"Ears to hear and tongues to tell"
Luke 8:4-8 - parable of the Sower
Jeremiah 31:27-34

As you can see from the front of the bulletin I am continuing in the theme of Evangelism or "Outreach" that Thorwald used last week. The image he used of evangelism was that of breathing- a natural event that is essential to life, that has both inward and outward parts to it, and that gives life to the church. It is a great image.

Another image used for outreach is sowing seed, just as we heard in the parable of the sower. Indeed this is a common picture in the bible because it is a metaphor for preaching the gospel, and the telling of the good news is what the bible is all about.

It is a good image of evangelism too - because it reminds us that while we are asked to sow the seed of the gospel in all areas of our lives, we are not necessarily responsible for the growth of these seeds. And that can be quite comforting - even liberating for us. It means we can do the tasks set for us as well as we can, but leave the results to God. We've been asked to pray for the team going to teach scripture at Red Hill this week - none of us know in what way children who are presented with the good news of Jesus this week will be impacted, but that does not make the task any less important. Each January when we run a Holiday Club for children we wonder whether the seeds that are sown will bear fruit. Crafty Fingers is another example - we certainly intend for it to be more than just a social gathering, but we only occasionally get a sense of whether it is a place where ladies are helped spiritually. I could go on to talk about the Verandah at Stuart Flats, our Giant Steps playgroup, the connection we have as a church with the Journey of Healing and so on - all things that we are involved in because we want to spread the good news and yet we have no real way of knowing whether any fruits will come from it.

I have a prayer written by Oscar Romero, the archbishop of El Salvador who was assassinated because of his opposition to an oppressive regime. I pull it out quite often to share with others because it is such an encouragement. It is entitled "A future not our own". Let me read it to you now:

Evangelism as planting seeds is a good image but I guess sometimes we would like to be more controlled. We would like to be sure that the effort we put in will bear some fruit. The story Jesus told like all his parables was somewhat comical. There is a Sower - wildly scattering his seeds across all sorts of ground, including paths, thorns, and rocks. Some people must have been asking "Doesn't he realise how precious seed is?" It might even have been a shocking image to the original listeners, for whom having seed was so important that the whole country had to go into debt twice in the first century to purchase it. A strange sort of farmer who could be so careless.

But maybe the problem wasn't a careless farmer but the listeners! The interpretation that follows the parable in both Luke and Mark suggest that bad soil was to blame (see verses 11-15). Too shallow, too preoccupied, too materialistic, too easy to give up when troubles come.

Actually the gospel seems to go on to give examples of such bad soil. Was the seed removed by Satan before it had even taken root when the Pharisees rejected Jesus or when Judas betrayed him? Was the faith of the other disciples so shallow that they ran away when troubles came? Even Peter himself - who had followed Jesus immediately, whose name meant rock, even Peter fell away when the crunch came. We tend to think of Jesus' disciples, the first followers, with stained glass images. Indeed they surround us in this church. But the bible has a far less rosy picture of the people who have wanted to follow Jesus but have failed. And in fact that is a great comfort to us. When we are called to be followers too, and yet fall away when life gets too hard, or too busy, or too lazy; we only have to remember the Peters and Andrews and Marys and Marthas who didn't get it right every time either. And then there are the others who fell amongst thorns: - the seed is sown in fertile ground and there is possibility of growth and fruit, yet the other plants already growing there choke it out. The interpretation of the parable calls it the "cares and riches and pleasures of life". The gospels go on to illustrate such persons - the rich young ruler who went away sadly; the man who shored up treasures for himself but had no life left to enjoy them; or the man who lived sumptuously ignoring the beggars at his door; or those who claimed to be followers of Jesus but didn't clothe the stranger or feed the hungry or visit those in prison. Jesus said to those around him: "Let those who have ears hear": did the disciples hear Jesus talking directly to them? Do we who claim to be his followers now hear his words? Do we ever hear a word that prods us right in a sore spot? Reading the bible together is meant to challenge us as well as comfort and encourage us.

