2 Pentecost B Proper 6

Today we are celebrating Father’s Day. A mother was getting fed up with the lack of discipline and obedience in her family, and called a family meeting. She said, “I will give a special prize to the one in the family who is most obedient this week.” The children moaned, “That’s not fair! Daddy will win every time.”

Today, I don’t want to speak specifically about Father’s Day, but will address it again at the end of my talk. I want to begin by talking about the gospel lesson in which Jesus said the kingdom of God was like a growing seed.

There are many different agricultural and horticultural images used in the Bible. Almost all of those images have to do with something growing. As we look at the fourth chapter of Mark, verse 26, we seek Jesus saying that the Kingdom of God is like a man scattering seed on the ground. Night or day, whether he sleeps or rises the seed grows, though he does not know how that happens. All by itself the soil produces the grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.. As soon as the grain is rie, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.

Earlier in this chapter Jesus speaks about the parable of the sower. The farmer went out to sow the seed. The seed fell on different types of ground. It fell along the path. Some people hear the word but Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop – thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.

The main theme of this chapter is growth. We as individuals are supposed to grow and we as a church are supposed to grow. How can we as individuals grow?

First we get the word of God into us. Initially that involves hearing the word, believing it, and receiving Christ into our lives. As we do so the seed is planted in our hearts and begins to grow. “Faith comes by hearing,” we are told in Romans, “and hearing by the word of God.” If we want to grow we need to get the spiritual nourishment that comes from the word of God. By reading, marking, learning, and inwardly digesting the Scriptures, as the Prayer Book tells us to do, then we will grow in faith and as Christians.

St. Jerome said in about 400 A.D. “If there is anything in this life which sustains a wise man and induces him to maintain his serenity amidst the place, I consider, the meditation and knowledge of the Scriptures.”

We sometimes don’t read the Bible because we believe we can’t understand it. Perhaps we need to go to a more modern translation. Maybe we need to read a paraphrase alongside of our Bibles. Sometimes we don’t read the Bible because we are afraid God might ask us to do something that challenges our current lifestyle or behavior.

If we are to grow as Christians we must get into the word of God and get the word of God into us.

The second way to grow as individuals is to pray. As we submit ourselves to God in prayer, we become more open to the leading of the Spirit who speaks to our hearts, confirms the word of God and provides the living water with in us needed to grow spiritually. Prayer is opening the faucet for the life-giving water of God to refresh our thirsty souls..

Finally, we grow by being in fellowship with other Christians. There is no such thing as a “Lone Ranger” Christian. We need to be with other Christians regularly to talk about spiritual things, to share what God has been doing in our lives, and to gain insights on how to fight the spiritual battles we face. We grow through the encouragement of the saints. The writer to the Hebrews says that we are not to neglect the meeting together of the saints, “as some are in the habit of doing.” We grow spiritually the more we surround ourselves with people of faith and who are, themselves, growing in their faith.

All these things are necessary for us to grow as individuals, but they are also necessary for the Church to grow. As the individual Christian begins to grow together with other growing Christians, the church grows as each person begins to do their part. When we grow as Christians we begin to take our place in the body of Christ, and as each member of the body does his or her part, the work of the church grows. As the work of the church grows we become more effective in reaching those outside our walls.

A growing church also attracts people who sense the life in the parish. They want to come and find out what is causing these Christians to grow. They begin to want what we have. The church is designed by God to grow, just as the seed is designed by God to grow.

We, as St. Anne’s church are called to grow. If we are not growing, we are not fulfilling the Great Commission of our Lord.

Are you growing in your Christian faith and life? What are you doing to help the church grow into what it can become? God causes the growth, but we are to prepare the soils of our hearts, guard the newly growing crops of our spiritual lives, and bring others into the vineyard to be implanted with the word of God and begin to sprout new life.

Today we honor fathers. For many of us our fathers were ones who helped us to grow into what we are today. They nurtured us and guided us. Some of us have lost our fathers, and so today is not always an easy day. At the same time we can give thanks to God our heavenly Father for our earthly fathers whether living our dead, because they have helped us to grow. Let me close with the following story.

Her hair up in a pony tail, her favorite dress tied with a bow.

Today was Daddy’s Day at school, and she couldn’t wait to go.

But her mommy tried to tell her, that she probably should stay home.

Why the kids might not understand, if she went to school alone.

But she was not afraid; she knew just what to say, what to tell her classmates, on this Daddy’s Day.

But still her mommy worried, for her to face this day alone. And that is why once again, she tried to keep her daughter home.

But the little girl went to school, eager to tell them all,

About a dad she never sees, a dad who never calls.

There were daddies along the wall in back for everyone to meet; children squirming impatiently, anxious in their seats.

One by one the teacher called a student from the class to introduce their daddy as seconds slowly passed.

At last the teacher called her name, every child turned to stare. Each of them was searching for a man who wasn’t there.

“Where’s her daddy at?” she heard a boy call out. “She probably doesn’t have one,” another student dared to shout.

And from somewhere near the back, she heard a daddy say “Looks like another deadbeat dad, too busy to waste his day.”

The words did not offend her, as she smiled at her friends, and looked back at her teacher who told her to begin.

And with hands behind her back, slowly she began to speak and out of the mouth of a child, came words incredibly unique.

“My Daddy couldn’t be here, because he lives so far away. But I know he wishes he could, be with me on this day.

“And though you cannot meet him, I wanted you to know all about my Daddy, and how much he loves me so.

“He loved to tell me stories, he taught me to ride my bike. He surprised me with pink roses and taught me to fly a kite.

“We used to share fudge sundaes, and ice cream in a cone, and though you cannot see him, I’m not standing here alone.

“Cause my Daddy’s always with me, even though we are far apart. I know because he told me, he’ll forever be here in my heart.”

With that her little hand reached up, and lay across her chest, feeling her own heartbeat, beneath her favorite dress.

And from somewhere in the crowd of dads, her mother stood in tears. Proudly watching her daughter, who was wise beyond her years.

For she stood up for the love, of a man not in her life doing what was best for here, doing what was right.

And when she dropped her hand back down, staring straight into the crowd. She finished with a voice so soft but its message clear and loud.

“I love you, Daddy very much, he’s my shining star, and if he could, he’d be here but heaven’s much too far.

“But sometimes when I close my eyes, it’s like he never went away.” And then she closed her eyes, and saw him there that day.

And to her mother’s amazement she witnessed with surprise a room full of daddies and children all starting to close their eyes.

Who knows what they saw before them, who knows what they felt inside.

Perhaps for merely a second they saw him at her side.

“I know you’re with me, Daddy,” to the silence she called out and what happened next made believers, of those once filled with doubt.

Not one in that room could explain it, for each of their eyes had been closed, but there placed on her desk was a beautiful pink rose.

And a child was blessed, if only a moment, by her bright and shining star and given the gift of believing that Heaven is never too far.

May we pray?

We thank you Lord for fathers today and how they help us grow. We thank you for the gospel lesson of the seed that you sow. May we grow as individuals in faith and love toward you, and may we grow as a church to accomplish all You would have us to do. May Your Word come alive in our hearts and minds. May we grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head of the Church. May this church grow as more and more people come to know You and to have Your Word planted in their hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN!