Parish Letter 

The new life promised in the Easter message is paralleled this morning by the exciting evidence of seedlings in the newly dug vicarage vegetable plot. Only a small ‘beginners’ affair when compared to the rather wonderful kitchen gardens that exist locally, but none the less a place where we can plant and tend many tiny, lifeless, assorted shapes of seed and watch as God brings forth a rich variety of plant life. In time, we hope that our
labours will produce a harvest of edible goodies – and this hope got me thinking about the Christian life.

To start with there’s the whole problem of sowing seed in our own lives, where we have a dreadful tendency to coast along, doing what we’ve always done and wondering why our lives aren’t remotely as dynamic and radical as Jesus’. Jesus always listened and watched what the Father was doing and then set out to do likewise  - when I actually stop to wonder if I’m in step with the Spirit it’s so easy to find that in reality I’m lagging 10 paces behind!

Then, of course, there’s the challenge of sowing seeds in the lives of others. Not just the general scattering that we do because of who we are as Christians (we’re all called to be salt and light in a tasteless and dark world), but the dedicated and time consuming task of forging relationships with people. A packet of seeds has wonderful instructions for planting and caring for its contents – it will even tell you the time between planting and harvesting. We get to plant our favourite vegetables or flowers; we garden as and when we feel like it; if the crop fails we can choose not to grow it again.

You’ve probably noticed that it doesn’t work the same way with people! Growing a friendship takes time and energy, and sometimes we’ll never know whether we’ve really helped in a particular situation. Even in our own lives, as we muddle along and do the best we can with what we have, it’s often only in hindsight that we can see where seeds have blossomed and come to fruition, often with the help of those around us.

So as we sow and water, plant out or chop back this Spring, let’s do so in our spiritual life as well as our gardens, ever mindful of the Head Gardener who seeks to bring each of us to full ripening only to use our precious seeds to enlarge next season’s harvest.

A man reaps what he sows, so let’s sow abundantly, grow well, and harvest plenty, whether in our personal or our communal lives.                                     Felicity Davies