, and one commented on an acquaintance who had attended one of their services. “He didn’t like it,” she reported. “He said it was too friendly.”

Once again I jumped for joy inside. Oh, I understand that maybe this man was shy or trying to hang back and check things out, and just wanted to be incognito… but what an encouraging critique!

Too serious about God… too friendly to visitors. Those are charges that shouldn’t be ignored. They should be celebrated! And may the grain of truth in them multiply and be fruitful!

Got Love?

I think it would take a major mental shift for today’s Christian culture to grasp Paul’s meaning in those first verses of 1 Corinthians 13:

“If I pound it out from the pulpit in words that bring them pouring down the aisles… If I become a sought-after Bible teacher, and am flooded with letters of gratitude from people who finally grasp truth that always eluded them… If I’m the one everyone asks to pray for them, because God always seems to answer my prayers… If my church sends me out as a missionary, and I leave everything behind, and them suffer persecution in a foreign land and end up a martyr… If I do any of these kinds of things, but lack love, I haven’t done anything!”

Of course, if you’re like me you don’t qualify for any of those heroic scenarios. I’m no preacher or Bible teacher or prayer giant or missionary. But the question is for us, too. Whatever we’ve done for God, what has the motive been? What the overall attitude? How many of us have worked so hard for so many years – but really haven’t done anything out of real love? Duty, maybe, or habit or selfish satisfaction or desire for recognition or trying to earn our way into God’s good graces. But authentic, God-given love?

Methinks there’s a lot of clanging and clashing going on in the larger Christian church today, and it’s the sound of service without love. There are a lot of gongs and cymbals announcing the implementation of gifts without genuine consideration for the rest of the body. Let’s make sure we aren’t adding to the commotion.

It might mean sitting down with the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to reassess our work for Him, and our motives. Our home life, our work life, our social life, our ministry for Him - all areas. According to the Apostle Paul, there is only one ingredient that will prevent our efforts in each area from falling into oblivion, from being counted as worthless. That ingredient is Love.

Got love?

When I was a kid, our family used to put jigsaw puzzles together. We followed a sort of system: first we’d look for all the straight-edged pieces, and build the frame. Next one of us might piece together the blue sky while another tackled the patch of flowers in the lower left corner… Finally it would all start to come together, and what a celebration it was to fit the last piece into the puzzle, and admire the finished creation.

In fact, it got to be such a coveted honor to insert that final piece, that one of us would often hide a puzzle piece in order to insure that we were the one to complete the picture.

Does it seem sometimes (when Pastor John is lobbying for children’s workers or the Internal Impact team is looking for Sunday morning greeters or…) that somebody is sitting on a puzzle piece at FAC… hoarding what the body of Christ needs to make it complete and healthy?

There are no high honors for the one who holds out the longest! Those of us sitting on our puzzle pieces are losing the joy of fitting into the right place, completing our part of the puzzle, connecting people with God and each other, giving a true picture of Christ to our community and the world.

Or have you looked and looked, and still can’t see where your spiritual gift fits in? Maybe you should try what we did as children building that puzzle, and hold out that spiritual gift and say, “Here’s what I have. Help me find where it fits in at FAC.” Another set of eyes might spy exactly where your gift should be exercised.

So get it out. Hold it up. Fit it in. And let the celebration begin!