I think by sunshine, Alex meant biblical rain.
Today's reading is from Deuteronomy chapter 6,
verses 4 to 12. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God
with all your heart. With all your soul and with
all your strength. These commandments that I
give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress
them on your children. Take them when you sit
at home and when you walk along the road. When
you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as
symbols on your hands. Bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the door frames of your houses
and on your gates. When the Lord your God brings
you into the land he swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you a land
with large flourishing cities you did not build,
houses filled with all kinds of good things you
did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards
and olive groves you did not plant. Then when
you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you
do not forget the Lord who brought you out of
Egypt, out of the land of slavery. The word of
the Lord. You've probably all seen the Four Dummies
book series. There's like 2 ,500 books in this
series now. So, you know, there's Banjo for Dummies.
There's a chapter in there, How to Tune Your
Banjo. Another chapter, How to Apologize to Your
Neighbors for Even Owning a Banjo. There's the
Air Fryer Cookbook. I don't know why, you know,
you need a dummies book on air fryers. They really
only have like two buttons. But anyways, then
there's like Blockchain Data Analytics. for dummies.
There really is, you know. I mean, what do they
take us for? Idiots? Of course, we all know about
blockchain data analytics. There's, of course,
there is Christianity for dummies, and there
is farming for dummies, too. Now, we are actually
in this teaching series, which we're calling
Growing Season. It's a series about farming and
faith and the connection between agriculture
and spirituality. And I'm not slagging any of
these books. I'm a dummy in many ways. In many
ways, these books would be very helpful for me
in learning certain things. But actually, not
everything can be learned from a book. And that's
because there's actually a different kind of
learning out there. And it's a kind of learning
that I want to talk to you about today. And this
learning doesn't come from a book. It doesn't
come from a classroom. You can't get this kind
of a learning from like a YouTube video or even
chat GPT. This learning is passed on. It's passed
on from one person to another person, from one
generation to another generation. And when it
comes to farming, I will have to tell you just
about everything that I learned about farming
just came person to person with my dad, who you
just met. And actually, wouldn't you know it,
my dad is actually going to be here today at
the 1115 service. So if you did want to kind
of meet him and get his autograph, you could.
You could come back and stick around and meet
him at the barbecue and all that. But anyways,
what I learned from dad, there was no formal
education. There was no binder he gave me that
was like, here's farming 101. He didn't give
me quizzes on proper manure spreader operation,
right? I learned to milk. A cow just by watching
him milk the cows night after night. And I learned
to back a tractor up with a hay wagon. That's
a lot of axles. With him standing on the ground
saying, no, left, left. Your other left, your
other left, right? And I also learned, as I said
in the video, how to cut hay. I remember distinctly
him riding with me in the tractor around and
around the fields, and eventually he stepped
down, and I kept on going, and now I was doing
it on my own. Some wisdom just travels best when
it goes from life to life. And a book can explain
to you, for example, when cut hay is ready to
be baled. But a farmer can kind of walk into
the field, pick up a handful of it, smell it.
Crackle it through his fingers and then say,
no, you know what, it needs another six hours
of sunshine. A book could tell you what the symptoms
are of a sick cow. But a farmer can walk into
the barn, look at the herd and say, you know
what, there is something wrong with that one.
Let me tell you how I know. That kind of learning
is often called something we call intergenerational
transmission. And that refers to, quote, the
passing of experience and accumulated knowledge
from one generation to the next. And it's very
interesting because for a few years, Sally and
I, we actually lived and owned our own farm.
And I was always on the phone with my dad asking
him questions. I'd be like, dad, you know, the
pump in the barn is not working anymore. What's
wrong with it? Or dad. You know, the electric
fence is weak. Why is it so weak? Or dad, I need
to get someone to shear the sheep. Who do I even
call about that? And a book could have told me
some of that. But, you know, if I just asked
my dad, it was like so much easier because he'd
already done these things and he knew how to
do them. I can remember, this is a very vivid
memory I have. I can remember once when I needed
to castrate. a group of male piglets, little
boars. We'd had this big litter of piglets. And
I assumed, oh, I know what you do. You call the
veterinarian. And I said, and dad said, no, don't
do that. He said, I'll come over and show you
how to do it. And I was like, really? And so
over he came and he pulled these piglets one
by one. And, you know, it was like cut, cut,
pop, snip, toss. disinfect, and then he'd be
like, okay, Rob, now it's your turn. And I'd
be like, I didn't see it quite right. Maybe you
should do that one again, Dad. And, you know,
cut, cut, snip, toss. Okay, now it's your turn.
