June 2023 Newsletter

It is a week that has gotten way too full. I won’t bore you with the details, but just share that I am busy. What does one do when they are busy? I tend to work faster, but get anxious easier. I tend to want to figure out a way to cross things off my list, while at the same time just stop and “smell the roses.” The roses are not yet growing in my garden, so I am not being literal.

At my last meeting with my spiritual person she began our time together by asking me to look out at a very large tree just outside the window where we meet at the Carondelet Center in St. Paul. She invited me to imagine all the seeds that are produced by that tree. She invited me to remember that the giant tree I was looking at came from just one small seed. She paused, as she is wont to do, and then looked at me and asked what seeds do you come from? What seeds have you sown?

She didn’t know I had preached a sermon about this very idea of “ZARA” (Hebrew for offspring--literally seed) back on May 12, 2010 at the St. Olaf Chapel where I was just finishing up my time as an adjunct Professor of Bible. I preached about how I was the ZARA, the offspring, of so many elders and teachers in my life; my parents, my Sunday School teachers, my High School teachers, my College and Seminary professors. I reminded those who gathered that, as professors, they were planting seeds and some of their students would grow to be their ZARA, their offspring.

It is a weighty thing to think about. How many seeds that one big tree has, and how many seeds each one of us plant that we don’t know that we are even planting. Often times we don’t know who is learning from us, who is watching us, who has been inspired or cautioned by our words and actions.

But all of us have the ability to create ZARA (offspring/seed); we influence the growth of the next generation, as we contemplate who it has been that has planted seeds in us.

This year in our garden we planted second generation pole beans. Quite a few volunteered, but we had intentionally chose some strong ones from last year, set them aside and let them dry and they have come up very strong. Our garlic as well is second generation, as is our asparagus.

This crop is much bigger and stronger than last year. I am hopeful that the seeds we’re planting now in our church, in our youth and in each other, are producing such positive results. I pray that our church is thriving because we are intentional about our witness— what we do and what we say—how we live out our faith.

Okay, that was nice to pause and “smell the roses.” Reflecting on the witness we share together as members of the church and the multiple seeds we are planting together has made the TO DO list less scary and more satisfying. It is all good, and always good to be a church together.