Emmanuel Mennonite

On Parsley and Passion

Last Sunday I shared the story of my poor parsley, carefully started from seed, nurtured for several weeks until the seedlings were several centimetres tall, but then neglected without water while I was away at the Assembly and visiting family in Alberta.

When I returned, my tender seedlings were very pale and shriveled looking, lying tangled together in the pot instead of green and healthy and reaching for the light as they had been before. They weren't securely established. In a similar way, my sermon text for last week (Colossians 1:15-29) reminds us that unless we're securely established and nurtured in the faith, we will not be a living and vibrant church, a living and vibrant people.

What I didn't say last week, was that my parsley story wasn't finished.  I watered the poor pale shriveled things--although I'm not sure why, since they really looked hopeless--and I moved the pot from our kitchen windowsill to our outside deck.  Soon there was a green shoot, and now there's parsley in the pot!  Not enough yet to start using it, but quite definitely parsley.

Maybe my original parsley wasn't quite as hopeless as I had thought. Or maybe there was a seed or two that hadn't germinated the first time and was now making an appearance.  But I think of it as an example of the passion that's described in Col 1:29: "To this end I labor, struggling with all [God's] energy, which so powerfully works in me."  This was Paul's passion for evangelism and church planting. My parsley had a passion to grow. What's our passion as a church?  What's your passion?  Living with passion is part of what it means to be a living and vibrant church, and living and vibrant people.