Second Sunday after Pentecost, June 14, 2009

Lessons designated by the Common Lectionary include: I Samuel 15: 34-16:13,
Psalm 20, 2 Corinthians 5: 6-10 and Mark 4: 26-34

“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 doesn’t know how.” (4:26-27) Jesus lived and taught through the images of his own time. Therefore, in our lection from Mark’s gospel, the sower becomes an image of eternal truth for Jesus; what we often call the “really real.”

A few years ago in late September I, too, scattered seed. Landscaping was one of the necessary steps in the renovation of our cottage in East Hampton. And so after much shoveling and raking, I went to a local hardware store, bought a few pounds of grass seed, rented a fancy machine that you hang over your head with a pouch for the seed and a crank on its side, and I went “a sowing.” The seed flew! It sprayed over potential lawn and stone wall, even to the gutters and leaders on the roof of our house.

When I was finished, I went out the next day and the day after that to kneel down in the good, brown earth to see if anything was sprouting. I quickly identified with that sower who as Jesus told the story excitedly went outside and brushed back the soil just a little bit to see if he could see that beautiful sight — the curl of a seedling just beginning to force its way through the soil. “…as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, said Jesus, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he doesn’t know how…” (4:26-27)

Anyone of us who has planted a lawn or a garden can identify with the child-like enthusiasm of the sower in this parable. Even as we sow the seed, our minds are filled with the mental images of the wonderful green lawn or the bountiful harvest we’re going to enjoy.

But the key to this parable is found in the next verse where Jesus says” The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.” (4:28)
It is likely that the key words in this story of Jesus are the words, “of itself.” The earth produces “of itself.”

We need to remind ourselves that Jesus was speaking in parables. He was using the language of metaphor and poetry. As such, he was talking about the Kingdom of God and not green grass or ears of corn or “Big Boy” tomatoes that might win a prize at the local fair. Rather Jesus was saying that the earth, the creation, the universe produces the Kingdom of God, “of itself.” In other words, this parable of Jesus is teaching us about the inevitability of God’s purpose. Jewish and Christian understandings of creation and life itself always posit a goal. In scene one, God creates the Garden where all is beauty and joy and harmony, but in scene two the human family loses its way and begins to wound and be wounded. But in scene three, God sends us a roadmap and shows us again the goal that we call the Kingdom or the Realm of God. It’s that Kingdom to which we hope and believe the human family is moving.

A few years ago, I listened as a Rabbi closed a meeting by reading a prayer that was written for his own ordination. It struck me how close it comes to our own understanding of what we mean by the Kingdom of God. It goes like this:

And then all that’s divided us will merge.
And then compassion will be wedded to power.
And then softness will come to a world that’s harsh and unkind.
And then both men and women will be gentle.
And then both women and men will be strong.
And then all will be rich and free and varied.
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many.
And then all will share equally in the earth’s abundance.
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old.
And then all will nourish the young.
And then all will cherish life’s creatures.
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the earth.
And then everyone will be called Eden once again.

When we feel discouraged by headlines and broadcasts that make such a vision seem impossible, we need to return once again to Jesus’ words “the earth produces of itself”

What it tells me is that, yes; I am a sower of God’s seed. Therefore, I do need to be responsible and faithful in all the choices and decisions I make. But I also need to remind myself that the earth beneath, the universe, God’s creation, life itself has within it the incredible power of God’s spirit. In one of his poems, T.S. Eliot says, “Take no thought of the harvest, but only of proper sowing.” And in another he says, “Ours is in the trying, the rest isn’t our business.”

That, it seems to me, is at the heart of the gospel message this week.

Ralph Ahlberg

~ by Immanuel Congregational Church on June 9, 2009.