Seeds of Faith

My topic today will be the Seeds of Faith. In 1857 Wendelin and Julianna Grimm and their three children moved from Germany to a farm near Chaska, Minnesota. Wendelin carried with him a sack of alfalfa seeds….about 20 pounds of seed. He knew from his farming background that the alfalfa plant could not survive the long, cold winters of Germany and Minnesota. That basic fact of farming is called winterkill. In those days you had to harvest the alfalfa seeds each fall and store them in a warm place and plant them the following spring. And that was very time consuming and labor intensive. So much so that a family could plant only a few acres per year. Wendelin came up with a plan to create a winter hardy variety of alfalfa. He let the alfalfa plants stand in the field during the winter. During the summer he marked the plants that survived the winter. He took the seeds from those plants and planted them the following year. He followed that procedure for 20 years and the plant that resulted was a winter hardy plant. It was called Grimm’s alfalfa and it led to an enormous growth for the dairy industry in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Cows need the protein that is found in alfalfa and the dairy industry owes its success to Mister Grimm and his alfalfa. The winter hardy element of alfalfa was in its seed the whole time. It just needed Mr. Grimm to unlock it for us.

Now I will focus on people who discovered the seeds of faith deep within themselves. I will begin with Jane Fonda. She was in the news this week because she wrote a very personal and touching tribute to honor Dolly Parton, her very close friend. Jane was raised with no religion and grew up as an atheist. She became a famous actress and used her career as a launching pad for expounding on her secular value system. But 25 years ago a family crisis led her to look deep within herself to find a deeper meaning and purpose for her life. Her search led her to discover the seeds of faith that brought her to announce that Christianity had become her spiritual home. I use her story as an illustration of how God has planted the seeds of faith in each person.

Today’s First Reading brings us a lamentation from Jeremiah. He feels tricked because God called him to be a prophet but God did not say that the job would bring him insults, pain and rejection. He frequently said to his friends, “God is very upset with you because you tell lies and steal things from the stores in the marketplace.” They responded by mocking him and laughing at him as we heard in today’s reading. And they refused to include him in their circle of friendship. Jeremiah tried to stop delivering messages from God; but he had the seeds of faith inside him and he could not hold back. A few weeks later the people saw Jeremiah walking up and down the streets of Jerusalem carrying an ox yoke on his shoulders. He was saying, “Soon our city will fall to the Babylonians and we will be wearing the yoke of slavery.” His enemies said, “You are very wrong. Our city will not fall because we have strong political alliances and our allies will protect us.”

“No. No.” Jeremiah said. “Your city will collapse because you are worshipping false gods and the one true God will not protect you from the enemy.” They captured Jeremiah and threw him into jail; but he escaped and went back to preaching. He purchased a pottery jar and asked some of the elders to walk with him to the city gate. Then he purposely smashed the jar with a hammer. The elders asked him, “Why did you break the jar?” Jeremiah said, “The Lord has told me to tell you: I am the Lord, thy God. I will break my people and I will break this city because my people have abandoned me and now offer sacrifices to other gods. They shall be like this broken jar which cannot be put together again.” Then they threw Jeremiah into a cistern; but he escaped and went back to preaching. Jeremiah’s message was very unpopular; but no one could intimidate him or stop him from proclaiming the Word of God. God had sown the seeds of faith into his heart and he was loyal to his faith.

Moving on to today’s Gospel. Jesus is scolding Peter after praising Peter in last week’s Gospel. Last week Peter had a strong faith and he was the only disciple who said that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus praised him for proclaiming the truth. In today’s Gospel Jesus says that he is the suffering Messiah: that the elders, chief priests and scribes will cause him to suffer greatly and put him to death. Peter responds by saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing will ever happen to you!” Then Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are right in saying that I am the Messiah but you are wrong when you say that I am not the suffering Messiah.” Then Jesus tells his disciples that they too will suffer. He says to them, “If you wish to come after me you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” In today’s Gospel Peter lost contact with the seeds of faith that God had planted in his heart. But there is another chapter to Peter’s story. And another and another. During the Last Supper, Peter said that even if everyone else fell away he would never deny Jesus. On that very same night Peter denied Jesus three times.

When he was warming himself by fire in the courtyard Peter told the servant girl that he did not know Jesus. Then he told a bystander that he did not know Jesus. One hour later he told another bystander that he did not know Jesus. Once again Peter had lost contact with his faith. After Jesus rose from the dead he met up with Peter by the Sea of Galilee. He questioned Peter three times and three times Peter said, “Lord, you know that I love you.” Peter turned his three denials into three statements of love. And Jesus delegated him to be the leader of his flock and to tend his sheep. I will close with this thought: The faith journey of Peter contains such an important lesson for us. If you lose contact with the seeds of faith within you…… Do not panic! Your faith journey will have its ups and downs but the seeds of faith were planted deep inside of you by our loving Creator. You can always get back to being a faith filled person…… As Peter did time and time again.