Sermon, 13 July: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

When I was little, I knew exactly what my life was going to be like: career, family, location, all of it. It was a great plan, the stuff of movies and modern-day-fairy-tale children’s stories. And every time I started to talk about the plan, it got a little bit bigger… By the time I was 10, it had grown from the 5-year old’s “I wanna be a lawyer!” to “I’m going to practice corporate law at the international court in the Hague”; from “I wanna get married” to “I’ll be married by 22, to a lesser Noble, and we’ll live on his estate in England.” Yup. Typical kid stuff, really. Not fully understanding what my dream was growing into, not really knowing even what those words implied, not really having a clue that I was actually saying words to please someone else.

Every time I talked about the plan, though, I got the same response from the adults in my life: “Why not? You have the potential. You can make that happen.”

WOW. Potential! That’s great! Exciting – invigorating. One minor proviso: at 5 I had no idea what “potential” meant. The definitions I got went along the lines of “ability to make it happen’. While not inaccurate, I was still in the land of magic wands and fairy dust. Potential? Sure. If I have enough potential  - likely a type of magic powder or a spell or what have you, one that makes things happen exactly as I had planned – then I can keep the story growing and growing, right?

So enter reality. Potential. Not a magic wand or incantation. Not the limit of what defines someone. And – this is important – not a measure for success or failure.

In my case, if I were to measure how my life is going based on the dreams of the child, based on the potential I was told I had as that 5-year old… well then my life is a total failure.

Again- enter reality. My life is NOT a failure. I have a career I love, in a place I adore, and am surrounded with such amazing friends and family that I couldn’t wish for more. I am able to love and serve God in ways that I never expected – I am able to engage in the community in meaningful, energizing ways. I can even vacation with friends in extreme situations – and LOVE it – in places and formats that weren’t even on my radar as that 5 year old. So… failure? Not at all. Success? I think so!

Here’s the reality about potential. When I was 5, dreaming of tiaras and legal documents (I always have been weird!), I had the potential to do that – but I also had the potential to be a parish priest. I had the potential to become someone who loves canoeing. I had the potential to be the type of friend that others want to be around.

I had all sorts of potential as a child, just waiting to come out of me and grow.

Or, to come out of me and NOT grow.

The potential to be a lawyer? I tried some classes, I journeyed in that direction – and learned it wasn’t for me. The potential to marry that English Noble? Well that’s not really potential, is it? That’s more of a fantasy.

Potential – true potential – is something that refers to an as-yet unrealized ability. It’s something that’s there, that can be brought out. BUT – someone’s potential is not just going to pop out and happen on it’s own. No, it will take work, and care, and attention. Like a seed, really.

A seed has the potential to grow. Every thing that a seed will become – a bean, a tomato, a zucchini, whatever – everything of what will be can be found within that first tiny seed. It’s entire potential is lying there inside. But the seed, as we know, needs external involvement. A seed needs to be planted – whether it’s scattered or placed in rows or individually cultivated in a window box. It needs to have the nutrients of the soil, the right acidity, the right dampness, the right sand-to-clay ratio. It needs water – not too little, not too much – let’s not go there right now!. It needs the sun, or shade; heat, or coolness; space for broad roots and runners, or close rows for companion plantings. Each seed will look ifferent, will need different things, and will produce different harvests. Some seeds will do better than others – but they will all grow. They will all produce. They will all realize that potential that has been in them from the start.

Admittedly, of course, we don’t expect that growth all at once. It’s not like we drop a pea on the earth one day and the next day there’s a full plant weighted down with pods. That type of growth only (seems to) happen with cucumbers and zucchinis. No – the growth, the realizing of a seed’s potential, takes time. It takes constant growth. It takes some trimming back, some staking, some weeding. But it will grow, and develop new realities at each stage of life.

This is how we too are kind of like seeds. We have all sorts of potential within us. But, we have different needs – we too need to be nourished, cared for, planted. We need to receive various gifts that help us break out of our seed so that we too can grow. And we too will realize our own potential, like the growth of a seed, a little at a time, at our own pace and ability, no matter what others expect of us. Our ministry is inside us, waiting to come out, constantly growing and developing until such times as we are ready to bear fruit.

This is the relity of ministry: it’s a process. It takes time and effort. It takes attempts and failures. It takes risks and hopes. It takes faith. But when we can combine the potential that God has placed within us, with our energies and skills and abilities, we can flourish. We can produce. We can go out and live out faith through active ministry in God’s world. When God wills it, God will make it happen. It may surprise us; we may recognize potential for something new at any stage of life, it may not be quite what we were expecting. But it will benefit the kingdom, in large ways and in small; in quick ways and in long-term development.

What we offer, when we live out our potential, is our produce – our fruit. What we offer is the harvest for the kingdom. And we certainly know about harvest: sometimes it’s a great year, sometimes it’s not. But there is always a harvest. Whether our seeds return a hundred-fold, sixty-fold, or thirty-fold, they do return a harvest, a surplus, a reward for the planting. They do surprise us with the explosion of potential that has come out in the world.

And that, in terms of the parable, is what Jesus wants us to know. Sometimes, our ministry will make us feel like there is much fruit – a hundred times more than what we started with. Sometimes, we may feel like our ministry isn’t doing what we want it to – we’re barely getting a thirty-fold reaction. BUT – Jesus wants us to know that 30-fold is not a bad thing! It’s still 30 times more than what we had to start with – it’s 30 times more ministry, more fruit, more faith. Jesus NEVER says that the return on the scattered seeds will be zero. Because he wants us to know that our ministries are always woth it, are always full of potential – even if we don’t see or recognize it. The kingdom of God is a place where the realization of potential is celebrated – where the multiplied fruits of our labours are shared – where the harvest of the crops become a feast where everyone can join together in an abundance of grace. The kingdom of God is a place full of potential – but only because it has been lived out in this realm, in this time, in this opportunity for ministry. The feast in the kingdom is possible because of the scattered and hopeful potential waiting inside all of us. So let’s get out there and scatter seed – plant ministry – prepare for growth – with the hope and belief that what we offer to the glory of God will land in the good soil, will not be crowded out by thorns, will not be victim to drought or flood – but will be tended, cared for, watered, and appreciated by those who come after us. Let’s live our ministries knowing that God will make them grow in the world around us that we might all share in the harvest for the Kingdom’s feast.