"Sleeping Sower, Sprouting Seed" - Mark 4:26-29 (June 17, 2018)
/Mark 4:26-29
He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
Friday was my first official “day on the job” as your new pastor. After meeting with a few folks, making a pastoral phone call, and eating a ham and cheese melt at Dad’s Favorites after spending 10 minutes trying to find the darn place, I sat down at my computer to write what would be the first sermon I would give as your new pastor. Sometimes, to get my creative juices flowing, I’ll take a walk. This walk killed two birds with one stone because it also served to burn off the calories I had just ingested through the delicious beer cheese at Dad’s Favorites.
As I left the main doors of the church building, I turned to the right and decided to take a stroll through what I believe y’all call “the Croft” (the garden behind the church). This is the first time that I’ve been a part of a congregation that has a garden attached to its premises. You all are blessed with a nice flat field adjacent to the building and I’m glad y’all are making good use of it! I noticed the beautiful Kentucky bluegrass beneath my leather flip flops and made my way out to the Croft on one of these perfect sunny June days before the worst of the summer’s humidity arrives.
As I entered the Croft, a friendly dragonfly decided to accompany me upon my stroll, oscillating back and forth from my shoulders to whatever plant interested her at the moment. I passed tomatoes, onions, flowers, lettuce, peppers, some other plants which I could not identify, and, my personal favorite, kale! Some plots looked exuberant and lovingly attended to, others looked like they could use a little more lovin’. Not that I’m an expert, mind you. I’ve never had a green thumb but I know plenty of people who do.
I love that y’all have a garden because, well, God really loves things that grow. In fact, growing things is kind of the most important part of God’s job description. In the past, God grew things. In the present, God is growing things. In the future, God will grow things. In fact, the promise of the resurrection is that God continually pulls us up out of the graves we dig for ourselves and brings us new life and new possibilities. So, in many ways, no one has more of a green thumb than God.
Today’s passage is one of many parables that have to do with things that grow. In fact, three of them are packed into this one chapter of Mark’s Gospel. Before today’s passage, we have the parable of the seeds that are scattered upon a path, upon rocky ground, upon thorns, and upon good soil. The seeds upon the path are eaten by the birds. The seeds upon the rocky ground are scorched by the sun. The seeds upon the thorns were choked by the thorns. But the seeds on the good soil flourished.
Then, after today’s passage is the familiar story of the mustard seed. You know the one, where Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a measly little mustard seed that grows up to take over the whole neighborhood.
But between these two parables is a lesser known parable, a parable that is completely unique to Mark’s Gospel. It is a parable that, to my knowledge, I have yet to preach on…until today.
It’s very brief. Three sentences to be exact.
He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
In a parable such as this, you and I are called to play multiple characters at once. I like to think of parables as little miniature one-act plays in which we are invited to put on different costumes and find out together what these roles speak to us.
The first role you and I are called to play is that of the sower. And while one might think that the sower is God or Jesus, today’s text tells us that the sower is completely unaware of how it all works. As we’ve already established, if anyone is aware of how creation works, it’s God!
You and I are gathered on this day, on this first worship together with me as your new pastor, to scatter seeds that have been gifted to us by the “Supreme Sower.” We have been gifted with the seeds of God’s Word, the presence of the Holy Spirit to interpret it, and the community of faith we have been called to be stewards of, a community that I - and many others - have taken to calling “the Beloved Community.” I’m sure that the people who are Beaumont Presbyterian Church have scattered many seeds since 1959. And each seed, no matter how small it may seem to begin, has a story.
Which reminds me of some wise advice I received last week. I asked a member of this congregation if they had any one piece of advice for me as we begin our time together. This person’s response: “listen to the stories, Stephen. For we all have a story to share.” Friends, when seeds are scattered, stories sprout. As your new pastor, I am privileged to walk alongside y’all to get to know the seeds that y’all have scattered in the past as we together discern what seeds Christ is calling us to scatter moving forward.
But in this passage we are not only the sower, we are - perhaps more importantly - the soil. Again, I remind you that I have no green thumb whatsoever. However, this I do know: that the fruitfulness of a seed is only as good as the soil upon which it is planted. Simply put, parables such as today’s remind us that we are called to be the good soil upon which Christ’s Gospel can be planted.
And friends, good soil is so desperately needed in our world today.
When children are torn from their parents’ arms at the border, arms of parents seeking asylum for their family, that is not good soil.
When the Attorney General of the United States of America uses the Bible to justify such atrocious actions, that is not good soil; nothing good sprouts from that ground.
When our sisters and brothers in Puerto Rico are still struggling because our government has not treated them with nearly as much attention as hurricane victims here in the states, that is not good soil.
When many of our friends and family in the LGBT community are not feeling welcomed, loved, and safe, that is not good soil.
When anger, animosity, and anguish take up far more headlines than acts of kindness and justice, that is not good soil.
All around the world, and in our very neighborhoods, we see soil that has been contaminated - both metaphorically and literally - by our brokenness.
But the good news is this: bad soil does not have the final word. You see, after Christ was crucified, he was - quite literally - planted in the ground. His body was scattered in that dark tomb. And on the third day, a new creation took root and sprung forth from the earth. And on that day that we call Easter, God made it very clear that God loves the world way too much to leave it to the devastation that we had created for ourselves. On that day we call Easter, Christ sprung forth from the ground and gave us something more beautiful than even the most decadent rose or fragrant honeysuckle.
And because of that beautiful new creation, we are called to be the good soil upon which that new creation can further take root.
You and I are called to be good soil. The kind of soil where kindness spreads faster than kudzu. The kind of soil where righteousness sprouts with the ferocity of a mustard seed. The kind of soil where all feel like they have a place that they are welcomed to put down roots and flourish.
Now that, my friends, is a parable I want to be a part of. And I hope you do, too. Together, let us be guided by the Holy Spirit to learn the ways in which Christ is calling us to be good soil in 2018 and further. The Kingdom of God is a place where God calls the unlikeliest of characters - broken people like you and me - to come together to till a Croft called the Earth. You and I have been given a little corner of this earth to plant crops that will yield fruits of justice, mercy, and love. Friends, the harvest is coming.
Let’s be good soil, together.
In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.