How about one more, Dad? Why don't you just show
me one more time? I'm not sure I quite, quite,
quite got it. But eventually I had to do it myself
because, again, there are some things you can
only learn by attempting them with somebody else
at your side who knows what they are doing. Now,
if you grew up in the country, you probably have
heard of 4 -H. 4 -H were these kind of clubs
for kids, clubs for farm kids, where you could
go and you would learn about farming. You could
learn about sowing or cooking or homesteading
and all that. And 4 -H had a motto. And the motto
was this, learn to do by doing. And in fact,
really what the motto was, was learn to do by
doing. from someone else who has already done
it. And that is how farming wisdom was passed
on. It was passed on generation to generation,
passed on life to life. And here's the thing.
Our faith is passed on in much the same way.
Of course, Christianity, you can learn some stuff
from a book. You can learn some stuff from taking
a class on it. But learning to follow Jesus,
Happens best when we do it alongside someone
who has already walked that road before or is
currently walking that road. Today in our reading,
Moses reminds God's people that the faith that
they have received must be passed on to the next
generation because no generation can live. on
the memory of god from a previous generation
every generation must receive the faith every
generation must live the faith and then every
generation must pass that faith along to the
next and it seems obvious to say but we must
state it that in order to pass something on to
the next generation the first generation has
to actually grasp it and understand it for themselves
You know, I can remember my kids when they were
doing homework. Sometimes they'd say, hey, dad,
how do you do this? And I'd look over their shoulder
and I'd say, well, you just do this, that and
the other. And then they'd look at me and they
knew. They knew I had no idea what I was talking
about. And the truth is you cannot pass on knowledge
that you do not possess. And before we can pass
on faith to someone else, it must first take
root in us. Just look at the order of how Moses
explains this in the reading we just read. He
says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is one. Love the Lord your God with all your
heart. and with all your soul and with all your
strength, these commandments that I give you
today are to be on your hearts, right? So before
he gets to saying, tell your children about this,
the first word is for them to hear it for themselves.
It has to be on their hearts. So before Israel
tries to do this generational transformation
communication thing, it must be rooted in the
hearts of the parents. And faith transmission
always begins with personally receiving what
God has done. So we should not think for a second
that the first thing Moses is telling us this
morning is, hey, parents. You need to do a better
job of reading Bible stories to your kids. Or,
hey, Trinity, you need to do a better job of
sharing the faith with those outside in the world.
No, our first responsibility is not instructional.
It's devotional, right? To love the Lord our
God with all our hearts and all our mind and
all our strength. Because, again, to put it plainly,
you cannot pass on what... you haven't received
yourself. Just as my parents, just as my kids
could see through my poor homework help, you
know, people can tell whether the faith that
we're trying to communicate is actually something
that we truly believe and something we truly
practice or whether it's just something that
we say. You know, they notice whether prayer
is something we talk about or is actually something
that we do. And they will notice whether generosity
is just an idea we have or whether it's actually
our own way of life. It's stuff like that. I
came across this quote from a pastor. His name
was Landon Chase. I was watching a video by him
this week. And this is what he says. He said,
Gen Z doesn't need your fog machine. They need
to know if this is real. And the churches that
will reach them aren't the ones with the best
production. They're the ones with the most authenticity.
You see, in the age of AI and edited photographs
and filtered lives, I think kids today are asking,
what is real? Is this real? Is the song real?
Are these words real? Is this person real? Is
this news article real? How do they know if the
faith is real? Right? It won't be because they
read it in a book and it won't be because they
saw a YouTube video on it. There's no way to
tell if that's true. It won't even be because
they hear a sermon about it. They're going to
know that it is real because they saw it embodied
in a person's life. And it doesn't have to be
embodied perfectly. It doesn't have to be embodied
flawlessly, but at least honestly, and at least
with authenticity. And yeah, we may fall down.
And yeah, we may stumble and screw up and then
get back up and follow God again. Keep coming
back to God. People can tell if something's real.
