大象传媒

From Paul Oxley, vicar of St Mark鈥檚 in Milton Keynes:听
I鈥檓 recovering from an embarrassing moment over the weekend. Always eager to win a prize, I鈥檝e instigated some competitions at church, one of which being: 鈥渨ho can grow the largest Pumpkin by October鈥�. We planted our pumpkin seeds a while back and have been cajoling our fledgling plants ever since. Over the weekend we had friends over for the afternoon. One, a pumpkin rival, spotted my plant on the patio. 鈥淥h鈥�, she said, 鈥淢y plant鈥檚 much bigger than that鈥濃��I ignored this, assuming it was simply mind games. 鈥淎ND鈥︹�� she continued鈥� 鈥淚ts leaves are different鈥�.听
She showed me a picture. Her leaves are different. It turns out, that for the past 4 months, I have been carefully cultivating a weed. I mean鈥�I鈥檝e planted it in premium compost. I鈥檝e sheltered it on frosty nights. I鈥檝e given it pride of place on the patio and watered every night of the heatwave. I鈥檝e even repotted it! All this effort for what is in all probability nothing more than a highly pampered dandelion鈥�.though, I hasten to add鈥�a MASSIVE dandelion! Of course it is! It has the must luxurious soil of any plant in our entire garden! And that鈥檚 the point! Forgetting my horticultural ineptitude for a moment鈥�the soil is the key. Jesus made this point once in a story about a farmer who scattered seed liberally across good soil, bad soil and rocky paths.听
The end of the story was a surprise to nobody. The crops only thrived in the good soil. The weeds sprang up everywhere鈥�cos weeds don鈥檛 need indulging, they鈥檙e happy in even the worst of conditions. My neighbour is a master gardener and spends vast amounts of effort on preparing and caring for the soil in his boarders. He and my dandelion make me wonder if this is not the secret buried in Jesus鈥� story. The soil matters. The culture matters. The atmosphere matters. Division, hatred, scare-mongering, racism鈥�well those weeds can spring up anywhere, and sometimes people even cherish them as if they were valuable plants. But to grow hospitality, welcome, love and joyfulness, well that requires good soil, and maybe it鈥檚 incumbent on me to help create those conditions? Otherwise all we鈥檙e left with are prize-winning weeds. And they鈥檙e good for nothing!