ELCA Women Conclude Convention with Call to 'Sow Seeds'

ST. LOUIS (ELCA) Spreading the gospel is like planting seeds -- some seeds take root, some don't -- and it takes time for rooted seeds to develop, just as it takes time for God's Word to take root in people, especially children, said the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Anderson delivered the sermon at the closing service of the Fourth Triennial Convention of Women of the ELCA, which met here July 8-11 at the America's Center. The organization's three-year theme, "Live God's Justice," was unveiled at the convention amid Bible study, keynote addresses, workshops, business sessions and elections.
As convention participants return home, it's important they share the challenges they heard and share their faith, as if they are sowing seeds, Anderson said. He cited a lesson from the Gospel of Matthew -- the parable of the sower of seeds. The story said some of the sower's seeds die while others take root and multiply.
"We get so fascinated with the problems that the seed encounters the birds, the rocks, the hot sun and the weeds -- that we forget the end of the story where Jesus tells us, despite all the dangers and setbacks, a harvest does occur -- a bountiful one at that -- as much as a hundredfold return," he said.
Faith takes time to develop in children, who often show no "visible effect or change" when they hear God's Word, Anderson said.
"The words are just like the seeds in the parable," he said. "Some of them may be wasted. Some may be choked out by other concerns. But others have fallen deep into good soil. They are not wasted. They are not lost. They are carried around, waiting for the moment when their life-giving power will be released."
Anderson's sermon also addressed the church's anti-racism efforts, a key issue discussed at the triennial convention. He called racism "a great and intractable problem" and likened it to "a seven-headed monster."
"We provide anti-racism training for our leaders in the church, and my experience has been that each time it reveals a deeper layer of prejudice or privilege than I had recognized before," he said. The parable of the sower of seeds "encourages us to drop the idea of getting rid of racism and to substitute the idea of becoming immune to it," he said.
"Racism will always be threatening us, the way our bodies are constantly invaded by undesirable germs or viruses," Anderson said. "But we can build up resistance to it, so that it does not get into our system and infect us. Here again, the process will take time. Antibodies have to develop just the way seeds do. But God's word of reconciliation and peace will gradually have its effect as it always does."
Becoming anti-racist is a struggle that will take time and is not easy, he reminded delegates. "But we have the power of creation on our side, a power as gentle as rain and as powerful as the root that splits the rock," Anderson added.

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