Title: ELCA Women Conclude Convention with Call to 'Sow Seeds'
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 13, 1999

ELCA WOMEN CONCLUDE CONVENTION WITH CALL TO 'SOW SEEDS'
99-WO-29-JB

     ST. LOUIS (ELCA)   Spreading the gospel is like planting seeds --
some seeds take root, some don't -- and it takes time for rooted seeds
to develop, just as it takes time for God's Word to take root in people,
especially children, said the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     Anderson delivered the sermon at the closing service of the Fourth
Triennial Convention of Women of the ELCA, which met here July 8-11 at
the America's Center.  The organization's three-year theme, "Live God's
Justice," was unveiled at the convention amid Bible study, keynote
addresses, workshops, business sessions and elections.
     As convention participants return home, it's important they share
the challenges they heard and share their faith, as if they are sowing
seeds, Anderson said.  He cited a lesson from the Gospel of Matthew --
the parable of the sower of seeds.  The story said some of the sower's
seeds die while others take root and multiply.
     "We get so fascinated with the problems that the seed encounters
the birds, the rocks, the hot sun and the weeds -- that we forget the
end of the story where Jesus tells us, despite all the dangers and
setbacks, a harvest does occur -- a bountiful one at that -- as much as
a hundredfold return," he said.
     Faith takes time to develop in children, who often show no
"visible effect or change" when they hear God's Word, Anderson said.
     "The words are just like the seeds in the parable," he said. "Some
of them may be wasted.  Some may be choked out by other concerns.  But
others have fallen deep into good soil.  They are not wasted.  They are
not lost.  They are carried around, waiting for the moment when their
life-giving power will be released."
     Anderson's sermon also addressed the church's anti-racism efforts,
a key issue discussed at the triennial convention.  He called racism "a
great and intractable problem" and likened it to "a seven-headed
monster."
     "We provide anti-racism training for our leaders in the church,
and my experience has been that each time it reveals a deeper layer of
prejudice or privilege than I had recognized before," he said.  The
parable of the sower of seeds "encourages us to drop the idea of getting
rid of racism and to substitute the idea of becoming immune to it," he
said.
     "Racism will always be threatening us, the way our bodies are
constantly invaded by undesirable germs or viruses," Anderson said. "But
we can build up resistance to it, so that it does not get into our
system and infect us.  Here again, the process will take time.
Antibodies have to develop just the way seeds do.  But God's word of
reconciliation and peace will gradually have its effect as it always
does."
     Becoming anti-racist is a struggle that will take time and is not
easy, he reminded delegates.  "But we have the power of creation on our
side, a power as gentle as rain and as powerful as the root that splits
the rock," Anderson added.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html