Seeds of Hope: Thoreau, Jesus, and Enduring Faith in Hard Times

Seeds of Hope: Thoreau, Jesus, and Enduring Faith in Hard Times

By Walter Hesford | FāVS News

In “The Succession of Forest Trees,” an 1860 address to folks attending a county cattle show (precursor to our county fair), Henry David Thoreau proclaimed his “faith in a seed.”

His specific agenda was to answer a question raised over noon-time dinners by farmers whose wood lots he surveyed, “how it happened, that when a pine wood was cut down an oak one commonly sprung up, and vice versa”? One can find Thoreau’s long answer to this question in the text of “The Succession…” on the American Transcendentalism Web.

Thoreau counters the view that in some mysterious way plants spontaneous appear. “Though I do not believe that plants spring up where no seed has been,” he says, “ I have great faith in a seed—a, to me, equally mysterious origin for it. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”

Marveling at the Miracles of Seeds and Nature

Thoreau’s broad agenda here and everywhere is to celebrate the mysteries, the wonders, the miracles that occur all around us in nature. He gibes at farmers’ sons who at cattle shows “stare by the hour to see a juggler draw ribbons from his throat,” but are blind to the ordinary miracles that make their life—and our life—possible.

I’m writing this as I’m about to split open a few packages of seeds for spring planting. Fittingly enough, in the U.S. it was a religious group, the Shakers, that developed the packaging of seeds. Beginning in 1790, the Shakers helped keep their communes going through profits from the sale of small vegetable and flower seed packages.

I buy my seed packages from a local hardware store. When the ground is ready, I dig rows two inches deep to plant snow and sugar snap peas. An Irish-American friend tells me I should plant peas on Saint Patrick’s Day for best results. Sometimes my pea seeds manage to receive Saint Patrick’s blessing, but even if they don’t, it is indeed still miraculous when by early summer I can begin to harvest lovely, tasty pods.

Seeds of Faith: Lessons from the Parables

As the season progresses I sow tiny carrot seeds and seeds for a few other vegetables, depending upon available space and sunshine. I’m not really much of a gardener, especially as my knees grow creakier, but I do rejoice in seeing the results of my labors and of nature’s miracle.

Long ago in Israel, during the reign of the Roman Empire, Jesus invited his disciples to envision and have faith in the seeds of the kingdom of God he was sowing through deeds and parables. In the Gospel of Mark (as well as of Matthew and Luke), we have the parable of the generous sower who scatters seeds everywhere. If the seeds fall on good soil, they take root and yield enormous crops (Mark 4:1-8).

Soon after in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says “the kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29 NRSV).

Cultivating Faith in Turbulent Times

This is followed by Jesus’ comparison of the kingdom of God to a “mustard seed, which, when sown in the ground, is the smallest of seeds on the earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” (Mark 4:30-32 NRSV).

These and other parables are themselves seeds Jesus plants in the ears and hearts of his followers to instill in them faith in the kingdom of God. They have great spiritual significance, but I also wish to point out that like Thoreau, Jesus honors mysterious processes found in nature. Science may now help us understand how small seeds grow in the ground and flourish as crops, bushes and trees, but it is still wondrous.

To have faith in the kingdom of God, whether in Israel under Roman rule or in contemporary America, has political consequences. Such faith may give us hope, may cause us to resist oppressive powers.

I myself struggle to have the same faith in the seeds of the kingdom of God as I do in seeds I plant in the ground in spring. Given the political climate in the U.S. and wars abroad, it is hard to envision a positive future. But we can’t afford not to have faith in the seeds of faith and try to be good soil.

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.