Giving and Recieving in Abundance

Read--Mark 4: 3-9

As we have already seen on numerous occasions, seldom does a word or teaching come from Jesus that has only a single meaning. To borrow an analogy from the movie Shrek, parables are like onions--they have layers. We see that again here in this parable from Mark 4.

At first glance, the farmer might appear to be the only character in the parable. It is really a quite ordinary story--a farmer goes out to sow seed. What is so unusual is this farmer's manner of sowing the seed. We might even think this farmer was being quite careless--after all, the farmer isn't really (so it seems) paying attention to or caring about where the seed ends up. I have never been accused of having a green thumb, but I know enough to know that proper planting is essential for a good yield. This farmer pays no attention to this line of thinking. How representative of God and God's sowing of grace! Imagine God as a farmer, in the traditional sense--carefully tending and nurturing the soil until it is in optimum shape and planting in a very precise manner. That imagine seems to limit grace. Instead, God sows grace in all places, and not just a little here and little there. God sows abundantly in ALL places. In other words, God has sown grace abundatly in our life and in the life of the world. Granted, there are places where God's grace is choked out and places where grace is initially recieved but eventually peters out. But there are also places where grace lands and it yields back abundantly to God and to the world.

When we read about the soils' yield, we uncover a secondary character in the parable-- the soil is an active character in this story. As the soil is receptive, or unreceptive, to the seeds so is determined the soil's yield. As we are receptive, or unreceptive, to God's overtures of grace so is determined our yield. Our yield, our fruit, is what Wesley would call holiness of life. Just as the soil has the ability to respond to the planting of a seed, so we have the ability to respond to the sowing of God's grace. As we open ourselves to recieve the seed, we are assured that some measure of growth will occur, so long as we are receptive.

Following along with the agriculture metaphor a bit more...we know that when a plant grows, it produces seeds so that the plant might reproduce. As those who have grown by the grace of God, there is the expectation that our growth will necessarily produce other seeds. Said a bit more simply...there is the expectation that we who are products of grace will also be sowers of grace; as we have recieved grace so will we extend grace. This can be challenging, indeed intimidating, to sow the seeds of grace. Just as the farmer sowed seed almost carelessly, so also should grace be sowed from us in an equally careless fashion: less mindful of where the seeds land and more concerned that they were sowed in the first place.
You have sowed your grace in such abundance, O God. We are grateful for that which we have recieved. We pray that we might be receptive soil, so that your grace might blossom and yield fruit back to you. Use me, use us, to sow your grace in a hurting world. We pray in Christ, AMEN.