Some of my fondest childhood memories were watching my Grandparents look through their jars and envelopes of seeds on cold winter evenings. Looking at tomato, lettuce, cucumber, and watermelon seeds seemed to create a sense of hope on long winter nights. I remember both the joy of feeling the dirt in our hands each spring as we planted those same seeds in the garden, and the anticipation of the vegetables breaking through the dirt.
My grandfather and I would play pirates as we dug for the potatoes, finding buried treasures. We would share wonderful conversations as we hulled the peas, and snapped the green beans. They are all rich, wonderful memories, and all are connected to life in the garden.
Someone asked me recently how many times garden is mentioned in the Bible, and the answer is 52. It seems only proper to have a garden for each week of the year. The gardens range from Eden, to Gethesemene, to the resurrection. God is actively working through gardens that are planted throughout the Bible.
In April we are going to do a three week sermon series on Life in the Garden. Each week we will explore a part of the garden and how it impacts our lives with God and each other. I invite you to come and roll up your sleeves, dig in, and see what amazing fruit God can grow in your life as you putter around in your spiritual garden. The series will culminate in an Earth Day celebration on April 25.
Happy digging!
~Pastor Kathleen
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Sharing Time with Sharon: Hope
April 2010
“…and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:5
I went walking in Lafayette Square last week. As I write this, we are just on the cusp of spring, and there is more brown than green showing in the park. So I was encouraged by the bits of green shyly peeking out from under a sheaf of dead leaves. This green was slender new reeds of grass poking out of the earth; they looked far too delicate to push through the heavy mass of leaf matter that laid like a heavy blanket upon them.
Yet, these determined little green needles were coming up anyway. This week, they had pushed through the brown blanket, and were standing rather proudly, I mussed, above the dank darkness, reveling in, and being filled by, the warm sunshine.
Hope is like that. It starts as just a tiny seed that, nurtured just a bit by God’s breath, breaks open and begins growing, imperceptivly at first. The darkness actually provides a place where it can be nurtured, until the day it punches through into the light, and God’s presence working in our lives becomes visible to us and others.
The tomb where Jesus was laid was dark. No light reached him. Yet, like tender green shoots of spring, hope was born in the darkness and began to stir. The Apostle Paul declared “hope does not disappoint us”. That is a stubborn and glorious truth of God’s presence in our lives; Hope, planted within us and nurtured by God’s breath, triumphs over darkness. God’s light can permeate any heavy mass under which we have become buried, calling forth something new, resilient, and beautiful to unfold. God’s breath…God’s holy spirit is working within us.
Is there a place of darkness in your life? Invite God’s spirit to permeate it, soak through it, and use it to nurture hope. Because hope will not disappoint. Hope triumphs over darkness. Let this be our prayer as we await for hope to burst into the sunshine.
Grace and peace+
~Pastor Sharon
“…and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:5
I went walking in Lafayette Square last week. As I write this, we are just on the cusp of spring, and there is more brown than green showing in the park. So I was encouraged by the bits of green shyly peeking out from under a sheaf of dead leaves. This green was slender new reeds of grass poking out of the earth; they looked far too delicate to push through the heavy mass of leaf matter that laid like a heavy blanket upon them.
Yet, these determined little green needles were coming up anyway. This week, they had pushed through the brown blanket, and were standing rather proudly, I mussed, above the dank darkness, reveling in, and being filled by, the warm sunshine.
Hope is like that. It starts as just a tiny seed that, nurtured just a bit by God’s breath, breaks open and begins growing, imperceptivly at first. The darkness actually provides a place where it can be nurtured, until the day it punches through into the light, and God’s presence working in our lives becomes visible to us and others.
The tomb where Jesus was laid was dark. No light reached him. Yet, like tender green shoots of spring, hope was born in the darkness and began to stir. The Apostle Paul declared “hope does not disappoint us”. That is a stubborn and glorious truth of God’s presence in our lives; Hope, planted within us and nurtured by God’s breath, triumphs over darkness. God’s light can permeate any heavy mass under which we have become buried, calling forth something new, resilient, and beautiful to unfold. God’s breath…God’s holy spirit is working within us.
Is there a place of darkness in your life? Invite God’s spirit to permeate it, soak through it, and use it to nurture hope. Because hope will not disappoint. Hope triumphs over darkness. Let this be our prayer as we await for hope to burst into the sunshine.
Grace and peace+
~Pastor Sharon
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