They can tell if our faith is real. And we can't
sow seeds. that we don't possess ourselves. The
seed of faith has to first be received, planted
deeply and rooted in our hearts, and only then
can it become seed for someone else. But now
we come to the real question. What is the best
way to sow that seed into the lives of people
around us? Well, actually, Moses gives us an
answer to that question too. And it's not nearly
as complicated as you might think it would be.
It doesn't require expensive curriculum. You
don't have to go get theological education. This
is what he says. Talk about it, right? Talk about
these words when you sit at home and when you
walk along the road, when you lie down and when
you get up. In other words, the best classroom
for passing on the faith to others is just ordinary
life. This is what I mean when I say faith in
the furrows. A furrow is just this long trench.
in a field that's made by a plow. It's just simple.
It's dirty. It's ordinary. It's earthy. It's
unglamorous. But that's where the seeds ultimately
get planted. And every life has furrows. Your
life has furrows. The daily roots, the daily
rhythms, the back and forth, the people you see
day in and day out. And Moses says, yes, that's,
those are the places. That's where you plant
the seeds of faith. In farming, that means the
best place to learn is in the barn at 6 a .m.
in the morning, right? The best place to learn
is, you know, in the truck on the way to the
feed store. It's around the dinner table at the
end of a busy day. Most of the stuff I learned
from dad, it was not in any way, shape, or form
like formal teaching. It was just we were walking
through a field together. We were checking a
fence together. We were castrating piglets together,
and he would, you know, point something out,
or I would ask a question. And the same way,
it's the ordinary rhythms of life that are the
classroom of faith. That's what Moses means when
he says, when you sit down, that's the time.
When you walk, when you lie down, when you rise.
In other words, faith is woven into breakfast.
It's woven into bedtime. It's woven into the
car rides, to the soccer games. It's woven into
those kitchen table conversations when you're
making decisions or experiencing disappointments
as a family. A child learns about prayer when
a parent stops to pray. Because the family's
going through something difficult. That's when
they learn. A child learns about grace and forgiveness
when a parent says to them, you know, I was wrong.
Will you forgive me? The deepest conversations
about faith don't actually happen in a church
at all. They begin when something's just going
on in our ordinary life, a relationship change,
a crisis, a difficult news, whatever. Some unexpected
question comes up. Moses says, start there. Start
in those places. That is the best place to share
your faith. And yeah, it's unglamorous. And yeah,
it just looks like a line in a field. But that's
the life that is happening in front of you right
now. Now, I just want to say, when we're talking
about all this, we're not just talking about
intergenerational transmission between parents
and children, right? We're also talking about...
Transmitting our faith to those just in the wider
world, right? Because even Moses says, talk about
these things around your table, but he also says,
talk about these things when you are walking
along the road, when you go out the door, when
you encounter people out where life is actually
being lived for us. And Jesus, of course, did
this all the time. He talked to people that he
met at the well. He talked to a bunch of guys
that were fixing their nets along the seashore.
He talked to sinners and tax collectors as he
sat around tables with them. Church cannot simply
stand on our side of the fence yelling things
into the field to other people. No, we need to
carry the seed of the gospel with us into those
places where we spend our days. Into the workplace,
if that's you. Into the classroom. Into the hockey
arena. Into the chat rooms. Whatever. Those ordinary
furrows of life. Now, I was thinking about this
in relation to Camp Trinity. I have to tell you,
it's so exciting to see the seeds of faith that
we are planting in the lives of these campers
this summer. And while it's amazing to see stuff
like this, you know, churches filled with kids
standing on their seats, which I'm still not
sure what I feel about that, but, you know, singing
songs and hearing Bible teaching, you know, I
would say that It's still actually the other
moments that probably are doing more seed planting
in their lives. It's when one leader sits down
with another camper and they're braiding a bracelet
together or when they're walking to the pool
together or taking a bus ride together. It's
when there's a homesick camper and a leader is
kind of caring for them and just, you know, it's
those ordinary moments, the ordinary moments
that are the classroom of faith. And that's where
we are sent to, to sow the seeds that we ourselves
have received. And now comes the question, are
we doing it? Are we sowing enough seed for the
future? There is a bit of a crisis in farming
today. You probably know this, but every year,
thousands of Canadian family farms disappear.
And with that is lost a huge amount of that wisdom
and knowledge that I was just talking about.
