Throwing seeds around

 
There’s something satisfying in the smell of freshly mown lawn.  That green stretch of grass that lusciously fills our yards and breaks up the monotony of cement sidewalks is beautiful to behold.  But it takes a lot of work and a lot of seeds.  There’s aeration and raking and watering, and weeding, and heaven help you if you have dandelions, creeping Charlie or fairy rings.

There are neighborhoods where someone has decided to be, shall we say, more creative and less conventional in their yard.  The first time people decided to landscape their front yards with rocks or low-maintenance plants or even vegetable gardens, they were seen as odd and eccentric.  But for folks in BC this week, those creative landscapers might be the only ones happy with the state of their yards.  BC has a severe drought happening right now, and they aren’t the only ones.  The Southern US is suffering record-breaking heat waves and a heat warning alert was issued in of all places, the Yukon and Northwest Territories this week.  Even the Antarctic is seeing record-breaking temperatures in July despite it being the middle of winter for them. Wow.

Back in the 1980’s David Suzuki came and spoke to a teacher’s convention in Edmonton and told the teachers that human beings are very similar to frogs.  If you try to put a frog in a pot of boiling water, naturally, it will do everything it can to get out of the water.  But if you put it into a pot of room temperature water, and turn the heat up slowly, the frog will not jump out of the water even when it is dangerously hot.  The frog will boil to death.  Suzuki then went on to talk about greenhouse gasses and global warming, and of course he was treated as an alarmist who didn’t know what he was talking about. His words were like seeds that fell on rocky ground.

Fast forward 30 years and our glaciers are shrinking, the Antarctic ice cap is melting, the polar bears are starving because the ice they need to get to the seals is disappearing, and we still ignore the warnings of climate scientists.  Our politicians don’t have enough support and trust from the public to make the tough decisions that are needed to keep us frog-like humans alive. 

There are signs though that some of Susuki’s seeds were heard here and there.  There are more electric cars being driven even in Athabasca and Fort McMurray.  One enterprising fellow has enough solar panels on his farm that he is able to charge his car and was able to drive it all the way to Calgary and back.  The University of Alberta is discovering that sheep love paddocks with solar panels and still find enough forage, and one farm is growing a bumper crop of spinach under its solar panels.  Speaking of solar panels, where would you guess the largest solar panel farm in Canada is located?  Near Lethbridge, Alberta, yes, this very province!  It will produce as much energy as a nuclear power plant and covers the equivalent of 1,600 Canadian Football League fields.  That could be a lot of spinach and sheep as well!

So not every word of climate crisis has fallen on stony paths, as Jesus said.  Some seeds have put down roots, others are being choked by the conspiracy theorists, and others have been eaten by people who disparage any efforts to make a difference.  You know, the kind of people who say we can’t buy into solar energy because the rare metals are causing more environmental problems than the oil industry. Or that electric cars will never be practical in Alberta because of our long cold winters. They preach apathy and status quo while waiting for the perfect solution to be gift wrapped to us and handed over on a silver platter.  Something that will be easy and free.

In other words, they are holding out for a perfect lawn and don’t want to do anything other than a perfect lawn.  And they condemn anyone who has a dandelion or a fairy ring or an ant hill messing with their beautiful turf.

How does this relate to our scriptures today?  Jesus talked about the words of hope being choked by the weeds of the cares of the world and the lure of wealth.  This is as true today as it was in his day.  Only he didn’t have 24-hour news channels broadcasting the cares of the world.  He didn’t have scientists and flat earthers debating on social media. 

He did preach gardening to fishermen who were on the brink of starvation.  There’s a boat that was found by a team of archaeologists that dates back to around 50 AD when the Galilea lake was experiencing a drought.  The boat was covered in repairs and patches and damage.  There was no money for a replacement boat for the likes of Peter, James and John.  Thsee fishermen were competing with Romans that were depleting the fish stocks and threatening their livelihood with extinction.  That’s why the many stories of Jesus saying, “throw your nets on the other side”, were so important to them. 

Jesus taught that when we talk about things like our faith, or our concern about global warming, we are not to worry about how those words are received.  Some words will fall on deaf ears.  Some words will fall on angry ears and we know to walk away from those conversations.  But some of our words will land and take root and turn into action.  It takes deep spirituality to find the resiliency and hope to face our world.  It takes bold discipleship to have the courage to speak up and scatter our seeds to plant our imperfect lawns.  And it takes daring justice to chose ways to live with respect in creation in wise , loving and hopeful ways.  May we find time this summer to be deep, bold, daring seed planters for the sake of the God who created us and created this beautiful world that God so loved.  Amen.