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A farmer was sowing seeds in his
field. Taking a handful of seed and throw them as far
as he could in every direction. There was nothing out
of the ordinary this was how farmers plant their crops.
I do not know about you but to me it seems like a
tremendous amount of waste. I know that is how farmers
planted crops back in Jesus’ day, but why waste seed
just flinging it into the air allowing it to land places
where it has little if any chance of growth? We are
accustomed to preparing the soil, digging small holes
and then carefully place a seed in each hole. Each hole
is four to eight inches apart and is in nice even rows.
This is what we are used to see but was not how people
planted in Jesus’ day.
As you might expect not all of the
seed took root. Some of the scattered seed was eaten by
birds. Some seed fell on rocky ground, the plant took
root but because there was no depth to the soil it soon
withered and died. Other seed fell among the thorns.
Why is it that weeds always seem to choke out what you
plant? Whatever you plant does not grow but boy the
weeds have no problem growing. Nothing came from the
seed eaten by birds, planted in rocky or hard ground or
among the thorns. All that wasted seed.
Believe it or not some of the seed actually fell on
good soil. Not only did the crop take root and grow but
at harvest time it produced “a hundred fold, sixty, and
thirty.” It was truly amazing. Whoever would have
thought that by sowing seeds haphazardly it would yield
such an astonishing crop? The farmer might have
expected a return of five to ten percent; a really good
year might have had fifteen percent return. Never it
the farmer’s wildest imagination did he ever expect more
than fifteen percent return, but here is a hundred,
sixty, and thirty. It was nothing short of a miracle.
Those who heard Jesus tell this
parable must have been amazed at such astonishing
results. They had never heard of such a thing. People
would want to ask the farmer his secret so they too can
have such a high yield on their crops.
It seemed like the farmer wasted
more seed than he planted. Obviously, it was not the
skill of the farmer that brought about such tremendous
growth. The parable is about God. The focus of the
story is on God and not the luck of the farmer. Only
God can bring about such remarkable growth. Our focus
this morning and every Sunday is to worship God. We
still stumble over this from time to time when we think
worship is all about us.
You might be sitting there thinking
that this is a cute little story—good for the farmer
with the harvest of a lifetime—but what does this mean
for us today? We must first ask why Jesus told this
parable at this particular time.
Jesus had preached the Sermon on
the Mount, the core of his teachings. Then he healed
the sick. The disciples embarked on their first solo
mission—proclaiming the good news. Their mission was a
success although not everyone who heard the message
responded. Some remained unconvinced, unmoved or
indifferent. Some might have initially responded but
soon drifted off in other directions. The same is true
today. It is puzzling--people will hear the exact same
message some will respond while others will not.
The parable seeks to answer the
question why some respond while others do not. We do
not understand why the gospel message has taken hold in
one person’s life and not in another. Sometimes this
happens within the same family. The parable teaches us
that ultimately it is God who brings about the growth.
We do our best, planting seeds, but God will bring forth
unbelievable growth.
Everyone at some point in her or
his life is open and receptive to the gospel message.
The challenge for us is to act at the right time. We
know from our own experience that not everyone will
respond immediately. We share our faith with another
person out of our love and concern for that person. We
want our friend to discover what we have found to be
true in Jesus. For whatever reason the person does not
respond. When that happens we should not be discouraged
but continue flinging our seeds knowing and believing
that some will respond.
Tonight we begin an exciting week
of Vacation Bible School. I’ve been asked why we bother
at all? It’s a major time commitment and a lot of work,
usually taking place during the hottest week of the
summer. When the week is over we never see any of the
children or their parents in church. While all of that
is might be true there could be one child who will
respond to the gospel message from our efforts. There
might be one child whose life we will touch through our
efforts. We might not ever know the impact we have on a
young person’s life. That is why I’m excited about
Vacation Bible School. This is our opportunity to reach
out to children in our community, many who do not have a
church home. Several families have registered their
children through our website.
A couple of months ago I was at the
Library Book sale. As I walked past I heard a young
girl say, “That looks like the guy from Vacation Bible
School!” I immediately stopped, turned around and
recognized the sister and brother. The children
attended Vacation Bible School last year as well as
attended a couple of our Saturday morning Children’s
activities throughout the year. I shared the dates for
this year’s VBS. Their mother said how much they loved
VBS last summer and assured me they would be attending.
The truth is that we may never know
the impact we have on others, on children, youth and
adults. Our task is to fling seeds of love as far and
wide as we can and allow God to bring forth the growth.
At harvest time the growth will be more than we ever
expected or thought possible.
Later, in private the disciples
asked Jesus specifically what the parable meant. They
were unsure what Jesus was driving at. So Jesus spelled
it out for them. The person who hears the message but
does not understand, “the evil one comes and snatches
away what is sown in the heart this is what was sown on
the path.” Others will initially respond with joy but
soon will fall by the wayside because there is no
depth. According to Jesus such a person, “endures only
for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on
account of the word, that person immediately falls
away.”
Then there are people who are
distracted by so many other things that they too lose
interest. “This is the one who hears the word, but the
cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the
word, and it yields nothing,” Jesus explained. This
person represents the seed sowed among the thorns. We
probably can all think of persons who fit those
categories. But that should not discourage or limit our
seed flinging. We continue sharing our faith, reaching
out to others in the name of Jesus Christ, knowing that
not everyone will respond, but some will.
Some of the seed did actually make
it to good soil and produced a remarkable yield. That
is the person who whole heartedly responds, “who indeed
bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in
another sixty, and in another thirty.”
We go forth flinging our seed, in
every direction; we do not stop until our bag is empty.
We do so knowing that not all the seed will take root,
but praise God some will produce an amazing yield.
Amen
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