Day 13 & 14: Sit by the kitchen & Sow seeds

Today's reading starts out on a grim note: the first section is called "Repent or Perish," which is then followed by the story of a low-producing fig tree that's in danger of being chopped up into firewood. Not very Up With People, I have to say.

What do we do with passages like this, the ones that don't have Jesus smiling benevolently while patting a small child's head? Me, I tend to skip them, or pretend those passages are for other folks...you know, the less spiritual ones, the ones who just don't get it. Then I go smugly about my day feeling proud of myself, quite sure I'm on the narrow path with a fig tree in full bloom.

I think this is part of the reason Jesus includes so many parables, all seemingly pointing in the same direction: we don't understand them all. So he makes a point one way, and then another, waiting for us to catch on. It's like he's saying, "Yo, Trish: YOU don't get it. Pay attention!" (Okay, Jesus probably never said "Yo," but you get my point...)

Here's where I caught on: in Chapter 14 (tomorrow's reading) Jesus gives some practical advice about etiquette and avoiding embarrassment: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

That makes sense to me. When I sit at a table, I'm always thinking: "Who do I want to be next to/across from? Who will be fun to talk to? How do I make sure I don't end up next to the guy who's always trying to get people to join his multi-level marketing scheme?" Jesus says, essentially, "Just sit down. Take the spot no one else will want--the one by the bathroom, on the table corner, in the little kid's chair with the wobbly leg." When we do this, he says, God will invite us to a higher place. Just another piece of counter-intuitive advice on life in the Kingdom of God. But after a few years of trying it out, I can say (in the words of 12 Step Programs everywhere): It works if you work it.

Here's an idea on how to work it. I just read this book. It ends on a really charming note, suggesting that we sow seeds like farmers: not knowing exactly what will happen or when, but trusting God to make something of it. The author named six seeds each of us can sow daily in this spirit:

1. Silence
2. Prayer
3. Love
4. Friendship
5. Fasting
6. Hospitality

I'm going to give that a try. It feels counter-intuitive, as left to my own devices, lean in the opposite direction of almost every one of these. I close my eyes and draw the blinds on the outside world. So today, I'll sow some seeds.

Want to join in? How about this: a 3-for-1 deal! Drop a note in the comments this weekend, letting us know you're here, and say something encouraging to the rest of us. It can be long or short, unique or straightforward. That will count as 3 seeds (love, friendship, hospitality) for a just few short seconds of effort.

Then we wait to see what God does with them :)

In the harmonica-infused words of my favorite band, We could be what we want to see...