This sermon was written and delivered by Sue Sweeney

Last summer, I started a garden. For my first real attempt, I feel like it went pretty well. I started several months ahead of time, building a compost pile and marking out exactly where I wanted to grow herbs, tomatoes, peppers, and okra. I sought out the advice of successful gardeners, I carefully selected seeds and plants and I watered them regularly. Honestly, I spent a lot of time just staring out the windows into my backyard at my plants just thinking about them. I will neither confirm nor deny that I spoke to them like they were listening. They received a lot of my attention and I enjoyed it immensely. From what I understand, tomatoes are a bit fickle in our hot Texas heat and I was able to grow and harvest them before they were all stolen by animals. I was pretty darn proud of myself. 

Let me tell you about my garden this summer. Things are growing even better than they were last summer. One might even call it lush. Lush and verdant. Plants are growing tall and strong. 

Unfortunately, there aren’t any vegetables and herbs growing well in my garden this summer like there were last summer, but everything else seems to be thriving. That’s right: I didn’t grow any vegetables, just a bunch of weeds. I didn’t pay attention to my garden, but it doesn’t mean nothing was growing. Something was growing all right, it just wasn’t vegetables. This summer, I had a bumper crop of weeds. 

How often do we reflect on our lives as another season comes to a close and ask ourselves, did I see any growth? Did I reach the goals I had for myself? Am I in a better place than I was several months ago? This summer preaching series called “Rooted,” we’ve learned about how we can know God better through four sources: scripture, experience, reason, and tradition. Did you feel like you were growing? Did you notice?

The truth is, we’re always growing something, whether we’re paying attention to it or not. God is always growing something in us, whether or not we take the time to notice.

Let’s take an inventory of what is growing!

Join us Sunday as we reflect on how God has been working in our lives during this season.

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