An old story tells of two men climbing a mountain. The one promises the other, who is feeling down and depressed, that it will be worth the effort. Looking forward to the amazing destination, the latter climbs with his friend as they talk and spend time together. When they reach the top, the second man looks around wondering what all the fuss was about. The view is great, but nothing spectacular is waiting at the pinnacle. His friend then explains to him that the journey was not about the destination, but about the climb, their time together, their bonding, their talking, and his healing.

The famous quote, “Life is about a journey, not a destination” has been attributed to a number of authors from Emerson to Souza, but the seeds of this aphorism lie deep within the scriptures. Or perhaps I should say, in the soil. For it’s in the metaphor of the “seed” that we are introduced to this wisdom straight from the mouth of God going all the way back to the Garden.

The “garden” is one of the most amazing and beautiful metaphors in scripture. I like to call it a primal metaphor, the “Ur-metaphor” if you will for our covenant with God and what it means to be people of God, YHWH. Eden is our origin story not just because of our creation but our creation in relationship with God. The scriptures are all about relationships, those we must guard and nourish, and those we must create and cultivate.

The garden is the metaphor for our “us and God” relationship. And we are called both to “till and keep” it, and to “bear fruit and multiply it” throughout cultures and generations. This is both a sacred and practical imperative, because not only is our relationship with God the source of our life, but practically speaking, unless we nurture our relationship with God and then seed the covenant forward generation after generation among everyone we can, God will no longer have a people. The growth of God’s garden kingdom depends upon our acts of “tending” and “seeding.” In our context, we might call that ministry and mission, or more explicitly discipleship and evangelism.

In the story of Babel, God again takes on the metaphor of Sower, and we a metaphor of seed. Sometimes missed or read over in the telling of the Babel story, in response to our walling ourselves off behind a stone enclosure with a watch tower within it, God breaks down our walls, gathers us up, and sows us back into the world, distributing us everywhere, to again put down roots and restore our job of covenant keepers, fruit bearers, and seeders. For we only take this role seriously when we are dependent upon the sovereignty of God. And because, without us fulfilling this role, God will no longer have a people. Our job is not to reach a destination in which we have reached our independent goals, no longer need God, or no longer have a sacred purpose to pursue. Our job as God’s people is to be in a perpetual and life-long process of nurturing, keeping, seeding, and sowing the covenant of God, even as God continues to nurture and grow us as people. The purpose is in the process, not in the destination.

In our scripture for today, Jesus re-explains what it means to be in covenant with God, to be a worker in God’s vineyard, to be part of God’s kingdom. Jesus gives us two clues: 

“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”

“He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’”

I like to call this the “organic gospel.” For we have a simple job. We are both seeds and sowers. We plant ourselves in God’s care, seed our faith deeply in Jesus. And we live our lives growing into that relationship. We “till and keep” the kingdom of God within us, our relationship with God that nourishes us. We mature in our discipleship and grow in our faith, and then we organically and naturally bear the fruit of that relationship in our lives. After that, we serve as sowers ourselves, sowing the seeds (the results of our discipleship and the proclamation of the covenant and of God) of the gospel and planting them into the hearts and minds of people everywhere, including our own children and grandchildren, so that future generations and peoples will also know the glory and wonder of God in Jesus.

This is how the kingdom grows. And it goes against everything we as people like to do as part of our agendas, strategies, and visions.

Jesus knew, and we know too, that at heart, we are a Babel kind of people. We love the destination. We worship the destination. And we want to spend all of our time scheming how to get there. But in doing so, we ignore the most important lesson: that everything in life and in our relationship with God is about the walk. Not about the destination.

Even in our faith, we too often set our sights upon heaven and what will happen after death. But in doing so, we can forget that the most important job we have is what we do on the way, in our lives, in our ministry and mission, in our relationship with God, in our proclamation of the gospel to others, to whom we can give the gift of life, nourishment, salvation, and hope.

We cannot feed the world if We do not plant any fields.

In both of Jesus’ parables today, Jesus emphasizes that the kingdom of God, meaning those who worship God and follow Jesus living in community together, grows by the consistent nurturing, scattering, and seeding of the gospel. But how it grows, how fast, how much, where, and when, is not for us to know or worry about. It just happens. When we remain in process of both nourishing our own relationship with God and seeding that love of God in others, it simply grows without us ever having to think about it. Even what we believe to be the smallest of efforts, or the smallest acts of faith and evangelism, may be planting unknown roots into new places, new hearts and minds. It is not for us to measure by our measuring sticks of success. It is not for us to strategize and make into goals for getting people into our buildings and pews. It is not for us to meter out or to make our own as though a deed or accomplishment will make us better or “achieve” a desired result. Our discipleship is not about results. Of that Jesus is clear.

Our discipleship is meant to grow our hearts in faith, so that numbers, goals, and achievements no longer matter. So that we know that we matter.

Our evangelism is meant to grow others’ hearts in faith, so that they too may experience the wonder and glory of God in their lives too. So that they know that they matter. This is not a selfish but a selfless and sacrificial motivation.

The joy is not in the destination. The joy comes through the walk.

Throughout the scriptures we learn that to live a life of faith, commitment to God and loving self, world, and others, is to “walk” with God through God’s garden life. To walk with God means to live closely in tune with God, to be in step with God, to strive to come closer and closer to God, to allow God to fill us and use us as nurturers and seeders of God’s vineyard/garden kingdom. To walk with God is the ultimate compliment as one living a life in faith and love.

Notice that the scriptures don’t say, reaching God, attaining grace, achieving recognition, growing the church. Even Paul never speaks about growing the church. He only speaks about spreading the good news and loving each other. The growth of the kingdom, the growth of the church, happens organically when disciples and apostles take their role as “nurturers,” “fruit-bearers,” “spreaders,” and “seeders” seriously.

And it not for us to worry about, fret about, strategize about, or attain through our various own means. But God is a God of resurrections. And God raises up churches who are taking their role as fruit-bearers and seeders to heart.

We as the church as called by Jesus today to re-examine our faith and our mission. Perhaps the best way then that we have to challenge ourselves and our churches is to say, “Show me your seeds.” “Show me the fields where you are sowing.” “Show me your love.” “Show me your hearts.” “Show me your faith.” “Show me your walk.” “Show me you can leave the rest to God.”

Or perhaps more simply, “When I look at you, will I see Jesus reflected in your eyes?”

Pure and organic faith, unsoiled by pesticides, unnatural growth techniques, artificial hormones, alien strategies, will grow the most succulent, mature, ripe, and beautiful fruit filled with seeds ready to take root. All we need to do is plant them into the hearts and minds of others.

And leave the rest up to Jesus.

Simple faith. Simple life. Simple mission. Life-giving, organic love. That’s God’s dream for us. Let’s make it our dream too.