Seeds
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The Sower, by Vincent Van Gogh
And he told them… ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow.’
-Matthew 13:3
Back in Jesus’ day there was no Agway. There were no mail order seed catalogues. Farmers had to leave some of their crop unpicked every year to allow the produce to go to seed so they could collect that seed and carefully store it, despite there being no plastic buckets or ziplocks to keep them protected, so they could plant it in the spring. In other words, seeds were far more precious to a farmer back then - and never a sure thing. So there is no way that any sower in Jesus’ day would just throw them all over the place with abandon like sower in Jesus’ famous story. So what’s that about?
This is one of the few stories that Jesus explains clearly to his disciples (the verses in the middle that are left out in this Sunday’s lectionary explain that after he tells this story to the crowd, he later explains it in detail to his disciples - you’ll have to check the bible.) Jesus told the story as an analogy for them to learn from. Therefore, the story has a certain potency in our own lives as his modern followers. In fact, I think it is one of the best ways to describe how we are called to conduct our various ministries in this life.
First, as faithful followers, we need to recognize that we’ve been given a great gift. This comes from the omitted verses:
Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
Somehow, we are able to hear this shepherd’s voice. Somehow, we are, as Derek preached last Sunday, prisoners of hope in a world that really needs hope. Somehow, we’ve been given good news that people are hungering and thirsting for. Whatever the particular gifts we’ve been given in this life, they’ve been given to us as a gift and shape how we are called to serve others. And this service, too, is a gift.
Second, we are called to share this gift abundantly. There’s no strategic planting of one seed here and another over there to get the outcome we might desire. We don’t control the outcome of what God calls us to do. All we can do is share it with creativity and abandon. Don’t worry about what will results you’ll get. It’s not your job to know. Your job is to use your gifts. You can leave it to God to use your work to reconcile this world.
And finally, we’re called to share our gifts with everyone. Don’t save up your energy and attention just for those who you judge are ‘fertile ground’ - or for those who make you feel good about your own work - the ones who yield back 100 fold. No, your gifts are meant for everyone who crosses your path - the over-busy, the preoccupied, the wounded, resentful, and even those who are as closed as a concrete path. We’d like to think that if we only planted in good soil, we’d get a better yield, but only God has the ability to make a seed grow, and who are we to know where God will choose a seed to take root? You never know where your seeds will land in a soft spot and yield fruits you may not ever see.
I love this image of the sower with his precious, precious bag of seed, trustingly sowing handfuls of it everywhere. Abundant life comes from God, but through our trust in, and gratitude for, God’s gifts to us, we can share ourselves with abundance.
