Seed capital: David Brown’s Thought for the Week
‘Mystical awakening needs to be activated and nurtured.’
As spring arrives, it reminds me that the image and metaphor of the seed has been very popular with Quakers. William Penn in 1694 likens the seed to the potential for inner connection with God, saying: ‘If you would know God and worship and serve God as you should do, you must come to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose. Some seek it in books, some in learned men, but what they look for is in themselves, yet they overlook it. The voice is too still, the Seed too small and the Light shineth in darkness’ (Quaker faith & practice 26.44).
According to Penn, the seed needs to be seen and nurtured by the light. In modern terms, mystical awakening needs to be activated and nurtured by spiritual practice such as prayer, meditation – and, of course, Meeting for Worship. Then the spiritual journey to enlightenment or unity with God needs to be walked with confidence, as George Fox tells us in 1663: ‘Sing and rejoice, ye Children of the Day and of the Light; for the Lord is at work in this thick night of Darkness that may be felt: and Truth doth flourish as the rose, and the lilies do grow among the thorns, and the plants atop of the hills, and upon them the lambs doth skip and play. And never heed the tempests nor the storms, floods nor rains, for the Seed Christ is over all and doth reign. And so, be of good faith and valiant for the Truth’ (Quaker faith & practice 20.23).
The rewards of nurturing the seed are expressed by Isaac Pennington in 1661 when he says: ‘Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart, and let that grow in thee and be in thee and breathe in thee and act in thee; and thou shalt find by sweet experience that the Lord knows that and loves and owns that, and will lead it to the inheritance of Life, which is its portion’ (Quaker faith & practice 26.70).
This ‘giving over thy own running’ is of course easier said than done, and takes practice – as we are advised by Thomas Kelly in 1941 when he says: ‘How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, towards [that which] calls in the deeps of our souls. Mental habits of inward orientation must be established. An inner, secret turning to God can be made fairly steady, after weeks and months and years of practice and lapses and failures and returns’ (Quaker faith & practice 2.22).
As we know, seeds do grow into strong plants that blossom and bear fruit. It is up to us to nurture the seed within us.
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