And actually our family is an example of that.
You know, grandpa passed on farming to dad. Dad
had four kids and he, you know, tried to pass
it on to us. And some of us have even dabbled
a little bit in farming. I even tried to pass
a little bit of it on to my own children, but
we have to be honest. The farming legacy of the
Herkman's family will probably come to an end.
And that is not necessarily a tragedy. I mean,
kids don't have to become carbon copies of their
parents. But the church. The church faces a similar
crisis. And I tell you, the stakes are much,
much higher. Just a little history. In 1950,
do you know that two -thirds of people in Canada
went to church every single Sunday? 67 % went
to church. By the year 2000, that number had
dropped to 20%. And in 2025, where we sit right
now, 2026, it's around 10%. 10%. And Statistics
Canada will tell us that the main reason for
this decline is due to generational change, right?
Younger generations are just less likely to participate
in church or consider faith something that has
anything to do with their lives at all. You know,
it's actually always been a danger. Even in Moses'
day. Do you know why Moses was giving these instructions
to the people? He was giving these instructions
because they were about to enter into the promised
land. And the promised land, he knew, was going
to be filled with new cultures and new religions
and new people and new ideas. And if they didn't
carefully and intentionally transmit their faith
through the generations, it was going to be swallowed
up. Much like we're seeing in our own world today.
And I'm not trying to say this because I think
we should panic. about it, right? The gospel
is not going to disappear. And Jesus has promised
to build his church. But on the other hand, it
is a sobering reminder, right? No farmer can
be certain his kids are going to take up the
farm. No Christian can be certain that their
kids are going to take up the faith. No church
can be certain that their own future is secure.
Every generation must receive the gospel. Every
generation must find a way to pass it on. You
know, Paul says, how are they to believe in one
that they've never heard of? And how are they
to hear without someone proclaiming it to them?
What we receive is not ours. to store and to
hold on to. Listen, if a farmer held all of his
grain in the barn, yeah, he'd have a whole lot
of grain, but he would not have a harvest next
year, right? No, some of that grain must go back
out to the field. It must be planted into the
soil where it can grow. And faith works in the
same way. Someone planted a seed of faith in
me and in you. And if we only receive it for
our own comfort, ever becomes about our own family,
if it only even becomes just about our own congregation,
then we have missed the point. The point is not
to keep it in here for ourselves or our family
or our church. The point is that it must go back
out and be planted again and again and again
and again. Paul gives Timothy this same calling.
He says, Timothy, what you've heard from me through
many witnesses and trust to faithful people.
who will be able to teach others as well. Do
you know that in this one verse, there are four
generations of transmission? Paul, number one,
what you've heard from me, he's talking to Timothy,
number two, right? And trust to faithful people,
that's the third generation, who will be able
to teach others as well, the fourth generation.
The gospel is always moving, always moving to
people who haven't heard it yet. One way to think
about this would actually be to think of a chain.
I mean, every farm has got a few of these things
hanging around. And the thing about a chain is,
of course, every link is linked to the link before
it. to the link after it. And this is kind of
how, you know, faith is handed on, link to link.
And it doesn't just happen intergenerationally
through families. It actually also happens in
friendships and relationships outside of our
families. After all, Paul called Timothy his
son in the faith, but they weren't actually related.
But the gospel is always creating new spiritual
families. And so I just want to say that, you
know, some of you, you are here today. And the
reason you're here today is because you inherited
a really strong link. You know, someone brought
you to church when you were little. Someone prayed
with you. Someone read the Bible to you. And
you watched them and you learned from them. And
now today you are the recipient of a rich, rich
faith, heritage, and tradition. That is something
to give thanks for. A moment for us to ask the
question, how am I going to pass on what I have
received? How will I keep the chain going? And
then I want to just say it out loud. There are
many people here who struggle because they feel
like the chain has somehow in their family or
in their life been broken. And you know what?
You prayed with your kids. You went to church
with your kids. But then for whatever reason.
They want nothing to do with Christianity now.
And you might wonder, oh, what did I do wrong?
And you might even feel guilty about that or
find yourself comparing your situation to other
people's situations. But please, I want you to
hear me on this. We can sow faithfully. But we
cannot control the soil. We can put the seed
out there, but we cannot control the soil. Faith
cannot be forced. And even Jesus had to watch
people walk away from him and from his message.
