SEEDS, PLANTS and SOULS

12 CULTIVATING

Anyone who has sown seeds
will have experienced the satisfaction
of making them germinate and grow
into flowers, vegetables or whatever.

We may treat the seed in some way
to speed up germination;
apply the right amount of water;
add nutrients to give vigorous growth;
and spray with fungicides and insecticides
to keep away pests,
until finally we are rewarded
with a giant marrow or an exotic bloom.

In the process it is rather easy to forget
that we don't actually `make' the seed germinate
or the plant grow,
but rather we help it to grow.
We are cultivators, not creators.
There is no way that we can get a seed to germinate
if it is dead.

I think we often take for granted
the miracle of life that lies within a seed,
and we do not appreciate enough that
what we do to help it grow is insignificant
compared with the life processes
that are going on inside the plant.

Bearing this in mind,
remember that although (as Christians)  
we are commissioned to sow spiritual seed
in other people's lives,
we cannot make the seed grow.
But we can help provide the conditions
to enable the seed to germinate and grow.
In other words,
we can help cultivate the soil
which is the spiritual part of other people,
whether we sowed the original seed or not.

St Paul had this analogy in mind
hen he was writing to the Corinthians.
In his letter,
Paul admonished the new Christians in Corinth
for making divisions within the Church.
Some were saying they followed Paul and his teachings,
 others that they followed a co-worker, Apollos.

"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul?
Only servants, through whom you came to believe
- as the Lord has assigned each to his task.
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it,
but God made it grow.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything,
 but only God who makes things grow.
The man who plants and the man who waters
have one purpose,
and each will be rewarded according to his labour.
For we are God's fellow workers;
you are God's field, God's building.
(I Corinthians 3:5-9)

We still need to act on those words of St.Paul.
Things haven't changed much -
actually, they seem to have got worse.
The number of divisions in the Christian Church
is an awful example to those outside,
with each thinking
it has the monopoly on cultivation techniques, and -
 what's worse -
sometimes thinking they have created
a new, improved cultivar!

Whatever the denomination, sect, group
within the Christian Church,
the seed of Jesus remains the same,
but the cultivators change -
albeit some better cultivators than others.

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