We Don't Know How
For Rogation Day
Rogation Day is a set aside for us to recall that creation is not just scenery or the backdrop for human life. It is part of the great theater of God’s glory.
Psalm 104 sings of the sea, “great and wide,” filled with creatures beyond numbering. It speaks of ships, sea monsters, living things small and great, all looking to God for food in due season. There is something humbling in that. We are not the only ones depending on God. The whole creation waits on God’s open hand.
Job hears God speaking from the whirlwind. Poor Job has suffered deeply. He has asked honest questions. And God’s answer is not simple. God doesn’t hand Job an explanation of suffering line by line. Instead, God says, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” God points Job toward mystery, toward wonder, toward the vastness of creation. That is not meant to humiliate Job. It is meant to re-situate him. And maybe we need that, too.
So much of our human shortcomings begin when we forget our place. We start imagining that we are managers of the universe, owners of the earth, masters of every outcome. But Rogation Day reminds us of the truth. We are creatures among creatures. Beloved, yes… made in the image of God, yes... but still creatures. Beautiful. Dependent. Fragile. Flawed. Gifted breath by God.
Jesus gives us that small parable in Mark. The kingdom of God is like seed scattered on the ground. The farmer sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, and he does not know how. That may be one of the most important sentences in all of Scripture: “He does not know how.”
I find some much-needed holy relief in that. We don’t make the kingdom grow by force of will. We don’t bless the earth by dominating it. We can’t heal the world by pretending we understand every mystery. We scatter what we can. We pray. We tend. We repent. We tell the truth. We fail. We begin again. We return one another from wandering. We participate in God’s life with humility and hope. And then and there, often quietly, often hidden beneath the soil, God gives growth.
So today we pray for the earth, for gardens and fields, for rain and harvest, for farmers and fishers, for all who labor, for all who hunger, and for the grace to live together, more gently upon this good earth.
The seed grows.
Thanks be to God, it doesn’t all depend on us.
So beautiful—both the mystery and your writing.
I like this a lot for its content. For me, every day is a rogation day! But my dear, the automated voice of the young man who read this message mispronounced, of all things, the name JOB. He called it job, as in I’m glad I have a job, I have to go to my job. AI is a wonderment … and is doing a great disservice to the spoken word. That isn’t the first thing I have listened to on many other forums, where important words were mispronounced and it changed the entire meaning of the sentence. So is with Job in this wonderful message. It is our job to keep Job alive and well!