Sermon Notes, Pente+4 (Year B)

Title: Seeds of Hope

Seeds are scattered – tossed about carelessly.
Some grow – we don’t know how.

Now, I’m sure some biologist could identify for us the scientific processes that happen…
But still, it happens.
In the dark.
Without us seeing.
Without our understanding.

Life breaks through. Life fuelled by hope.

Planting seeds is a definitive act of hope:
It’s trusting that the seed has some life in it, that it will find the right combination of nutrients in the soil, temperature, water, eventually light: and that it will grow.

We hope.

Definition:
Culturally, we use the word hope lightly – something we desire, an outcome we’re looking for: I hope there’s ice cream.
There can be “hope against hope” – when the desired outcome seems unlikely, yet not impossible: what most Oilers fans were feeling yesterday.


And then there’s the hope that we have as Christians:
Resounding, undeniable, unearthly hope.
The hope – grounds of faith – that God has promised us.
It is a hope that will not let us down: for it transcends earthly limits.

It connects us to Christ, and thus assures us of our promise to resurrection through Christ.
Jurgen Moltmann in book THeOLOGY OF HOPE: Hope and faith depend on each other to remain true and substantial;
a Christian should find hope in the future but also experience much discontentment with the way the world is now, corrupt and full of sin. Sin bases itself in hopelessness.

Thus: our faith brings us to HOPE.

This is the hope, the faith, the assurance that we carry in our beliefs. It is what sustains us, energises us, empowers us.
And: like the seed in Jesus’ first parable: we don’t fully understand it.
That’s okay!!
Because we know it’s there.
Planted; germinating; growing – in our sleeping and in our waking.
We are filled with HOPE because God has planted HOPE in our core.

Sometimes, we forget.
Life overwhelms us – that seed within us feels tinier and deeper than we think can matter.
Like Samuel watching all the men pass by him, and not seeing the chosen one.

Sometimes, we remember.
Like in Paul’s letter where he comments that we walk by faith, not sight.
Not blindly; but with eyes that see the world as the kingdom of God.

And this is our aspiration; our hope.
To see the kingdom of God: that mystery that is so close to us; that is always growing, seeding, expanding: even when we don’t see it.

This is our hope: to have the faith sand hope that the kingdom of God is growing… alwaus growing…
Like the seed in the soil. The dark. The unknown.

For that’s where it is:
Inside us.
Waiting, working, growing.
The kingdom of God is like that tiniest of seeds, just waiting to grow into the largest of plants, of fruits, of vegetables.
The speck of hope can grow into the most nourishing of promises: because God wills it – and because we dwell in hope.

The seed is within us:
Beyond our control:
And fed by our hope.

May we never forget the power of hope; of faith; of God’s ever-living kingdom – bursting forth into the light.