Beyond the Margin

By Joe Spear

A new twist on reap what you sow

Each October harvest leaves no doubt we live in an area of abundance.

Corn, soybeans, wheat, pumpkins. From the fields to the farmers’ markets, crops in a droughtstarved year still shimmer in the low angle of the sun in their gold, orange and beige hues.

In churches that dot the countryside from Bernadotte on the Nicollet-Sibley county border to Good Thunder at the end of Blue Earth County Road 1, it’s likely ministers will find a way to expound upon the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Galatians 6, verses 7-8 about reaping what you sow and other verses of harvest thankfulness.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Or 2 Corinthians 9-10: “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”

The Old Testament can be interesting as in Job 4:8 “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.”

But I like the guys who are now sowing things like Kernza (a wheat grass) in fields surrounding St. Peter and Helles Lager barley 15 miles from New Ulm on the Fort Road. Both are used in making tasty local beer. A fine harvest indeed.

In a moderately interesting essay in crosswalk.com, a website offering daily Christian Bible devotionals, the editors argue that reap what you sow is not the same concept as karma, something Hindus believe in.

Karma is the idea that if you live a good life and try to do good in all efforts, interactions and challenges,

good things will come back your way.

The crosswalk.com article “What does the Bible say about karma” posits that achieving karma or a perfect life is much more difficult than following a Christian ideal based on reaping what one sows because Jesus gives “grace” when we fail to do good things and “mercy” when we do bad things.

The goodness still comes from Jesus who, the editors note, had “perfect” karma.

On powwows.com, you can find out about the traditions of Native American harvests: “During the height of harvesting and gathering there would be great celebrations of thanks with music, song, dance, gifting and feasting. The general celebrations varied but often lasted anywhere from 4 to 7 days and maybe even longer. The rest of the time was used working hard and long to prepare for the coming winter.”

Music and dancing. I like the idea. Winter not so much.

With farmers and ministers invoking the reap and sow allusion, it seems it might be a good sell to suggest it for other endeavors, or at least consider its consequences with different framing.

Of course, applying biblical or even Hinduistic theology into the real world around us is fraught with risk of debunking our beliefs or at least being more cynical about them. When we frame issues around the pastoral reap-what-you-sow verse, we’re likely to come up with some unsettling results.

How does the principle of reap what you sow work for vaccines? Will you face the ill consequences as Job suggests of COVID if you don’t get the vaccine?

Witness the tumultuous civil unrest in Minneapolis and around the world after the George Floyd murder.

Did we sow that violence over 200 years of slavery? It’s hard to imagine otherwise.

And then there are global warming and climate change. The book of Revelation talks about the seas turning to blood and the mountains burning.

Floods, hurricanes and violent storms are more frequent. California is scheduled for its worst wildfire season ever.

But there’s still time. Climate scientists say we must keep the global temperature from rising just a few degrees and we can make progress.

Reap what we sow.

The Great Spirit wouldn’t have created humankind with a need for sustenance if they didn’t consider what it would take to get it.

Peace. Cooperation. Generosity. Celebrate the harvest. Reap what you sow. Consider it every day in everything.

It’s good karma.

Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.