ROOTED IN FAITH
BY CARLA HARRIS
October 10, 2021
Last week when I was asked to be a stewardship speaker my internal introverted self squeaked and said oh no, not stewardship and not first! But I promised to ponder the request for a bit before I answered and here I am.
I was asked to speak about what it means to me to be rooted in Faith. The word rooted immediately made me think about the garden and that made it a little easier to say yes to the request.
The garden is a comfortable place for me where I have had many conversations with God. Thankful conversations when I am awed by the beauty of the humming birds or the flowers and what is good in my life or frustrated, angry conversations when I am yanking out weeds or other unwanted plants with maybe a little more force than necessary because things aren’t so good.
If I continue with the metaphor of the garden I am drawn down into the roots. Planting a garden is an act of faith. I put my seeds or young plants into the ground and hope and pray they will survive, flourish and produce some tasty fruits or vegetables or some beautiful flowers or herbs. Then there is the waiting time when not a lot is visible from above but below, in the cool moist darkness of the soil a lot is happening. All plants from the biggest trees to the tiniest flowers need strong healthy roots to grow and thrive. Without a strong root system trees blow over and plants wither. And so it is for my faith. My seeds of faith were initially planted when I was a child and over the years that garden of faith has been dug up and replanted many times.
My spiritual garden needs just as much tending as my physical garden to keep my faith roots healthy and strong. Being rooted in faith for me means keeping my spiritual soil healthy. The many months of pandemic has made that a lot more difficult. We have all had to learn new ways of worshiping and being connected to our faith community when the ways we know and love and feel most comfortable with are not available.
If I think of God as my sacred soil and my faith as roots I am more likely to bloom where I am planted as the saying goes. A pandemic or a spiritual drought, a wind storm or anything else that I can imagine cannot separate me from God. Each one of us here is rooted in the sacred soil we call The Church of St Martin. We are all responsible for tending each other and enriching our sacred soil so that we as individuals and as sacred community will have strong healthy roots that will keep us strong and steady no matter what.
It might not seem like the right time of year to be talking about planting a garden but all good gardeners know that fall is a really busy time when we clear out the old and prepare our soil so it is healthy and ready to receive new plantings in the spring. That is what we must do with our spiritual soil as well. Its time to look at what will enrich our spiritual soil and foster deep healthy roots of faith. For me, prayer, worship and staying connected to this community in lots of different ways are a kind of spiritual miracle grow. What works for your garden?
