Gate-Keeping, Seeds, and Responsibility

Over the last twenty years, my parents have done a wonderful job of building a home that our family has grown up in, out in, and in and out of. They decided to build the house, which got them the design they wanted, but left the landscape lacking. The nice new house situated in red Louisiana dirt seemed less than picturesque. So, my Grandfather started throwing seeds. I vividly remember him wearing his coveralls in the Louisiana heat and walking around the backyard while spinning the seed thrower.  Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. The seeds just flew out as he walked and spinned, walked and spinned. This image has stuck with me through the years.

Matthew 13: 3-8

³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

I think the important part of this passage is that the farmer threw the seed. He didn’t pick and choose where to throw the seed; he just threw it. Just like my Grandfather, tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. Walk and spin, walk and spin. He just threw the seed. 

I think that as Christians we often times take on the role of gate-keeping for the church. We’ve ‘gifted’ ourselves with the job of deciding what is and what isn’t. In doing this, we’ve created guidelines and have determined what things/people are ‘supposed’ to look like or ‘supposed’ to be. With the gate-keeping role that we’ve given ourselves, I think we’ve limited our view of where to throw seeds. I think that we trample on The Gift that God has given us - - we miss opportunities to share Love, Life, and Grace with others. We take the role of God by debating, defining, and practicing our theology while imposing our methodologies on others. Is this our responsibility?

Here are my thoughts and questions:

What is my responsibility?

In the movie The Nativity Story (2006) a shepherd timidly approaches baby Jesus. The shepherd reaches to touch Him and then pulls away, as if he wasn’t good enough to touch the King. Mary leans Jesus close to the shepherd and says, “He is for all mankind.”

How am I throwing the seed?

How can I remind myself and others to simply throw the seed? To not focus on gate-keeping who can participate in community, communion, or collective worship - - He is for all mankind.

We don’t make the seeds take root and grow. No amount of our gate-keeping can add to or take away from the Life that God creates in the seed. 

Again, what is my responsibility?

My awesome and talented sister took both of these pictures at our family farm.