10-12-25 “Planted to Grow: Grace in Action” (Stewardship Month #2)
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“Planted to Grow: Grace in Action”
(Stewardship Month #2)
I want to start with something funny I found on an internet site: A little boy brought two quarters to church. His mother told him, “One is for the offering, and one is for ice cream after church.” He was walking to church, flipping the quarters in his hands, when one slipped out and rolled into the storm drain. He gasped and said, “Well, there goes God’s quarter!”
Isn’t that how we sometimes treat generosity? We plan to give—but only if nothing else comes up. But God calls us to a deeper trust—to give first, to plant first, and to trust that God will provide the rest. When we live that way, we find freedom, not fear. Because generosity grows joy.
Last Sunday, on World Communion Sunday, we brought many kinds of bread to the Lord’s Table and collected numerous loaves to send to the St. Croix Falls Food Shelf. The bread from our three churches filled the car of Sharon Asp, the Director of the St. Croix Falls Food Shelf. She said, “I deeply appreciate our parishioners for their generosity. We’ve never had such good, fresh bread to share with those in need. Surely, they will be so happy to receive it.”
Our stewardship journey began with gratitude at the Lord’s Table and overflowed into our community to feed the hungry. Gratitude begins when we recognize that everything we have—our lives, our gifts, even our very breath—comes from God. It’s not ours to keep; it’s God’s to share.
Today, we take the next step. Gratitude is the root, but generosity is the fruit. Our theme this morning is “Planted to Grow: Grace in Action.” We’re moving from thankfulness to trustfulness, from receiving to releasing. When gratitude fills our hearts, grace begins to overflow through our hands.
We saw that truth in action just last Sunday. We came to the Lord’s Table with grateful hearts, giving thanks for God’s amazing grace. And that same grace moved us—it opened our hearts and our hands—to share the bread of life with others through the Food Shelf. That’s how grace works. It starts at the table of gratitude and flows outward into acts of love.
Jesus tells a story in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, that’s easy to overlook. It’s not as famous as the parable of the sower or the mustard seed, but it holds a quiet, beautiful truth about how God works. He 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” (Mark 4:26–27). The farmer plants the seed and then goes about his life. He doesn’t dig it up to check if it’s working. He doesn’t rush the process. He trusts that something is happening underground—something hidden, sacred, and alive. That’s the mystery of grace. We don’t make it grow—God does. We simply plant the seed.
Have you ever planted a seed and wondered if anything would really come of it? Sometimes it feels like such a small, insignificant act. You tuck it into the soil, cover it with dirt, and wait. That’s what generosity feels like sometimes. We give, we serve, we pray—and we might wonder if it makes any difference. But every time we give out of love, every time we act with compassion, every time we plant a seed of kindness—we are joining God in the quiet miracle of growth. Our part is planting; God’s part is growing.
We plant, we water, we give, we serve—but ultimately, it is God who gives the growth. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Our acts of generosity are like seeds in God’s hands: they may seem small, but God’s grace makes them grow into something far greater than we can imagine.
In today’s scripture, Paul captures this same truth in 2 Corinthians 9:6–8: “The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows generously will also reap generously.” He’s not talking about material return. He’s talking about spiritual abundance—the joy, peace, and blessing that come when we live open-handedly. Paul adds this promise: “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (v. 8). In other words, God provides enough for us to be generous. God doesn’t bless us so that we can keep more—God blesses us so that we can give more. When grace takes root in us, it grows outward into action. If you hold a seed in your hand, it remains just a seed. But if you plant it—if you release it into the soil—something miraculous happens: it multiplies. It’s the same with grace. When we give—our time, our prayers, our money, our service—we are planting seeds in God’s garden. We may never see the full harvest, but we can trust that something is growing. A kind word planted in someone’s heart today might blossom into faith years later. A Thanksgiving meal or Christmas Child shoebox shared with a neighbor near or far might grow into love and hope. A mission fund we give in faith—like collecting loose change for Moola for Milk or UNICEF—might become the very means God uses to touch lives we’ll never meet.
I want to share a story I learned at the Spiritual Formation Academy in Tucson. Two pastors were friends who often challenged each other in life and ministry. One day, one of them bought an old house and spent time renovating it. Excited, he invited his friend to see the result.
When the friend walked in and saw the beautiful home, he said, “I’m so glad God provided you with such a beautiful house.” The homeowner smiled and replied, “Well, you know, God may have given me an old house, but I made it beautiful.” The friend laughed and said, “Ah, isn’t it amazing that God made this house beautiful—with you?”
My dear family in Jesus Christ, isn’t that the essence of stewardship? We are given gifts, resources, and opportunities from God. Sometimes we see them as “ours” to manage, fix, or perfect on our own. But the truth is—God works with us. God gives us what we need, but also calls us to participate—to take the gifts of life, time, and resources and make them prosper.
When we approach stewardship with gratitude—recognizing that all we have comes from God—our generosity becomes a collaborative work with God. We don’t just give; we join God in making something beautiful in the lives of others. Just like that old house became a home, our gifts, no matter how small, can be transformed into blessings for others when we give with thankful hearts. Gratitude opens our eyes, but generosity opens our hands—and together, God makes the work prosper.
So how do we move from gratitude to grace in action? It begins with trust. We trust that what we give matters—no matter how small. We trust that God’s abundance will provide for our needs. We trust that when we sow generously, we will also reap joyfully. Gratitude opens our hearts to see God’s goodness. Grace moves our hands to act on it. It’s like breathing in and out:
We breathe in gratitude—“Thank You, Lord”—and we breathe out generosity—“Here, Lord, take and use this.” That’s the rhythm of stewardship: receiving and releasing, blessing and being blessed.
Stewardship isn’t just about money. It’s about the way we live—how we plant our lives into the soil of God’s love. We plant our time when we serve others. We plant our words when we encourage someone. We plant our resources when we give to God’s mission. And we trust that God will make it grow—in our church, in our community, in our own hearts.
As Paul said, “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that you will abound in every good work.” May we be a people of gratitude, grace, and generous hearts—planted deeply in God’s love, growing in every good work. Thanks be to God. Amen.