Recently at our Harvest Festival service Jo Jacobs used a passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 3 ‘What after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow’.
This was a passage which I had thought about during our time spent on the beach in Southwold with our granddaughter at the end of August. As with all good times spent on a beach, there were moments when we were very busy dealing with important things in life such as paddling, digging, making sandcastles, and transporting water in buckets from the sea to the sandcastle – and occasionally only part way up the beach to the sandcastle when for some reason they needed to be emptied out early.
However, all this activity also needed to be sustained by a morning nap, (for one and a short opportunity to read for two of us), and lunch, and of course a morning snack and an afternoon snack. On occasions we walked the long distance to the kiosk to purchase tea and cake, and other times we had taken supplies with us already which we consumed. There was even the day we had a snack on the pier, that did take longer than other days.
So, we spent our days eating, digging, and walking so we were not always on the beach but generally around it, and we would stay for the whole day. I loved to watch the way that families who were on the beach digging before we arrived, who had made great creations with turrets, and an assortment of different sized castles and moats. Then often departing around lunchtime leaving what was created behind them, and later another family would arrive and children would see the castles already built. Depending on the child and the mood of the moment they might come racing across the sand knocking down and flattening the castle which had previously stood tall, or they might come hesitant and uncertain and then take up residence building onto what was already there.
The children arriving in the afternoon had no knowledge of those who had gone before them, they saw only the work of another left behind a child who having gone home would not know the fate of their hard work, would it be reduced in moments or cherished and developed? The answer lay with the response of the child who laid claim to the previous construction.
Watching as the days progressed, I saw the pattern most days of the sandcastles lovingly built being inherited by others who had not worked on them. It made me think of the passage which Jo reminded us of at Framlingham as I thought that often we do not know of the dedication of others who have given their lives to God, developed, and worked for the church where they live. We stand on the work of others; we give thanks for their devotion to the calling of God placed on their hearts and we too follow in his service often unaware of what has gone before.
A prayer
Lord God, you call us each to be fruitful in the growing of your kingdom. We pray that you will remind us afresh today of the role you have assigned to us. We rejoice in the talents and abilities you have given to us and thank you for those who have gone before us may we build on their work wisely and well. Amen