18.06.06 Colin Sowing Seeds Mark 4:26-34
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I
wonder if like me, have at some point in your life put seeds into
water and seen how they miraculously begin to grow. Cress I seem to
remember was one of the seeds that I grew as a child and I know we
have grown bean sprouts at home. I still feel a sense of utter
amazement at the ability of seeds to grow when planted in compost or
the earth, especially when after days, and sometimes weeks of
waiting, you see the first green shoots popping through the soil to
reach daylight. I wonder what hidden natural process most fascinates
you. Perhaps like me it is the wonder of the growth that nature
produces. Perhaps it is the changes of the seasons and the amazing
variations these bring. Perhaps it is the birthing of lambs each
year. I hope you retain your sense of wonder and awe at the miracle
that is nature that brings life.
There are two parables in today’s reading from Mark 4, and the first in verses 26-29 describes the growth of a seed from being scattered on the ground to its first growth above ground and finally into a head of grain on a stalk. The seed grows without any human intervention once it has been sown and indeed the farmer does not know how or why the seed sprouts.
The emphasis of the parable is on the power of the seed to grow itself without human intervention. From a tiny seed it mysteriously produces life. The miracle of a dried up seed is that it contains life within itself and it grows without any human intervention once it is in suitable conditions. The point of the parable is the work of the seed itself, which obtains its life and growth from a source that has nothing to do with human beings. It grows so slowly that we cannot, initially at least, see it growing. Only when we go away and return after a day or a week or a month can we see the seed's progress - and be gladdened by it - and wonder at it.
This may seem to gloss over the hard work of farmers and gardeners, who water, fertilize, and weed crops between planting and harvest. However, even if a farmer were to do nothing but sow seed, much of the seed would germinate and grow to maturity.
Christine and I walked in the Botanic Gardens on Thursday this week on a beautiful sunny day and passed a Black Poplar tree with what looked like thousands of catkins hanging from the branches and the air just filled with seeds, airborne with the aid of thousands of tiny hairs surrounding each seed, blowing from the tree in the breeze. We wondered what would happen in the Botanic Gardens if every one of those seed sprouted! Across the world, in every year, billions and trillions of seeds take root without human intervention. Hillsides and valleys around the world are covered with plants that no human hand planted, watered, fertilized, or weeded. So, let us today wonder at the miracle of life that God has created in each seed.
Jesus uses the mystery of seed germination as an illustration of how the Kingdom of Heaven grows and invites his disciples to become the sowers of the seed of the Gospel. Jesus invites his Disciples to sow the seed of the Gospel so that it can grow in the hearts of people. Like a farmer, they will not normally see an instant result from the sowing of the Gospel seed; like a farmer they have no power to bring that seed to life. All they can do is to sow the seed by witnessing to what they have seen and heard and experienced, then allow the seed of the Gospel itself to come to life when the Holy Spirit enables the right conditions in the life of the hearer of the Gospel.
Like the disciples, all we can do is to witness by our life and our words that we know the Lord God the Creator of this world and that we experience His presence in our life. We can tell others of the Gospel of Christ, but we cannot make the Word of God grow in them; neither can we persuade them to believe. But, our responsibility as Christians is to sow the seed of the Word of God so that it can enters into someone’s heart waiting for the moment when by the miracle of life that God imbues it with, through the power of the Holy Spirit, it germinates in their life.
When I think of the Kingdom of God I often picture it as something gigantic, vital, dynamic and powerful; sometimes the church does not seem like that to me. Today’s parable puts my picture into the context of God as a farmer. We human beings are always in a hurry, wanting things done fast; seeing quick results and wanting action and excitement. The picture of God as a farmer is a much more Biblical one than God as an ‘action man’ like James Bond who zaps everyone and wins by power and ruthlessness. Farming requires long hard work, often over many years to get the soil in good condition to sustain growth. So, the growth of Kingdom of Heaven is slow but steady over years, and indeed centuries.
We can and must take our part as sowers of the seed by preaching and living the Word of God; we can invite friends to worship with us; we can witness to what we know in our hearts to be true. But, the results of all we do may sometimes seem overwhelmingly ordinary in the short run. A few children or young people come forward for baptism or confirmation; a young couple choose to be married in the church; we raise money to buy goats or tools to support poor people in other parts of the world; we work to create a world which is more like the one that God made and intended. Often, all this effort seems not to amount to much of anything, but God is growing his seed!
But let’s not just look outward to other people today – let’s also look inward at ourselves. God has planted his seed in us to grow until He finishes what He started in each of us. Look back on your Christian life today and reflect on how you've grown. How you are different now from when you’re Christian life first sprouted? For us as Christian, the process of the growth of the Word of God in our lives is just like a plant – it needs tender loving care initially until it grow strong and mature. Then the plant of our life needs continual pruning so that the fruit can continue to grow abundantly. Read again the great verses from Psalm 9 verses 12-14 – a great encouragement to all as they get older in the Christian life!
God often chooses to work through unlikely candidates: Jacob, the schemer - Moses, the murderer - David, the boy whose father almost forgot to mention him when Samuel came looking for a king - Gideon, the commander of a little army of only three hundred men. God has chosen to work in this world, here in Leith and Edinburgh, through the unlikely candidates who are here in this room today and in churches across Edinburgh!
There are times for all of us when we look at the world and wonder how or indeed whether God is working in the midst of all the poverty and violence and war. What we can say is that what begun in the Galilean ministry of Jesus will, by the power of God, one day prove to be of ultimate significance. If, for the time being, the power of God is hidden, it is not for that reason any less certain. Those of us committed to God's kingdom can be assured that the Kingdom in which we are investing our lives will one day be fully manifest and will be victorious over the competing kingdoms of this world driven by greed and violence. This parable gives us those assurances. Despite the rejection of Jesus in his time, and by many since, a great harvest is guaranteed, when the seeds which we and others have sown germinate through God’s power and come to fruit. We, like the farmer in the parable, may not understand the process by which the seed comes to life in a human being; but we need not doubt that the final result will be a growth in the Kingdom of Heaven.