How to Sleep Well at Night

June 14, 2009

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 & Mark 4:26-29

The farmer in the parable was no Gregor Mendel.

Mendel, you may recall, was a Catholic priest & scientist. He studied pea plants to learn how things grow. High school biology students still read about him, I think.

The farmer, by comparison, was a country bumpkin. He was naive & clueless, really, about his crops. He just sowed his seeds (maybe weeded & watered), saw what sprouted, & scratched his head in “aw, shucks” amazement.

We’ll forgive him. For one thing, he lived before the age of scientific inquiry & reason.

For another, Jesus noticed him & asked us to notice him too. Jesus noticed a lot. One of the things he saw was that the farmer slept well at night. He “would sleep & rise night & day.”

* *

That’s no easy feat, as anyone knows who is caught in today’s pressure-cooker workplace. There’s enough stress on the farmer, enough stress about putting food on the table in today’s job market, for everyone to toss & turn in bed all night.

Buzz words abound about maximizing productivity, earning your keep, & adding value to the company’s bottom line.

• New graduates, whom we honor today (& secretly worry for, because of the economy), feel the weight on their shoulders while looking for a place to jump-start a career.

• Established workers who got downsized don’t need me to tell them how bad it is.

• H.R. managers & CEOs with a conscience feel the same way.

• So do retirees, wondering whether to put in an application at Wal-Mart to offset the drop in their 401(k).

• Bankers going after delinquent mortgage holders …

• Families with mounting medical bills …

• Single moms with two jobs & an unemployed ex-husband suing her to reduce his child support payments …

• Pastors & neighbors & relatives & friends of those people …

Virtually everyone has enough to worry about to keep them from sleeping soundly.

Those graduates I mentioned? They listen to commencement speeches telling them to persevere & work hard. Job seekers are advised to network more & better. Soon, any notion of “sabbath” is lost. The idea of rest & taking it easy disappears. Life becomes a grind that runs 24/7. Those that are working get a Blackberry telephone & laptop computer, & take them everywhere, so they can stay connected to the office at night & on vacation. That’s a vacation?

The thought of getting eight hours of sleep uninterrupted goes out the window. Anyone here know what I’m saying?

* *

So what is the farmer’s secret? Well, it doesn’t have to be a secret at all.

He knows he isn’t responsible alone. “The earth produces automate.” That’s the Greek word, from which we get “Automatically.”

The earth produces “by itself” – which means he doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to DO it all, or even know how God does it

He just needs to know that God provides. Of that, he can be sure. Sure that God’s desire is for the wellbeing of all people, & that the earth is fertile enough so there’s food to go around. God’s promised word bears fruit & comes to fruition.

Even a country bumpkin can see that … & sleep well at night as a result.

The farmer trusts God to provide, even in mysterious, incomprehensible ways. And he admires the evidence of that, which sprouts before his eyes, so that he can close those eyes every night, not in panic, but in peace.

“First the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head,” verse 28 says. Our Pilgrim ancestors must have had that line in mind when they sang a harvest song (as we soon will sing), “First the blade & then the ear, then the full corn shall appear.”

The farmer comes to an implicit agreement with God to live not only by the strength of his own hand or by the logic of his own mind, but in heart & spirit – & to say “Wow” in celebration & thanksgiving for God’s creation.

That’s a pretty good trick in our “been there, done that, bored-with-it-all, burnout” culture. I dare say, it enables him to relax & rest easy.

His “wow factor” is intact. He’s able to shout “Gosh!” & “Gee whiz!” & blink twice at the day-to-day changes in his fields. He takes nothing for granted.

If we Christians can’t conjure similar feelings, who can? If we aren’t amazed at the wonders God works – if we can’t see the kingdom of heaven unfolding in our midst, onthis earth – who will? If we don’t trust God enough to be able to turn off the light & sleep well at night, leaving God in charge, what then?

We can’t do it all. We aren’t meant to do it all. But if you leave here today wanting to do just one little thing, let it be that you are determined to say “Wow” at least once this afternoon. At a majestic cloud formation overhead, maybe, or a delicate flower underfoot. Or a tomato vine in your garden that has its first bud.

