Sowing the Seed

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

The Kingdom of God ….  How many times have we talked about the Kingdom of God?  I’m not sure, but it’s been quite a few.

Today’s parable talks about the Kingdom of God in an entirely different way.  Jesus isn’t telling us what the Kingdom of God will look like.  He is telling us how the Kingdom of God will come.

The kingdom is one of grace and mercy that will come because God brings it.  The Kingdom of God is the creation of God.  The farmer does not know how the seed germinates and grows.  In the same way, the Kingdom of God grows in hidden, mysterious ways, independent of our human efforts.

Who is responsible for building the Kingdom of God?  Not us … God.  Building the Kingdom of God is God’s job, not ours.  But that doesn’t mean we have nothing to do.

The parable tells us that we are to be faithful farmers, sowers of the seed, and we are not to worry about the crop because God will produce the harvest.  We are often tempted to get so caught up with worrying about the harvest that we forget to sow the seed.  Or we may forget that God keeps us in this world to act as ministers of reconciliation, to bring people back together and to be salt to prevent the rotting from getting worse.  Or we may be so depressed by the apparently endless power of evil that we lose all faith and contribute to the darkness.  If we try to do God’s job, we set ourselves up to fail.

So what is our job?  Is it to grow the church?  To bring more people in through these doors?  No, it isn’t.

Our job is to sow the seed.  Every time we tell someone about the good news of Jesus Christ, we are sowing a seed.  Every time we show someone what it means to live as Christ teaches us, we are sowing a seed.  Every time we reach out to someone in Jesus’ name, we are sowing a seed.  When we gathered this past Friday for messy church, we were sowing the seed.  When we reach out again this Friday, we are sowing the seed.  This is the first part of our job.

Jesus tells us that we are supposed to spread as much seed as possible and then wait.  What happens next we have no control over.  Only God knows if that seed will take root.  Only God knows if it will grow.  We just watch and wait … oh yes, and sow more seed.  Never stop sowing seed.

Our second job is to tend the crop.  Once the seed has taken root and started to grow, we are supposed to take care of it.  This is where church comes in.  We are the crop.  We need to take care of each other and anyone else who responds to the message we are spreading.  We need to support and encourage each other so that we can continue sowing seed.

And we give thanks that God will do the parts that we cannot do.

Thanks be to God.