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A month ago, we gathered here to celebrate a baptism, and while we were here, I told the tale of Eustace's own baptismal experience in C.S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Towards the end of that book, we get the sense that Aslan has been helping guide events to lead Eustace's cousins, Edmund and Lucy, into the world of Narnia. He tells them it is so that they might know Him better, but Lucy and Edmund have another impact in the story on their cousin Eustace.
If it had not been for the convergence of events that led Edmund and Lucy to stay with their cousin for the summer, Eustace would never have been with them when they were pulled, once again, into the world of Narnia. If it had not been for their work in helping Prince Caspian on his journey, Eustace never would have found the dragon's cave, or been inadvertently turned into a dragon, or even have gone through his change into a new, less bratty boy.
Eustace goes on to return to Narnia. He is the hero in the next two books, even bringing others along with him on his journey. He continues the legacy of his cousins as protectors of Narnia.
None of this would have happened if Lucy and Edmund's parents hadn't gone to America for work during the summer and had to stay with Eustace. If they had never come, Eustace would still be a brat, and Narnia would have lost another hero.
Edmund and Lucy weren't looking to change their cousin. They were just looking to return to Narnia and to help Prince Caspian with his journey. They had no idea what Aslan was really working through them.
I suspect many of you listening to or reading this sermon right now have had similar experiences. Maybe there was someone in your life who had an enormous impact on your life and faith. Maybe you had that affect on others. Perhaps you didn't even know what was going on until much much later.
We don't always know what it is that God is working through us. Like Lucy and Edmund, we may go and do God's work in the world without really knowing the full effect of it. Perhaps we are even like the Scatterer of Seeds at the beginning of the Gospel lesson this morning.
Jesus tells us that the Scatterer sows the seeds in the ground, and over time those seeds would grow. The Scatterer doesn't know how this happens. It just does. The Scatterer continues to be dutiful in the work, even if the Scatterer doesn't fully understand how this work produces the stalks of grain.
Jesus compares this story with the Kingdom of Heaven. We are God's workers in the world. We do the work God has given us to do, but we don't always see where it is leading. We're not always sure what our work will produce until we see it.
The colloquial saying is that "God works in mysterious ways." He often does that through us. We scatter the seeds and take care of them, but what God is working, and in whom He is working, is still a mystery.
Over the past several years, I have heard some church leaders in a fear and panic. They look at the trends of church attendance and membership shrinking and fear that we in the United States will soon be as secular of a culture as Europe has become.
But in my time in England, I have seen reason to hope. So the culture has become more secular, the church has risen up in spite of that. There is hope and energy in the church. In efforts to reach new people, there has been a harmonious blend of old and new music in their liturgy. When I attended a close friend's ordination last year, the message was to go out and preach the Gospel, to go and do the work God has given us to do.
We may not know how it is that God grows the seeds we sow, but they still grow. God's ways may be mysterious, but we see those ways work, each and every day, whether we realize it or not. We shouldn't live in fear of what will happen to the church, but we should live in hope as we wait to see what God will do with us.
We don't always know exactly what God is doing, but we do know that He is working. That's not an excuse for us to do nothing, though. God works through those who scatter the seeds. God works on Eustaces through unsuspecting Lucys and Edmunds.
We are the tools God uses to do His work in the work. So trust in Him and let Him use you. You may not always know what God is working through you, but as long as you listen and follow Him, we can be sure that God is growing something through our doing His work in the world and following His will.