So we are not the saviors of our children. Jesus
is. I think all we can do in those situations
is keep praying for our kids. And keep... the
relationship open with our kids and our grandkids.
Because, you know, who knows? You know, some
seeds sit under the ground a good long time before
they germinate and start to grow. And the story
is not over yet. For others, you may feel like
you inherited kind of a damaged link of a chain.
You received. The Christian faith, but it was
some weird, wacky version that was cold or controlling
or it was abusive even. And I would say you do
not have to pass that on. You know, some links
in the chain need to be broken and they need
to stop and were meant to be interrupted. But
grace also meets us at those broken chains and
where the break is, that is also a place where
we can begin making a new. And finally, I just
want to say there are some of us here, and this
is, I think, really exciting. Some of us here.
And you're like the first link in a chain, you
know, because you never went to church before.
Maybe you're from a different religious background,
a different culture, but this Christianity stuff
is all brand new to you. No one ever taught you
to read the Bible yet. Nobody ever taught you
how to pray yet. And that is so exciting. You're
not at the end of the chain. You're possibly
at the beginning of a brand new chain. And who
knows where that chain is going to lead and the
lives that are going to be touched as you continue
to grow and share your faith down through the
generations and over the years. It is just absolutely
amazing how it works. generation to generation.
And here's the thing. This isn't new because
this is how it all began in the first place.
Passing on faith life to life is not something
human beings invented. This is how God got it
all started in the first place with us. Like
a farmer who comes alongside his kids, God drew
near to us. You see, when people were wondering,
You know, people were wondering, who is God and
what is God like and how do I live my life? You
know, God, I suppose, could have sent us some
kind of list of facts and a collection of rules.
But God did not send us a textbook from heaven.
Instead, God came himself and the word became
flesh. and dwelt among us, and Jesus walked around
this earth with us. Jesus sat at tables with
us. He traveled the roads with us. He entered
our homes. He visited our village. He walked
through our fields with us. The disciples, they
watched Jesus pray, and they watched him welcome
children, and touch lepers, and wash feet, and
love his enemies. And this is exactly how it
worked with Jesus. 4H in, you know, 30 AD, right?
Learn to do by doing. The disciples would see
Jesus preach and then he would send them to preach.
Jesus healed and then he sent them to heal. Jesus
served and he said, I want you to go and do what
I have done for you. Do it for others. And like
many kids who are learning farming from their
father, these guys made plenty of mistakes too.
They denied Jesus. They misunderstood Jesus.
They ran away from Jesus. They argued with each
other. And when Jesus died, it must have felt
like that chain was broken for good. But after
the resurrection, you know what Jesus did? He
gathered them back together and invited them
into his work again. As the Father has sent me,
so I send you. Jesus is still the God who is
standing beside us. The future of the church
and the future of your family. does not depend
on our ability to transmit the faith. It depends
on the risen Jesus working in our lives and in
others' lives. I'm going to end with a story.
I think this brings it all together. Last week,
while we were here worshiping in Mississauga,
two of our young people, Micah and Caleb Percy,
were up at Camp Minioi near Port Sydney, Ontario,
and they were baptized. Their grandfather is
Harold Percy, who used to be the rector here
at Trinity Streetsville, and their parents are
Joel and Julian. Their baptism was a moment when
the chain of faith gained, you could say, two
more links. When the seeds of faith that were
planted across generations began to bear fruit.
And family was an essential part of that transmission,
but the church also played a role. Ryland, our
youth leader, was invited to go up and be part
of that moment. And here's why. Because Micah
and Caleb were built into and Ryland invested
in them over countless Friday night youth groups,
conversations at McDonald's, car rides, you know,
praying together, reading scripture together.
Ryland was, you know, someone who came alongside
these guys and said, let's walk this field together.
And so that day, look at all the things that
came together. Family transmission, church impact,
camp influence. And of course, the hidden work
of the Holy Spirit all came together to carry
the gospel from one generation to the next. That's
how faith gets passed on. Older believers walking
beside younger believers, parents and congregations
working together, some planting, some watering,
and God giving the growth. Who walked with you
into this field of faith? Who are you walking
with today? And how are you sowing seeds into
the lives of others? Because the same Jesus we
received is the Jesus we must pass on. life to
life, generation to generation. Amen.