Seeds

Isaiah 55:10-13

1 Corinthians 3: 1-9

Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

Seeds

I grew up on a farm in NW Ohio which was neighbored by the farms of uncles. My uncles and other neighbors planted corn, beans, wheat, oats, and such other things as sugar beets, pickles, and tomatoes. Sugar beets went to Findlay where they were converted into table sugar.  The left over fiber was used for livestock feed, or to make insulation panels used in ceilings of commercial buildings. Tomatoes went to Campbell’s soup. All of those plants were started as seed, after careful soil preparation.  Pickles and sugar beets and tomatoes had to be cultivated several times during the growing season, and as the plants grew and spread out that cultivation was done by hand hoeing. One of the earliest jobs I had.  Hot sweaty summer work, in fields that were usually about a mile long – everything in NW Ohio is on the mile square, and many farmer fields take up nearly the entire 640 acres of a square mile.

Jesus spoke a lot about farming. In that day, everyone was very familiar with what it took to grow food, even those who lived in towns.  So Jesus used farming stories or parables to teach many things. Today, such a small percentage of our nation’s population farms, or has any direct relationship with farmers, that such stories might hold little meaning.

There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from this parable, and from farming itself, that are applicable to being a Christian and a church.  Some lessons are obvious and we have talked about them before. Obviously, if you aren’t careful about where your seed goes, a lot will be wasted. So a good farmer wants good soil to begin with.  However, good farmers will work to develop their soil, to make it better and more fertile so it will be productive.

Unless a farmer plants, there is no harvest. Unless a farmer prepares well ahead of time, and works hard, the harvest may not be worth the effort.  As hard as a farmer works and as skilled and careful as he or she might be, there are many things beyond his or her control that affect the outcome. Farming takes commitment. It is a continuous job. You cannot prepare well, plant carefully, work hard, gain one good harvest one year, and then sit back from then on and do nothing. The more you plant, the more opportunity you have for a large harvest. The next year you have to do it all over again. Famers have to be open to change, and try new things. The yield is directly related to the amount of learning, preparation, commitment that a farmer puts in. Farming is a risky business, but unless you try there is no harvest.

Now you might think that one of the lessons for us as Christians and as a church is to not waste our time on the rocks or the weedy areas. And maybe we shouldn’t waste our time on the well worn areas that have been trodden down. After all, we can judge who out there would make a good Christian can’t we? There are people we just don’t want to waste our time on, right?  Some are just too rock hard against the church and God. Some live such undesirable weedy lives that we just don’t want to be among them. Some we have talked to before, and tried to bring in before, with no productivity. Some actually have shown up to church once or twice but then not again. All a waste of time right?  Especially when we already have good soil right here in our sanctuary and membership that needs to be taken care of. So let’s take care of ourselves first, and foremost. The problem with that is, old plants eventually die. Without new seeds being planted, there is no future harvest, and unless the new plants are cared for, they wither and fade away.

Every soil scientist will tell you that the best soils are made up of tiny particles of rock, worn down over time.  Then it is mixed with dead stuff, that once was growing. And it is full of creepy crawly things, bacteria, tiny bugs, fungi, worms.  Kind of like our communities around our churches. Out of that mix, properly cultivated, can come a wonderful harvest. We must remember, that God provides soil everywhere, and can bring a harvest from everywhere sooner or later. But unless we are willing to plant there is no harvest at all. And to keep that harvest up, we have to be committed, and plant every year.

There is another lesson though in Jesus’ parable. In that story the seeds are scattered indiscriminately. It sounds foolish and wasteful, but Jesus taught and ministered and served indiscriminately. Some grew on his teachings, some didn’t.  At the end his work may have been seen as a failure. He was left with 11 of the chosen ones out of 12. One had betrayed him. Of all the thousands he preached to, and served, only about 500 were there at the ascension, and some of those doubted, even after seeing him after the resurrection. But he was faithful to his calling to the end. He did God’s will, though his harvest of a few fearful, though faithful, followers may not have seemed worth the effort and certainly not worth his death. But now look at the harvest over the centuries. You see, God begins the soil preparation—we call it prevenient grace, and sometimes he prepares it where our judgment would say “forget it”.

His call upon us is to faithfully plant seeds. Prepare well, work hard, remain committed, but scatter seed everywhere. When seed does grow, care for it, nurture it. When we baptize someone, or when someone new comes into our midst we are called upon to nurture them so they do not wither away. Jesus said, go, make disciples everywhere, and teach them. God provides us soil all around us. Our job is do the planting and cultivating, and to keep trying new ideas, risky as that may seem. If we are faithful the Holy Spirit will bring a harvest. Too often we quit sowing seeds because we don’t see the crop fast enough in our judgment.

Clarence Jordan was a man of unusual abilities and commitment. He had two Ph.D.s, one in agriculture and one in Greek and Hebrew. So gifted was he, he could have chosen to do anything he wanted. He chose to serve the poor. In the 1940’s, he founded a farm in Americus Georgia, and called it Koinonia Farm. It was a community for poor whites and poor blacks. As you might guess, such an idea did not go over well in the Deep South of the ’40’s. Ironically, much of the resistance came from good church people who followed the laws of segregation as much as the other folks in town. The town people tried everything to stop Clarence. They tried boycotting him, and slashing worker’s tires when they came to town. Over and over, for fourteen years, they tried to stop him.

Finally, in 1954, the Ku Klux Klan had had enough of Clarence Jordan, so they decided to get rid of him once and for all. They came one night with guns and torches and set fire to every building on Koinonia farm, except Clarence’s house, which they riddled with bullets. And they chased off all the families except one black family, which refused to leave. Clarence recognized the voices of many of the Klansmen, and, as you might guess, some of them were church people. Another was the local newspaper’s reporter. The next day the reporter came out to see what remained of the farm. The rubble still smoldered and the land was scorched, but he found Clarence in the field, hoeing and planting.

"I heard the awful news," he called to Clarence, "and I came out to do a story on the tragedy of your farm closing." Clarence just kept hoeing and planting. The reporter kept prodding, kept poking, trying to get a rise from this quietly determined man who seemed to be planting instead of packing his bags. So, finally, the reporter said in a haughty voice, "Well, Dr. Jordan, you got two of them Ph.D.s and you’ve put fourteen years into this farm, and there’s nothing left of it at all. Just how successful do you think you’ve been?"
Clarence stopped hoeing, turning toward the reporter with his penetrating blue eyes, and said quietly but firmly, "About as successful as the cross. Sir, I don’t think you understand us. What we’re about is not success, but faithfulness. We’re staying. Good day."

Beginning that day, Clarence and his companions rebuilt Koinonia and the farm is still going strong today. They continued to plant seed, even in what seemed terrible soil of prejudice and hatred. God is reaping the harvest.

Amen