On Reaping What We Sow.

A few days ago I had a pleasant surprise. While I was standing at the supermarket checkout, a lovely young mother of two active boys hailed me by a former name. At first I didn’t know who I was; I didn’t recognise her, for I’d last seen her when she was ten years old. I used to teach ballet, and here was one of my students reappearing to me. This is an example of reaping what we sow.

            Past activities prove to leave a lasting imprint. You might be so busy from day to day that you haven’t time to think about a word carelessly cutting deep, or indeed a moment of praise or support that will bear up another for a long time. You might think you’re engaged in a hobby or have put on a one- time- only party or have just volunteered to help out, to say nothing of being in a line of work that’s going to mark you for the rest of your life, even after you changed jobs or got a new vocation. You might be practicing and think it’s only practice. Yet all of these have the potential for you to reap what you have sown: the bad and the good.

            It doesn’t stop there, though. You might reap what others have sown. This again can be the bad and the good. We acknowledge our debt to those of the past who have left us valuable ideas, institutions, works of art and the public benefactions of our culture. We may show gratitude as we consider our families, the difficulties they faced and the generosity they showed as they passed on to us their attentions, their educations, their friendships, their material goods as well as their genes. We reap what they sowed every day.

            We may also reap what the feckless, confused or malicious among us have sowed whether in moments of distraction or deliberate harm. For example, from the drunken driver who causes a road accident we might reap anything from a broken arm to a grave.

            Entire nations may reap what they have sown. Environmental disasters can result from blind government policies or private greed; diseases can plague the population where the public health is neglected. Even more commonly, nations may reap what others have sown, in the form of economic catastrophes,exploitation, invasions and wars.

            These are seeded not only by other nations but sometimes by individuals. The ministers of governments, most particularly the leaders of governments, bear heavy responsibility for the crop of human welfare or human suffering laid down on their watch. Pious emperors and kings, classed as martyrs of the faith (like Charles I of England or Nicholas II of Russia) have nonetheless bloodied their lands through weakness (disguised as inflexibility), arrogance, and failure of understanding. A glance at the state of the world may see this in play.

            Solomon prayed for wisdom, and was granted it. When rulers pray only for power, the path of wisdom is lost, and many innocent persons reap bountifully of misery.

            If you want to know what the future holds, and what of your own you may reap, take a look at what you are doing today. It will have consequences, both good and bad. And pray that all the powers of this world may be given hearts of mercy and justice. That is, to have a harvest of wholesomeness and peace. Amen.