+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.
Text: Mark 4:26-28
Theme: Adam, The Farmer
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Dear friends in Christ Jesus,
You are inextricably connected to the soil. Everyone is. There are no exceptions. But, as the world becomes more urbanized, and our lives become more ensconced in artificial luxuries, awareness and appreciation of our dependence on and connection to the soil is in steady and even precipitous decline. But that that doesn’t alter fundamental realities. Every morsel that sustains you is dependent on the virility of the earth. Furthermore, your father is Adam and your fate is decomposition- back into particles of dust. These are deeper truths.
When the holy God said to the fallen man, “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."1 He was doing more than rendering judgment for transgression and rebellion. Adam had been crafted from the soil and the Almighty breathed into him the breath of life. The decree was that his flesh and bones would now return to the earth from which it came. The Fall affected more than Adam and Eve. God said to Adam, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.”2
The entire creation was maligned by the rebellion of Adam and Eve. Perfectly arranged, interdependent, and harmonious from the beginning, it was now in disorder, disarray, and marked by conflict. Plants and animals were no longer in a state of peaceful equilibrium. Weeds are plants that grow where they’re not needed or not wanted. They compete with, squeeze out, and sometimes overpower the desired crop. They rob the soil of moisture and nutrients. The same thing happens spiritually. Sin is more than a localized or personal predicament. Transgression caused universal dystopia- an environment to live in so dysfunctional as to be frightening and dangerous.
It’s not surprising Jesus used agricultural references to teach spiritual truths. Today He says, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain- first the stalk, then the head…”3 Of, the soil doesn’t do it all by itself. The earth is part of creation. It doesn’t have the power of life. But God works so winsomely and imperceptibly most of the time that we don’t discern His power, His presence, and His purpose in the daily activities of life as we should. Hopefully farmers are a little more aware than those in other vocations?
Adam was a famer by necessity. Some of you may have actually taken it on by choice!
Faming in the Mallee is marginal even in some of the better seasons. Goyder was not far off the mark and it will be interesting to see in the coming years if the prevailing wisdom will be modified. We can’t expect the status of the biosphere to be static. We know in the broader perspective the earth is in decay. We are stewards of creation, but we have no sovereign powers over it. Our frailties and liabilities are intimately intertwined.
In recognition of both our limitations and our needs we look to God. We pray for rain and every blessing. Farming is a vocation of faith. As the need for rain grows more urgent our appreciation of God’s blessings should grow more vivid. Our unreasonable expectations must be tamed by God’s frugality. May God give us the faith to see that even in drought His blessings are generous far beyond what we deserve. We pray “Give us today our daily bread.”4 What does this mean? “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”5 God “sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.”6
Jesus compares Himself to a grain of wheat that falls into the soil and dies7. Unless it dies, unless it ‘sacrifices’ itself, it remains only a single seed. To provide life for others, its own life must be consumed. Of course, it was no figure of speech when Jesus was hung upon the cross. His life was sacrificed to atone for the sins of the world. All of our fretting and praying, our seeding and reaping, our grumbling and rejoicing, our fears and our hopes mean nothing if we’ve lost sight of Him who both created and redeems.
Jesus is risen. He is living. Life will prevail not because we’ll be able to save the world from collapse through human ingenuity, but because all existence is reliant on Him and His life is incorruptible. Just as the fall into sin had consequences beyond the human race, so also, redemption in Christ brings transformation to the whole creation. The Holy Spirit Himself (along with the Father) are incorporeal- they do not have physical bodies. But Christ our Saviour, and all creation connected to Him are physical realities. God is not an idea and His promises are not theoretical.
Of the much anticipated liberation from all the consequences of sin that will be ushered in with Jesus’ Second Coming, the Scripture says, “The creation itself will be itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”8 The restored creation will exceed that of the original. We are baptized into that promised inheritance.
In the centre of that first Paradise called Eden stood the tree of life. About its characteristics we know very little except that on it grew the food of immortality9. It’s no coincidence, of course, that ancient Christians referred to Holy Communion as the food of immortality. In St. John’s description of the new heavens and the new earth, the tree features prominently. “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”10
Adam, the farmer, lived to be 93011 before his body was returned to the dust. It’s highly questionable whether the same longevity will apply to you. It doesn’t matter. Reflect with gratitude on the blessings God has granted you. In resurrected body and perfected restored soul, you will be able to feast with Adam off the tree of life in the new and eternal paradise of God. And imagine what interesting conversations about farming you might have with him!
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
+ In nomine Jesu +
Third Sunday of Easter
5 May 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Genesis 3:19
2 Genesis 3:17-18
3 Mark 4:26-28
4 Matthew 6:11
5 Luther’s Small Catechism
6 Matthew 5:45
7 See John 12:23-24
8 Romans 8:21
9 See Genesis 3:22
10 Revelation 22:2
11 See Genesis 5:5
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