The farmer is a botany boob. But he understands that some things don’t get better when we try to do them more. Doing too much – overwatering, for instance – only makes things worse. It’ll rot out the roots of your seedlings & wither the leaves on your faith.

A few weeks ago, Aidan M. (a second-grader) gave me a plant he got in Sunday School. Handing it to me, he said, “Make sure you water it. But not too much.” Good advice.

* *

One author I consulted about the parable obviously wanted the farmer to do more – a lot more. He calls him lazy, “even slothful” (Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Cycle B. Liturgical Press, 1996. Page 98).

I guarantee, that writer was never a farmer. Or Presbyterian. Farmers know there are times you can’t do anything but wait, watch, & feel wonder. Then sleep … without being slothful.

Presbyterians, meanwhile, trust the sovereignty of God. We accept that there are things we cannot do for ourselves. Things only God can do for us.

Not that we have a copyright on that attitude. Apparently, Pope John XXIII believed it too. Legend has it that, every night, before turning off his light, he prayed, “The world is in your hands, O God. I’m going to bed.”

Think he had some Presbyterian in him? Or a little farmer? He knew when to let go … & let God.

* *

The parable of the farmer marveling at his crops is good “bedtime reading.” It helps us sleep easy, knowing that God will fill in where our efforts fail.

The story of David being chosen as Israel’s king works the same way, revealing the hand of God at work in mysterious ways. God does wonders that catch us humans off guard. God finds fruitfulness where others see only a young shepherd.

Ditto for today’s Call to Worship, from Psalm 20. It asks us not to rest on military arms (chariots & horses), but to rest in God’s everlasting arms. The best weapons in the world will never help us sleep as well as the assurance of God’s never ending, all-encompassing love.

* *

Now here’s the big payoff: In the Bible, “sleep” can be a euphemism for death.

In 1 Corinthians 15:51, the Apostle Paul writes, “We will not all sleep, but we all will be changed.” He’s talking about death & resurrection. Which puts a new spin on the idea that the farmer would “sleep & rise night & day.”

(By the way, I’ve seen that verse in a church nursery, between a crib & a stack of diapers – “We will not all sleep, but we all will be changed.”)

Jesus not only talked about sleep, but also about seeds. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth & dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Again, he’s not really talking about seeds, but about death & resurrection.

That may be the best reason to sleep well at night. Not only in biology, but in theology, we have it on good authority that God will not leave us lacking.

Farmer … seed … Jesus – the connection is clear. God will provide what we need, & even more than we dreamed, awakening us to new life. God does what we can’t.

* *

Some of our graduates may think that’s silly. They’ve been programmed to work hard, brainwashed into the “you-can-do-it” way of thinking. They’ve been told that personal achievement equals success. Even Nike tells them to “Just do it.”

But I bet a few of their parents, teachers & peers know it was harder than that, more complicated, & are muttering in astonishment under their breath even now:

• “Can you believe he made it?”

• Or “I never thought I’d live to see this day for her.”

• And “What a gift that that particular tutor or teacher showed up just then!”

Seeing them get so far, & bearing good fruit with their blessedly imperfect lives, makes us scratch our heads in amazement. To see them surmount obstacles, challenges, disabilities, setbacks & being held back, so that they arrive at this moment of glad triumph … Or to see job seekers land on their feet, often in a whole new field of work …

All we can say is “Wow! There must be a God!”

* *

Does that mean we’re off the hook & have no obligations? God will do it all?

Hardly. The farmer does a lot – in spite of being called lazy & slothful. He sows seeds in the beginning, watches closely in the middle, & puts in the sickle for the harvest at the end.

Even while much remains beyond human manipulation & control, he knows when – & how – to act. He recognizes that wherever grace is given, a timely human response also belongs.

In the Bible, the sickle & the harvest carry apocalyptic weight. They remind us that a judgment day awaits us all. Time will come when we all will have to account for our what we did or did not do.

So this is just a hunch on my part, partly because I haven’t yet seen that day in person. But my best guess is that those who trust & welcome God’s gifts, & respond to them gladly, rather than trying to go it alone, will sleep best the night before.

And they will wake up refreshed & ready, on that last day.

To the glory of God.