CHRISTIAN KARMA: REAPING WHAT YOU SOW

Galatians 6: 1-10

The Urban Dictionary has some rich things to say about Galatians 6: 7-9. It includes these six definitions of the basic tenet “You reap what you sow,” describing “The basic nature of God’s justice.” The first definition: “Everything that you do has repercussions. It comes back to you one way or another.” The second definition: “You cannot escape the consequences of your actions. What you do comes back to you.” Third: “You will see the long-term effects of your actions.” Fourth: “KARMA- meaning the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct help determine a person’s destiny.” I’ll come back to that definition. The fifth one simply says: “What goes around, comes around.” And the sixth definition: “Your actions all have consequences; God will not be mocked. God sees all. You do indeed reap what you sow.”

Let’s think about that phrase for a few minutes. If we think about that phrase as a law of the universe, then you might be thinking right now about exceptions that you have witnessed or experienced; you know- like taking retribution into your own hands because you didn’t think proper punishment had been doled out. It is justice out of control when a parent kills the killer of their daughter, when a woman takes another woman’s infant because she has failed to conceive one of her own, or a man takes another man’s eye because he was blinded by the first man’s malicious action. As the Hindu leader Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye justice makes the whole world blind.” I said I would come back to the idea of Karma, which is a Hindu term. Today we remember that it is also a Biblical concept. Professor John A Hutchison wrote these words regarding Hinduism in his classic textbook, PATHS OF FAITH. “One of the themes delineated in the Upanishads which overlaps both cosmology and ethics and has very great importance for the future of Indian thought and life is karma-samsara. Karma is the law of the deed; it occurs in many religious traditions as the perception that moral deeds carry their consequences ‘as you sow, so will you reap.’ (1995, p.82)

Those of you who have listened to the words of Jesus or the Apostle Paul before realize this so-called “law” is an agricultural analogy. It is generally a farmer who goes out to a field to sow; that is, to broadcast seeds where he wants them to grow. In our day this is done with mechanical spreaders most often, but in Jesus’ day, a farmer would sow seeds by reaching into a bag and flinging them across soil that had been tilled, that is, dug and loosened, so that the seeds would hopefully take root and grow. Jesus used that illustration in his parable of the sower, an evangelism message that says even if we tell the gospel to 100 people, and do it equally well to each one, we cannot count on a 100% response. According to nature, or to God’s plan, or to detrimental conditions, some seeds grow, and some seeds just don’t. The other way seeds are planted is one at a time, and even then, not every one grows well. I remember that fact from my experience planting flower and vegetable seeds as a boy, and watching how slowly they seemed to grow, and how some of the seeds never grew at all! Therefore, the phrase, “as you sow, so shall you reap” is based on an agricultural experience of probability, but not total predictability.  The world has examples of peoples and nations doing heinous actions in times of war and yet some countries and organizations have carried out their actions without later equitable consequences. The world also has examples of nations helping other nations, out of grace or generosity, only to find that when the first nation began to be in need, the second nation does not reciprocate with kindness. We know of those examples. But those are more the exception than the rule. In some neighborhoods, people seem to “help God out” in this regard by shunning those who do unkind or malicious things to others, trying to fulfill their “what goes around, comes around” sense of justice. There are other forms of retribution that are also implemented by some, such as boycott, warnings, and aggressive actions. But the agricultural basis of the statement: “What people sow, that shall they also reap,” has room for failure; failure to grow; too much or too little water, too much or too little sunlight, and birds or animals eating what grows. What do we do when the world seems to be not fair, not equitable, or not just? Paul did the Christian thing: Paul put such justice issues at the feet of God. It is Paul who reminds those who are tempted to test this principle that God is not mocked; it is Paul who implies that God sees all, both good and bad, and that God keeps account of our actions. And on that day when God sees whether we have sowed seeds of kindness or not; when God sees whether we have been waiting for the master with our lives in order when God brings in the sheaves, God takes account of the harvest. The good seeds are used, and the useless seeds and weeds are burned. It is a judgment picture. And it is worth our noting today.

So we have come full circle; we noted that in agriculture not everything grows equally that is planted; we noted that not all good deeds done are rewarded by others in the world, anymore than all bad deeds are punished by others in the world. It is our hope, but human justice is flawed. That leaves divine justice; Christian doctrine puts all the deeds a man or woman does on the judgment seat of God. And although we are saved through grace and by faith in Christ as Lord, our responses to our salvation are surely measured as well. So we are charged with working the fields of God’s green earth; and caring for the sky and the oceans and rivers of the world even amidst an oil disaster. And we are charged with sowing the seeds of the Gospel of Jesus to all the world, knowing that not all our good work will have predictable consequences, but it is what God calls us to do. Conversely, all lack of work or malicious actions are seen by the all-knowing, all-seeing eyes of God. And in the hands of God, we have every belief that what we sow whatever it is, we will reap. For those seeking to do harm, that is a warning from Scripture. For those seeking to do good, it is the reassurance that God this day, and all your days, rejoices over you! Offer unto others what you would want others to offer unto you- it’s another rule of life … that is golden.

Jeffrey Sumner July 4, 2010