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PRESBYTERIAN
SUMMER 2021
presbyterian.ca
Connection
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Sleeping While the Kingdom Comes
By the Rev. Amanda Currie, former moderator, and minister at First Presbyterian Church in Regina, Sask.
As my extended term as moderator comes to an end, I must admit that I’m feeling pretty tired. I remember one former moderator telling me that after his term ended, he and his wife went on a great trip to celebrate and relax. Due to the ongoing COVID situ- ation, travel is not likely for me, but I’m looking forward to a good rest.
After the last year and a half, I don’t think I’m the only PCC minister who could really use some downtime this summer, some good rest and a lot of extra sleep. If you were thinking that you’d hold on until the pandemic is completely resolved and then take a holiday, please don’t try to do that. It’s not a good plan.
If you need some biblical backing for taking a holiday, just think of the commandment to keep the sabbath. Or remember Jesus’ words in Mat- thew 11:28: “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Or if you’re following the lectionary this month, pay close attention to the gospel text for June 13 (Mark 4:26–34).
The well-known parable in the passage is the one about the Reign of God being like a mustard seed. It looks tiny and insignificant at first, like it couldn’t make a difference in the world. But when it is planted in the ground, it grows. It grows and grows into a big tree with large branches, and it becomes a safe haven for all the birds of the air.
I know you’ve heard that par- able many times before. The folks
at Presbyterian World Service & De- velopment love to use it for PWS&D- themed Sundays. It reminds us that tiny gifts can grow into something with a big impact, bringing help and hope to people in crisis in faraway lands. It reminds us that individuals and little congregations, often with few resources, can make a differ- ence when they give generously from what they have.
The main message we tend to pick up about the mustard seed is that God can do great things with our small contributions. And that usually leads to the conclusion that we’d bet- ter start making some small contri- butions. Give some money. Volunteer some time. Make an effort to pray. Pitch in and help somehow. It’s not up to us to do it all, but we are called to do something for sure!
But there’s another parable in the passage that often gets overlooked: Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” Yes, the gardener goes to sleep.
Just think about the alternative. That would be a gardener who works day and night without any rest. She doesn’t leave her garden. She hov- ers over the seeds and the sprouting plants. She worries over the weather and frets over the wildlife around that could potentially interrupt the grow- ing process.
Some people say that talking to your plants can help them to grow, but too much attention can actually backfire in many cases. Like when some of us overwater our plants or
fiddle around so much with the soil and the leaves and the stalks that we actually cause them damage. It re- minds me of the figurative “watched pot” that will not boil. Or it’s like a soufflé that falls because you keep opening the oven door to check on it. The message for us today could be: “Leave it alone and take a rest. It’ll be okay.”
Those among us who are students may relate to the temptation to keep studying through the night. You’ve got a big exam in the morning, and an all-nighter seems like the only way to cram all that information into your head. But former students know that it rarely works. Study hard. Stay up late if you need to. But then go to bed. Sleep. Let your mind rest. And you’ll have a much better chance of success in the morning.
I’m pretty sure the same thing ap- plies to our ministries in the church. After the hectic pace of the last two years, I need a good rest this sum- mer. After ministering through more than a year of pandemic, I expect that you do also. Take to heart the good news that, once you scatter the seed that you have been given, you are welcome to go to bed at night.
There’s a certain amount of trust involved in going to sleep. You’re not going to accomplish a lot of tasks while you’re asleep. You won’t be able to control what happens while you’re unconscious. You’ll have to let go and let God.
When it comes to gardening, you have to trust that there won’t be frost, and that rain will fall and that the sun will rise in the morning. Your job’s not done yet, because harvest-time will come. But in between, you’ll have to
trust that the plants will grow without you supervising and micro-managing their progress. We need to trust God about our ministries, too. We do our best to scatter seeds, and then we rest. We trust that God will produce the growth, and we prepare ourselves for the next phase of our work.
As always, we can take Jesus as our example and guide, following his lead in ministering to God’s people. Remember Jesus’ busy ministry? Remember the crowds and the peo- ple seeking healing? He worked hard and had long days, but then he rest- ed. He snuck away to solitary places to pray and be renewed in strength. He ate food and laughed with his friends. He accepted the care of a woman friend who anointed him with costly perfume.
And did you notice that Jesus didn’t get all his work done? You thought you were the only one! They lined up at his door, looking for heal- ing, and he helped as many as he could. But there would always be more sick people to heal, more lonely people to befriend, more outcasts to welcome, more confused people to teach, more proud people to cor- rect. And the offer of salvation to all people, the promise of God’s Reign being made complete, did not come
through the tireless efforts of the earthly Jesus. It was accomplished by God, somewhat mysteriously, and certainly unexpectedly, while Jesus slept.
In the course of his ministry, Je- sus scattered a lot of seeds. Seeds of healing, seeds of teaching, seeds of mercy, gracious welcoming and loving. But when he was rejected, betrayed and denied, he didn’t keep on fighting the good fight. He gave up his life, he died and was buried. Like a seed being planted in the ground. And that’s when God did the amazing thing that extended God’s grace to all people. While Jesus slept, God raised him up to live again!
He was like a plant growing up from a tiny seed to become the tall- est tree with big leafy branches, cre- ating a resting place for all the birds, offering healing, teaching justice, proclaiming and enacting God’s gra- cious love and welcome not just to some people, but to all the people in every time and place. And we are among those people. We are among those figurative birds who are given a home and a resting place among the big leafy branches of the tree that is God’s kingdom coming on earth. We are invited to trust God, and to rest there awhile.
Cutting Edge of Mission Award Recipient:
Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
Each year at General Assembly, an award is given to recognize a person or group for their work on the cutting edge of mission. The year’s recipient of the Cutting Edge of Mission Award is the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking.
Julia Drydyk, Executive Director, received the award on behalf of the Centre and gave a brief introduction to the organization’s work. She explained
that human trafficking in Canada is occurring at shocking levels. It is a low-risk, high-reward manipulative crime that demands sophisticated, coordinated and integrated solutions.
Established in 2016, the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking was created to demand a national strat- egy for change by collaborating with various stakeholders—including all levels of government, private sector
organizations and front-line service providers—in order to advance best practices and to best serve victims and survivors of this crime.
In 2019, the Centre launched the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline to provide an avenue for victims and survivors to receive the trauma-in- formed specialized support that they need and for community members to repor t incidents of suspected hu-
man trafficking. The Centre continues to work with Canadian law enforce- ment agencies to develop referral and repor ting protocols that are par t of the anti-trafficking response network used by Hotline Response Advocates when assisting victims and survivors.
To learn more about the Cutting Edge of Mission Award, including past recipients, visit presbyterian.ca/ cutting-edge.