19 July 2023
Listening to the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23), nodding my head at the images of seeds falling on barren ground, or thin soil, or finally, rich garden beds where they might flourish, I wonder if you need to be a gardener to love this story. Deacon George Smith, preaching at St. Clement’s, revealed that her first calling was to horticulture and later to the Lord’s work, more directly perceived, with a collar and a mission.
A lot of my friends are gardeners, whether they personally like to dig in the dirt, as Cherie has since the earliest of her 84 years, or, like another, who prefers to have another person plant their bright annual flowers each spring.
Me? Like my friend Bonnie, I have been the blundering-type of gardener. Squash sown years ago in another backyard offered up gorgeous, golden star flowers – big as the starfish from my hometown on Puget Sound years ago. But no squash? I had heard it was so easy to grow here in my new home in the Midwest.
Ah, now, I think: At that house, I was missing the pollinators to transform the flower into fruit – or in this case, zucchini.
Today, my home garden is nothing to boast about, but I do have enough Monarda (AKA bee balm, which may have imperial ambitions on that whole bed?!), roses, and raspberries to attract bees of several sorts, wasps, and other insects that help our plants become harvests that feed us.
Deacon George suggested we ought to listen, for God’s word, for the nudging of the Holy Spirit, or signs from other humans that indicate we are moving in a fruitful direction – not wallowing in the puddle of despair at a lack instead following a path that is nurturing.
My husband? He looks to YouTube for gardening advice, especially from this guy in Michigan who seems to face the same challenges in North Country gardening that we do in Minnesota. He’s been a great help to efforts at the Giving Garden at Roseville’s St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, which has fed our hungry neighbors with some 700 pounds of vegetables in recent years.
The difference is intention. Am I fooling around, just to see if something will grow? Or am I choosing native plants or red flowers beloved by hummingbirds, to see more flashing fires in my less than perfect but nourishing for pollinators yard and gardens?
We can bring that intention to all kinds of cultivation: Our home gardens, our church gardens, our spiritual lives, and our communities. The harvest can be great.
What is growing in your garden?
Role model: Bethany House and Garden in Topeka, Kansas, where the Episcopal Church made a place for encouraging native plants and promoting social justice from some unused acreage. They say on Twitter: “An innovative ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, Bethany House and Garden grows community through gardening, neighborhood empowerment, and worship.”
Allison Campbell Jensen 