Let those who have ears hear.. In the allegorical explanation of the parable you'll notice that all hear the word, but only the last group hold it fast in their heart and so can bear fruit. Only some act on the word. We all have ears to hear, but are we all going to act on it? It is not enough just to hear. We also have tongues to tell, hands to act, feet to move to where there is need. And isn't it great to know that Peter and Mary and James and Martha did hear - and did eventually act on the words they heard. In the power of the Holy Spirit they went out to tell the good news, to sow the seed, to preach the gospel.

The explanation about the soil is much longer than the original parable though. In it seed is scattered with the expectation that there will be a harvest. This is the natural, expected result. Why some seed does not grow requires reflection and explanation. But let's capture the expectant joy of the original story again. Scattering seed - even carelessly, and reaping the harvest - this was the main focus of Jesus' parable. And any harvest resulting from such indiscriminate casting about is a sign of grace. Preaching, evangelising, witnessing, holiday clubs, craft groups, playgroups, ecumenical projects at Stuart Flats - all of these are so we can be God's presence in this place, to be the means by which God's grace is known. It is to let the Kingdom of God take root here. It is to sow seeds, and hope that some of the seeds are taken up by receptive and responsive soil, ready to grow the good news. This is why growing seeds in good soil is such a good illustration of the Kingdom of God. After all, the Kingdom of God is a mystery. It is a gift. In Jesus day it was offered to those who did not deserve it, and it was celebrated by those who from any sensible point of view had nothing to celebrate. It was no carefully managed greenhouse protected exotic plant. It was seed scattered to the wind that somehow took root in soil and grew unseen, until it was strong enough to bear fruit. The Kingdom of God was seen in a life lived extravagantly, ended disgracefully, laying unseen in a locked grave until new life sprang forth defying all logic and reason and giving rise to a new thing in the life of the world - a church of caring, committed, courageous Christians. And this image of the kingdom of God shows us a church which is not a laboratory where growth is manipulated and controlled, nor a conservatory with beautiful glass doors keeping out the weeds and riff-raff likely to damage the plants. It is a field out in the middle of the world, near the highways and byways, near the rocky ground, open to the elements, but producing fruit that can be seen by all, and useful to the world around.

But let us remember that this is an image, a metaphor. The mystery of the kingdom is not agricultural, but human. It is in the human heart, not physical ground, that the power of God's presence can be found. The words we read from Jeremiah remind us of this also - for the people reeling from judgement because they had not lived up to the agreement they had made with God, only something new and integrated into their very lives would change them. The destructive process of judgement is replaced with a process of reconstruction - Yahweh will build and plant. Time for a new mission: creation of a new people. Laws written on stone and a relationship focused on a priest in a temple would not be as effective as an internal knowledge of God's presence, in their hearts. When we speak of our hearts we speak of love - the new covenant would be motivated by love. Where there is love there is no imposition. Commitment and submission come naturally when love is there. The desire to follow and to be part of God's kingdom will grow naturally when the heart is open to knowing God and God's ways.

So scattering seed should be as natural for us as breathing is. We who know the love of God in our lives should be wanting that to be known wherever we go. To go and tell has always been the imperative for God's people. "Keep my words in your heart and tell them to your children, talk about them when you are home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise". "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news". "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." Apparently there is a custom in one of the Scandinavian denominations: when a minister is newly ordained they go straight out of the church and begin to preach to the probably startled bypassers (I'm glad I'm not Scandinavian!). But that does capture the impetus of the gospel - the good news - that can make a difference to the world. The church isn't about sitting in here amongst the stained glass - church is about taking God's message everywhere. As our mission statement says, being an open community that is responsive to God and wants to serve others. Sowing seeds in the streets, in our homes, at our work, on our holidays. We might stammer. We might feel tongue tied. We might not even think we have found the right words to say. But we who have heard have the task of going out to sow seeds, and leave the rest up to God's grace.

For reference:

Mary Ann Tolbert, Sowing the Gospel, 1989: 148-175.
David Buttrick, Speaking Parables, 2000:64-70.