Unexpected Gardens

The End of Something Old, the start of something New

Holiday reflections - what do I want to leave behind? What do I want to sow into my life this year?

How does this fit with our life together in TPP?

Is it too little, too late?

The end of last year we seemed to face obstacle after obstacle with getting the Trinity Community Garden underway.

Finally planted those first seedlings, it was a relief, but there was an underlying worry: was it too little, too late?

I looked around at other gardens, already established, flourishing, being fruitful. Inspiring, but, How could our humble effort measure up?

First day back at work on Tuesday - prayer, then off to the garden, not knowing how little to expect.

Surprised by abundance!

Still a small beginning, someone else has been watering it, but God ahs been making it grow!

Realised there’s a message for our church. WE look around, we worry that it’s too late to plant something new.

We worry, that we haven’t worked hard enough, or we haven’t done the right things.

We worry that thigns have moved on, and God has given up on us.

The worry tempts us to despair

The temptation is to just keep the current crop tidy, but make it our last.

But just look at it! It’s beautiful!

This is a message for us as a church. Whether we’re watering or planting, The Good News is this, it’s not all up to us, it is God who is making it grow.

Samuel and Eli

This story - coming to the ends of ourselves, and God intervening miraculously, this story is nothing new.

In the days of Eli, the word of God was rare among the people.

Eli was old. There didn’t seem an obvious replacement, his sons had abandoned him and abandoned God, and he just had young Samuel looking after him in the house of God. Perhaps an intern, but also as someone to care for his needs as he grew old.

Not a lot of hope going on.

When Samuel heard God’s voice calling him, at first he didn’t recognise what was happening. Even Eli took a couple of tries before God got through. But when they finally figured out what was going on, Samuel’s response was simple byut profound: Here I am Lord, your servant is listening.

After a long, dry spell, Samuel was willing to sow seeds, and to water God’s garden.

I wonder, are we ready to hear God’s calling when it comes out way?

Not just for ministers, not just for elders, for anyone who is willing to listen and respond “Here I am, Lord”

What are we being called to by God?

What are you being called to God?

Maybe we are being called to plant new seeds - to start something new in our own lives, or in the lifde of our community even if, no, especially if it all seems too late.

As Brent was saying last week, this means dreaming, praying, listening to what the Spirit is saying to us.

This is a communal effort. It’s not about one or two of us flying off on a tangent, it’s about all of us, together, intentionally seeking God.

The success and failure of our planting will not be all down to our efforts - it is God who will make it grow, but Paul is challenging each and every one of us to grow into greater maturity in our lives of faith.

He’s actually pretty scathing of the Corinthian church. Says they’re like babies, waiting to be spoon fed.

Regardless of our faith journeys so far, there is a challenge for each and every one of us here. We’re being challenged to grow in our faith, grow in our maturity, grow in our listening and trusting and deteermination to seek God’s will and God’s way in our lives and in our community.

We can’t afford to sit back and lap it up. Like Samuel, we are being called. How will we respond?

Planting or watering?

So, what are we being called to?

Maybe, like Paul, we’re being called to plant something new

I think that our community garden at Trinity is like that. We have the faint hints of a community of faith, hovering around our community outreach activities. There are the seeds of something there. We’re not sure what it looks like, but if we don’t plant something, then the opportunity will be lost. Are we listening?

Or maybe, like Apollos, we are being called to water something that already exists. To nutrture and bring new life, to something that has become a bit tired.

Maybe it’s both, actually.

A bit over a year ago, Andrea stopped in to buy a monstera plant from someone in Ashburton. She came home not just with an actuall plant, but also with a whole raft of cuttings from other plants that she was told would grow.

I was sceptical. We these viable cuttings, or had she been sold some magic beans?

Some of the cuttings did not survive.

Some struggled on.

This one, very small plant, a plant that we can’t even name, started out with three leaves but was soon down to just one. The other leaves died off.

I thought it was high time to pull the plug.

Then, just before Christmas, after a year of inactivity, a new bud, a strong shoot, new leaves unfurled.

It’s still tiny and delicate, but it is beautiful and wonderful, and all of that watering and nurturing, for ovwer a year, is bearing fruit. God is making it grow.

Maybe there are things in our lives that just needs some love and care. They don’t seem like much, and cynics like me might just dig them over. They might not survive, but maybe, just maybe, God is making them grow.

Sowing, caring and growing

So wehre does this leave us, at the start of a new year, as we consider what to leave behind, and what to sow into our lives this year?

First, hope and trust in God. Hope and trust are not the same as blind optimism. Things won’t go well just because we wish them to. Rather, hope is founded in God’s faithfulness throughout generations. Eli might have believed that God had given up on him, but the peiople wer3e given Samuel. Israel in exile may have believed that they were alone, but God redeemed them. The faithful of Jerusalem may have believed that hope had abandoned them, but John prepared the way, and Jesus is the Way. It’s all to easy for us to think that things will go well, and if they don’t then God has abandoned us. The Good News is this: God never gives up on us. God’s still small voice, that spoke to Elijah, that called to Samuel, that breathed in Jesus, is calling to us still. He we are Lord, your servants are listening

Second be prepared to sow and to water as the opportunity arises. God is maing it grow. What are the opportunities to sow and to nurture that you see in your life? Sometimes we all need a seed sown in our lives. Sometimes we all need a bit of nurture. This is not a one-way street. We are a community of faith, we are all called to be sowers and waters in God’s greast garden

Finally, we are called to maturity - in ourselves, but especially in our faith. Sometimes the food God gives us will be sweet, sometimes bitter. As we grow in our faith, in our paryer lives, in our unsderstanding, then we will learn to take the rough with the smooth, and still find Christ in the centre of it all.

So I encourage you, as we begin a new year, to listen for that still small voice, sowing, caring and growing in God.

Here I am Lord, your servant is listening.