"Seeds are being sown every time you touch someone or smile as an act of love or acceptance, every time you go to visit someone in trouble or need, every time you write a check or give some volunteer time. "
	Alan H. Jones

Campbell – July 9, 2006

Parable of the Sower

Mark 4:3-20

The great thing about the parables of Jesus is that they are like a diamond.   Hold them up to the light and from different angles you will see different dimensions.   Even this particular story, which we call the Parable of the Sower has multiple dimensions of truth, even though it appears that Jesus explains the meaning to us in the verses following the parable.

Let me try one of many possible interpretations on you.   The sower is you , and you are the one invited by Jesus to be the special person spreading the word of God.   It is you who is being reminded that when you live the Christian life of love, peace, compassion and justice, there will be times when the seed falls on the path, or in the shallow soil or on the rocks.   There is no guarantee that the seed will actually germinate and become a plant.

The Gospel of Mark in particular we think was written to a group of early Christians somewhere in the Roman empire who were having a really tough time. The state religion was emperor worship, and many Christians were being tortured and executed.   They were having big problems getting their message across.   The parable puts on the lips of Jesus some words that help to interpret their predicament.   Jesus is saying when you share the word, remember farmers who spread the seed on the land, knowing full well that much of it will never grow to maturity.

We are living in difficult times for Christians… we are not being tortured or executed, but our culture is clearly rejecting the values we know in Jesus.   Our love affair with violence and war, the widespread support for revenge rather than justice, the use of god language and Jesus language to support power agendas, the indifference to the crying needs of the poor and the marginalized… all remind us that we have a lot of seed sowing to do.

Jesus is teaching us to be actively sowing seeds.   There is no such thing as a passive Christian.   And we need to be sowing seeds on the path and the rocky places as well as on the fertile ground.   Christianity is not a spectator religion or even a feel good religion, it is religion of discipleship.   Doing and being are interacting.

 

• Seed were being planted this week when the Tongan community, many of whom are Methodists, let it be known that wanted to share forgiveness with the young woman who may have caused the death of their beloved prince and princess in an automobile accident.

 

• Seeds were planted in my soul when Margaret Powell, immobile in her hospital bed, was wanting to encourage me to be a courageous pastor to the church she loves.

 

• Seeds are being sown as Claudia picks up the phone and says I just thought I'd call to see how you are doing.

 

• Seeds are being sown by our youth, putting on roofs and painting on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.

 

• Seeds are being sown every time you touch someone or smile as an act of love or acceptance, every time you go to visit someone in trouble or need, every time you write a check or give some volunteer time.

 

There are probably thousands of ways you can be sowing seeds of the word of God each day, and just occasionally your love will communicate.

When Linda and I were missionaries in Sierra Leone, we would encourage churches back in California to send boxes of supplies for school and other projects… paper, pens, fabric, hymnals, books… lots of things could be well used.   We knew that a significant proportion of the packages wouldn't make it through the mail.   Some churches would be horrified when they heard that something they had sent had been stolen en route.   We would always encourage the churches to keep on sending and tell them that the lost mail was the daily reality for Christians in Sierra Leone.   You just have to send another package and pray that it gets through.   The love of God we know in Jesus Christ keeps on loving even when the love isn't accepted and doesn't take root.

The Parable of the Sower reminds us that we are living in tough times for the gospel.   Few people want to hear about love, grace, God, Jesus and the promise of new life and healing.   Our task is to keep spreading the seed, confident that enough will take root to guarantee that one day soon there will indeed be a bumper crop.   Because the good seed bears multiple fruits… when the seed is successful, it goes on to create more seeds, more life, more faith more hope, more love in the name of Jesus.    And each of us has been given the enormous privilege of being a sower of the seed. WOW!

  Thanks be to God!