Sunday, July 16, 2017

Jesus Wouldn't Have Made Much of a Farmer


Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23


        I have admired with great admiration the good work of Nancy Johnson and her merry band of “garden workers”.  If you haven’t been up the hill, it is worth the trip. Last fall they turned over a patch of ground and covered it with straw. Then they built a deer-proof barrier to protect what they hoped would be a summer crop. They prepped the soil, put in an irrigation system, planted seeds, and got ready for the glorious day when they could begin to pull more than weeds. I walk up the hill singing, Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow, Gonna mulch it deep and low, gonna make it furtile ground. Inch by inch, row by row, please bless these seeds we grow, please keep them safe below till the rain comes tumblin’ down.

        Well God did two wonderful things with our garden. First, the seeds were kept safe below. Then nourished by rain and caring hands, the crop has been bountiful. Every Thursday folks at the Senior Citizen lunch receive fresh vegetables. Members of Nancy’s crew also take vegetables to our wood ministry clients. Now our wood and vegetable ministries are serving Nelson County year round.

        But God also assisted our ministry a second way. God didn’t send Jesus up the hill to help with the sowing of the seeds. I am certain before Jesus became a full time preacher he was a wonderful carpenter.   But he obviously knew nothing about gardening.  Who in their right mind throws seeds on rocky soil? And why throw seeds among the weeds? I’ve watched Nancy and her crew. One row is carrots, the next potatoes, then cucumbers, and so on. I saw no random disbursement among the rocks and weeds. In other words, not one seed has been wasted.

        I doubt that would have happened had Jesus pitched in. He just threw seeds everywhere. When folks, many of them farmers, heard the Parable of the Sower, Jesus probably lost some credibility with the crowd.  They were aghast at how much seed Jesus had wasted. Perhaps that is why when Jesus finished the parable he was met with a sea of blank stares. No one understood what he was trying to say. It is like telling your favorite joke and no one laughs.

One of the disciples got up the nerve to speak, “Jesus, I don’t think they got the point of the story.”

Jesus said, “Well explain it to them.”

 The disciple responded, “I didn’t get it either.”

Jesus replied, “It’s an allegory.”

“Oh. What’s an allegory?”

That is when Jesus, the not so accomplished farmer, put on his preaching hat and sort of explained the joke.

As many of you know, a really good story has at least two meanings. One seems pretty obvious. But if you dig deeper a whole new world of understanding emerges. On the surface it appears Jesus is creating a manual for anyone interested in church evangelism. Jesus seems to be saying when you go out into a neighborhood looking for perspective members you are going to run across three types of folk. The first are the newcomers. They have the best of intentions and a lot of enthusiasm. We become captured by their excitement and by their third visit and we have signed them up to teach a Sunday School class, chair a committee, and checked to see if they have a truck for wood ministry. The problem is, by the fifth week they have burned themselves out. We might see them one or two more times but eventually they will either try out a new church or decide reading the Sunday Edition of the New York Times is a more pleasant way to spend Sunday morning.

The second type of folks Jesus warns us about is visionaries. They want to transform the world. They have  been told the church is the place where life changing events take root. The first Sunday they visit, the minister preaches from the Luke 4 text proclaiming Jesus as the one who will, “Bring good news to the poor, bring sight to the blind, and release the captives.”  On hearing the word they have a come to Jesus moment, “blow up their TV, throw away their papers, go to the country, and build a home. Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches and try to find Jesus on their own.” (John Prine). They are deliriously happy until they spend two days without their cell phones. Next they have second thoughts about trading their SUV for bicycles. But the straw that breaks their camel’s back is when they discover apples, not peaches are the cash crop in Nelson County. The weeds in the garden choke their dreams and they admit they were not cut out to be prophets.

Then Jesus introduces prospect number three. They come to our county after spending their entire life in a church. They not only know how to spell Presbyterian, they pray for debtors rather than trespassers. They enjoy going to Sunday School and even own a NRSV Bible. After being here for a year the husband has joined the choir and the wife is being considered for the session. If they are in town they will be in church at least three times a week. They pray for others, show up on work days, and faithfully participate in the Stewardship program. In other words, they will make an excellent church member. They have heard the word, responded and will bear fruit.

The parable seems so simple. Plant your seeds where you know they will grow and the results will overwhelm you. That is what we want to here. Why waste our time of folks that will prove to be a drain on our time. They will only be here for a moment and then they will be off to the next adventure. Even Jesus warned us not to waste our time. But then there is one small problem. Why does the sower keep throwing seeds on the rocks and in the weeds?

My sister is a teacher.  She has two Masters Degrees and an incredible ability to interact with youth and children. Give her a classroom or a floor and magic happens. She teaches Head Start Children. Some might think why would she waste her talents on children that have no chance? Why not teach kids who from birth are headed to college?   Many folks with the tough job of creating budgets would like to see Head Start eliminated because they do not believe the program is cost efficient. My sister would ask how it is possible to you put a monetary figure on the worth of a three year old? She is out there sowing seeds. She loves every child that walks through her door. She doesn’t judge them based on what they could be tomorrow. She loves each child for who they are now. She is relentlessly and indiscriminately throwing seed fervently believing that all soil is potentially good soil. 

My sister understands the real meaning of this parable. You can argue until you are blue in the face that life isn’t fair. You can point out there are folks around every corner just waiting to do us in. Or you can grasp the deeper meaning of the parable and start distributing seeds.

I read last month a person pulled his car into a Macdonald’s and decided to play the “Pay it forward” game. He said to the cashier, “Whatever the person behind me buys I will pay for it.” Imagine the surprise of the person in the next car when she discovered her meal was free. She responded by paying for the person behind her. Amazingly the next 67 customers paid it forward.

Jesus didn’t know a thing about being a farmer. He pretty sure he didn’t purchase the latest books on how to do effective evangelism. The words cost effective never seemed to be part of his vocabulary.  But Jesus loved a good song and I happen to know one of his favorites was,

Inch by inch, row by row,

Please bless these seeds we sow,

Please keep them safe below,

Till God’s reign comes tumblin’ down.

Amen.

 

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