Luke 8: 8 ‘When Jesus said this, he called out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ God has created a world of abundance and potential. The humble dandelion flower produces 150 seeds to be blown on the air. A large oak tree drops around 10,000 acorns in a year. There are perhaps 100 billion stars in our galaxy. God’s creation has much more potential than we can imagine. Jesus tells a parable about a sower who goes out and ‘broadcasts’ by taking handfuls of seed and throwing it across the ground. Some of the seed falls on good soil and is fruitful and brings about magnificent growth. But some seed falls on the path, some among rocks and some among thistles. In these places and conditions the seed doesn’t grow. We understand that Jesus is telling us how and why some people, but not all, are responding to God. The word of God is offered to everyone, but not everyone responds, for different reasons. It’s interesting that the parable describes ‘how it is’. Jesus makes no suggestion that the farmer should change his practice of broadcasting into ‘narrow-casting’ to save seeds. As we spread the word, and share God’s love, we too can afford to be generous. Some will fall on deaf ears and cold hearts, but some will fall into good soil and be amazingly fruitful. There will be surprises. We should not judge people. We cannot anticipate the effects of our actions. But we are called to keep acting, to keep sharing the abundant love of God in word and in deed. When we are a generous, open and welcoming church we are modelling the love of God. We are called to sow seeds and trust our generous God to bring the growth.
12th June – Catherine Stevenson – Luke 8
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Catherine Stevenson (Sheffield)
Sheffield
In April my children and I spent some time sowing vegetable seeds in the hope that we could enjoy some fresh veggies from the garden in the summer and autumn. We followed the instructions, using good soil, providing water, light and a warm environment where needed. The children are watching with eager anticipation as the plants grow! But we noticed that despite our care, some seeds never germinated, some took much longer than others to produce a seedling, and some seedlings died very quickly. We all know people who are generous with their time, money or skills. But in the parable of the sower, Jesus describes a different kind of generosity. When we read this passage it’s easy to focus on the different types of soil which – as Jesus describes – represent the different kinds of people who hear the word of God (the seed). But let’s instead shift our attention to the sower. He doesn’t take out one seed at a time, carefully placing each one in what he believes to be good soil (even when I did this with my children, we did not see 100% yield). No, the sower liberally scatters handfuls of seed and lets them fall where they fall. He plays his part, then waits for God to send the sunshine and rain which will produce the harvest. We can so easily make quick judgements about people, saying to ourselves, ‘they’re not ready to hear about God’ or ‘they would never listen’. When we do this, we are at risk of becoming a miserly farmer, seeing little – if any – harvest. But if we share our faith liberally, open-handedly, benevolently and without prejudice, we will be astonished at the harvest God can produce. We’re not all wired to be eloquent TV evangelists but we can all say ‘come and see for yourself’. Who might God want you to speak to this week? Let’s play our part, and let God play his.