These two readings could leave us with the instruction “Sow the seed and enjoy the result.” These gardening parables will be understood by those who sow and grow flowers and vegetables and hope for the best and enjoy the result. We all know about the Ash Trees around Henley that can grow from a seed, but not a mustard variety, with the potential to become huge in 100 years’ time. 

All very appropriate as we focus on Eco matters this Sunday. In Mark chapter 4 verse 34, as these two parables end, it is recorded that Jesus explained everything to his disciples when he was alone with them. This might be something we wish could happen for us today. Time with Jesus can be ours as he said “I and the Father are one”; we could follow Rowan Williams’s advice and take time alone or with others to “sit still and allow God to find you” as we seek to sow and grow. 

If we were to read all three Gardening parables in Chapter 4 they could be an illustration of our individual Christian experience to remember when and where the first seeds of our faith were sown, how much we have grown in our faith and if we have avoided being “weedy” believers who haven’t developed. We may wish to ask ourselves what is the visible evidence of our Christian faith? That is the fruit and flowers bit. Or as Adrian Plass asked himself: where does my Christianity really happen? Especially today as we face our responsibilities for looking after God’s creation and seek to remedy the wrongs that humankind has allowed. 

The reading from Romans points us to the part of the divine plan where this faith we have in Jesus, that the disciples experienced when he was telling his parables, can be lived out by the work of the Holy Spirit. The chapter starts with that great affirmation of our faith and then develops with the rest of the reading to give us absolute assurance about the eternal future for those with faith, despite the vicissitudes of the life we all experience. In this passage Paul writes about the creation and we could or should allow our personal faith to overflow into our personal concern for the creation as in 2023 we see the need for maintaining and enhancing our existence within it. With Paul’s writings and our witnessing gardening successes should be our encouragement, along with Julian of Norwich who said “All will be well, all manner of things will be well.”

So let our spiritual seed sowing and growing go on, as we rest in peace with our all-loving God. Let us have a spring in our step as we head for eternity to follow our Lord, determined to contribute all we can to save our “groaning” creation, as Paul describes it.