Peterson Toscano's A Musing

Seeds Within

Alex has gotten me to think about seeds this morning. In a beautifully written post entitled Serenity, (which I know Alex knows is more than a feeling, but also a spaceship filled with friends caring for each other even when they don't fully understand the journey they are on), Alex shares some of his faith journey and the many times he tried in vain to un-christian himself. Something kept bringing him back.

Some people are hardwired for God. Perhaps all of us all in some way but it shows itself in many different ways (even through Karaoke!)

I love that idea of the seed in us. The thing is, sounds like it has always been there for Alex.

After a submersion in cold water in the chapel besides the home of my childhood I stood in front of the parish and sang a song called "Jag har beslutat att följa Jesus"/"I have decided to follow Jesus". I remember how I asked what "beslutat"/decided meant. It is a word more like determine in swedish but means roughly the same. I remember how I felt that I didn't mean what I sang. I hadn't decided to follow Jesus. I had always been a Christian.

As we say in the Quaker world, "that of God is within you."

I've always felt moved by this passage of the Bible and more so today,

Ni har accepterat sanningen och därför kan ni nu ha en uppriktig kärlek till varandra. Ni har renats från själviskhet och hat genom er tro på att Kristus kan frälsa er. Se därför till att ni verkligen älskar varandra innerligt och helhjärtat.

Ni har ju blivit födda på nytt, inte till ett liv som era föräldrar skänkt er, utan till ett nytt och evigt liv. Och detta liv kommer från Kristus som är Guds levande ord som består.
(1 Petrusbrevet 1:22-23)

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Peter 1:22-23)

The passage doesn't rail us about the bits between our legs and what we do with them. Rather it highlights obeying the truth which leads to a sincere love for each other (brothers AND sisters!) Lots of people might jump in, but it says it is through the Bible! Actually, the New Testament was not even "completed" at this point. I believe the writer of the scripture is speaking more of the word of God as it is gets revealed to those who sit and listen for it as well as the clues we can get from written texts.

George Fox spoke of the seed planted in us that can grow. Speaking of the seed, George Fox writes:

All dear Friends everywhere,
who have no helper but the Lord, who is your strength and your life,
let your cries and prayers be to him,
from whom all your help and strength comes;
who with his eternal power, has kept up your heads above all waves and storms.
Let none go out of their habitations in the stormy time of the night,
whose habitation is in the Lord;
let everyone keep his habitation,
and stand in his lot, the seed, Christ Jesus, to the end of the day.
There is the lot of your inheritance,
and in this seed you will see the bright and morning star appear,
which will expel the night of darkness that has been in your hearts;
by which morning star you will come to the everlasting day, which was before night was.
So every one feel this bright morning star in your hearts, there to expel the darkness."

What Fox articulated, the Igbo of what we now call Nigeria, also have believed. The seed and the star are connected, interchangeable. I first learned of this through the Stevie Wonder song, The Seed's a Star. Writer Chris Abani brings this out beautifully.

This is the kola nut. This seed is a star. This star is life. This star is us.

The Igbo hold the kola nut to be scared, offering it at every gathering and to every visitor, as a blessing, as refreshement, or to seal a covenant. The prayer that preceeds the breaking and sharing of the nut is: He who brings kola, brings life.

from Chris Abani’s Graceland.

Thank you Alex spädbarn for your post.

posted by Peterson Toscano @ 10:47 AM