There is an old joke about a new vicar keen to make an impact in his village parish. Walking down the street he sees a beautiful cottage garden with an old man working in it. He greets his parishioner and comments “Isn’t it beautiful what God can do with a garden?” to which the old man replies “That’s as maybe, but you should see what a mess it gets into if I leave him to do it by himself.”
Much of what I have written in these blogs, particularly about Martha and Mary or the Protestant Work Ethic, could be misconstrued as thinking that working is bad, and we should all sit and pray so that God can get on with the work. But that’s not true. While God may be able to do the work by himself, God doesn’t like working alone. God likes others to join in. God may in fact be an excellent gardener, but when he created Eden, he put the humans in it to look after it – literally to work and to guard it (Genesis 2:15).
The parable of the seed (Mark 4:26-28) shows us what this partnership looks like in practice. A farmer plants the seed, and then waits for it to grow, which it does all by itself. Presumably he waters and weeds it (although Jesus doesn’t mention this) and then he harvests it.
This is a perfect analogy for our partnership with God in mission. We preach the word, water the seed with our prayer, weed it with our witness, but God makes it grow.
However, we must not lose sight of the fact that this is partnership with God. I meet too many mission workers whose lifestyle reveals that they think God is a silent partner in their work, and that it’s up to them to do everything. Which leads to stress and burnout.
That’s what’s wrong with the old maxim “Be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian on your feet”. It divides mission into two separate spheres, one where I do the work and one where God does. In fact we work together with God in both of them: in working, by constantly seeking God for energy, inspiration and guidance; and in prayer, by seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit as to how we should pray and what we should do.
In short, God wants more help in the garden. He could do it by himself, or we could try to do it for him. But he’d much rather enjoy our company as we do it together. How are you going to work together with God in the coming week?
