“Those
who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering
their sheaves.” (Ps. 126:7)
I’ve
been told, although I don’t know it to be true, that the every Palestinian
spring is accompanied by an ancient ritual of planting the seed for that year’s
crop. The seed saved from the previous year’s harvest is ceremoniously
taken from where it has been stored for the winter to the weeping and wailing
of the women of the family as the only thing standing between the family and
starvation the next winter is gambled on the next harvest. Then, months
later, the ritual is reversed with the joyful ingathering of what the seeds have
yielded placed in storage along with the seeds for the next year. And
then the cycle repeats. It must have been so when the Psalm was first
sung.
Every
harvest is preceded by risking of the seed left from the last one. Only
by going out weeping, carrying the seed, can there be a coming with joy, a
shouldering of sheaves. Every harvest, at least in the biblical economy,
begins with risking everything. It is where the expression “to bet the
farm” comes from. It is true with much of the world’s economy today.
It
is not so true in what we call the developed world. And I’m glad for
that. But I do think diversification that minimizes risk also makes
something spiritual more difficult to experience. For Americans, it is
largely experienced elsewhere. And isn’t that why world mission is such a
priority?
Peace,
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