World Food Sunday & Baptism - October 17, 2021

Recorded Worship from YouTube

Deborah Laforet

Matthew 13:1-9

Live Your Mission

Let us pray.  May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by the Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day.  Amen. 

Do you know what it’s like to put every ounce of ability and energy into something and have it flop miserably? Do you know what it’s like to do your best and find that your best just doesn’t seem to be good enough? Do you know what it’s like to wait for something good in your life to grow and then wait…and wait…and wait?

Today, Pat read us a story about Jesus sitting in a boat in the middle of the sea, speaking to a crowd of people, who I imagine had similar feelings.  His followers had worked hard―really hard―to share the good news, but the message didn’t seem to be sinking in.  They had gone from town to town, sharing Jesus’ life-saving message that justice is attainable, that there are key values like kindness and generosity that, if lived out collectively, could save the world. Yet despite this important message, everywhere they went, they brushed up against people who were too preoccupied, too bored, too self-centred, or too stressed to listen. Each time a door slammed in their face, their discouragement ramped up. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Even though Jesus was sitting in the middle of the sea, it was like he could see into the very hearts of those gathered that day. And in that calm, reassuring voice of his, he told them stories to help them understand themselves and make sense of their life. One of those stories was the parable of the sower:

Some seeds will fall on the path and the birds will eat them. Some will fall on rock and the sun will scorch them. Some will fall on thorns and be choked out. But some will fall on good soil and bear an unbelievable crop.

The Parable of the Sower might have been a pep talk of sorts. It wasn’t the kind you would hear in a locker room, though. It wasn’t about how great they were or how they had the ability to succeed at every turn. It was realistic: Some of the work is going to feel like a waste of time.  Some of it will even be sabotaged.  But keep going, because there will be success. Trust me. Live your mission.

This is a millennia-old message we still need to hear, especially on World Food Sunday, which is also sometimes called the Day to Eradicate Poverty.  This is a tall order and on which people have worked for a long time.

690,000,000 people will go to bed hungry tonight. Think about that. 690,000,000 people aren’t asking, “What will we eat for dinner?”  690,000,000 people are asking, “Will we eat dinner?” And they ask that question night after night. 

Hunger is so pervasive you’d think that the whole earth was made of dust. That no crops could grow anywhere. But there’s nothing wrong with the earth; the problem lies in the choices we make.

Poverty, land grabbing, climate change, the commodification of food and water, conflict and political instability…. The causes of hunger are so complex, so intertwined, so systemic, it’s natural to wonder how you and I are really ever going to make a difference. 

It’s like we are standing on that shore right along with Jesus’ disciples and there are problems as big as the sea itself in front of us.  And even Jesus is sitting there admitting that addressing hunger isn’t easy. He doesn’t sugarcoat the outcome of our work: some seeds just aren’t going to land where we need them to land or create the results we want.

But, he says, some seeds will fall on good soil and the result will be phenomenal.

So live your mission. 

Jesus got in the boat that day and rowed into the sea so he could look at the whole crowd at once, so his voice would carry across the water to each and every one of them, so they would take his parable to heart and hear him say: Live your mission.

Friends, one of the ways we live our mission as a United Church is by sharing what we have through our collective Mission & Service.  As a United Church we endorse the principles of food sovereignty: the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and the right of people to define their own food and agriculture systems. We believe food is a sacred gift from God, manna from heaven. No one should go hungry. 

That’s why from coast to coast in Canada, United Church missions support community kitchens and meal programs, food cupboards, shelters, job training programs, community gardens, and healthy food programs. Internationally, we send food in times of crisis, distribute seeds, fund agricultural training programs and micro-lending programs, and support projects that help small-scale farmers access equipment they need and, in some instances, build infrastructure so they can transport their food to market. The United Church work with partners like ACT Alliance and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to move beyond the charity model by helping to work toward long-term systemic change through respectful partnerships.

It’s true that we aren’t going to solve all the problems in the world, but for some people our support means the world.

The United Church has a fund called Mission and Service.  These funds are dedicated to projects that support the mission of the church, globally and locally.  I’m going to share with you one Mission & Service story of a person in Kenya, Emmanuel Baya, who wanted to help feed the orphaned children of his community. 

YouTube Video

This project is one of many supported with money from the United Church of Canada’s Mission and Service Fund.  This church, St. Paul’s, feels so strongly about supporting these projects and supporting the greater mission of the church, that ten percent of offerings go to support Mission and Service.  That means, you helped support Emmanuel to feed his community and many others around the world and in Canada.  

690,000,000 people may be going hungry tonight, but Emmanuel and the people in that Kenyan community and the thousands of others that Mission & Service partners help aren’t among them.  That’s because they are amazing people, and they are supported by amazing people like you.

This is what happens when we live our mission.

Living God’s mission is like planting seeds―each seed contains the basic material needed to pull off a miracle.  Like Jesus says, when they hit good dirt, miracles grow.

Thank you for all you to do support the mission of St. Paul’s and the United Church of Canada through Mission & Service. Thank you for taking Jesus’ stories into your heart and letting them transform your lives. Thank you for standing on the shoreline like disciples have for millennia listening to the Parable of the Sower.

Now, let’s get to work planting seeds. May the Creator be our sun, the Christ be the sunshine, and the Spirit be the warmth that moves in us, through us, and around us.  Let’s live our mission.  May it be so.  Amen.

Deborah Laforet