The Growing Season

June 14, 2015                                        
Mark 4:26-29

Story: There’s a story of a crew of 12 park employees who got out of the truck and went up and down the parkway -- every 20 steps or so, six of them dug holes, and then the other six would immediately follow and fill the holes up with dirt again.

After about a half-hour of this, someone who was watching it all couldn't stand it any longer. He went up to one of the workers and asked: Would you mind telling me what you're doing? One of them replied: We're planting trees. The guys with the trees have the day off.

Prayer

Much of Chapter 4 of Mark’s gospel is a parable.

You ask… what is a parable?

It’s a story, often using objects or things designed to illustrate or teach some truth or lesson.

Example: A young boy was walking along the beach and was picking up baby turtles and putting them in the ocean. A older man saw what the boy was doing and said to the boy, “Why are you doing this? You can’t possibly make a difference.” The boy responded, “It makes a difference to this one!” Jesus often uses parables as a mirror to life in order for us to gain greater spiritual awareness.

In chapter 4 Jesus tells a story about a farmer scattering seeds.

Some of the seed was eaten by birds.

Some fell on rocky ground.

And some fell on good soil and took root.

Then Jesus explains the story to his friends and now we hear another seed story about the kingdom of God. You see… Jesus often starts his stories… “The kingdom of God is like…” And we often misunderstand what this is or what it means. In our parable today… Jesus is telling us God’s kingdom is like the soil the seed is planted in.

Over the past couple of months farmers have been preparing their fields and planting the seed. Preparing the ground is an important first step before planting. The ground must be tiled to be loosened… then fertilizer can be applied. Once the soil is loosened and fertilized then the seed can be planted. Then the farmer rests… or so it seems. Everything is done… nothing more to do but watch the plants grow. The rest is up to the seed… the weather… and time. Or we might say… “The rest is up to God.”

While the farmer makes the decisions about when and where and how much to plant in the kingdom it’s really up to God to grow the seed. This is where we find ourselves in the story today. We… the farmer… find ourselves in “The Growing Season.” This is the period of time in which the seed takes root… sprouts… and grows… but there is much more to the growing season than we think.

Now that the planting is done we often think the farmer work is done until harvest time. We’ve spent the Fall… Winter… and Spring  engaged in all kinds of activity. And often we think it’s time to take a break. Its summer after all… it’s time for vacations… picnics…and lazy summer days with a beer in our hand.

   

Well… a smart experienced farmer knows that summer is not a time to relax, but a time for cultivating and caring for the emerging plants, or the weeds take over. Sometimes we think… well it’s in God’s hands… so we’ll let God take care of things. In many ways… we in the church fall into this kind of thinking with our faith and church activities. And yes… God will take care of things… However… we also play a role in growing and caring for the kingdom. That being… we are to cultivate the field! We are to make sure the seed… then the plants… are nourished… pulling the weeds… making sure the plants are adequately watered and cared for as to assure the best possible harvest. You see… we play as an important role in growing the seed as does God.

Yes… not every seed sprouts… but the ones that do need nurturing and that’s our part of the growing season.

 The couple of things this story speaks to me is that we/ the church are not planting many seeds these days nor nurturing the one’s we’ve planted very well. I also think we in the church have grown complacent and comfortable with ourselves to the extent we’ve forgotten how to farm. We have relied too heavily on the professional pastor or hired church worker rather than getting our hands dirty. I believe our story today is inviting us to get our hands back into the soil of the kingdom of God.

So our purpose here is not to debate whether the church is or isn’t doing what it should be… Rather… it’s to hear and take confidence from Jesus’ parable which tells us to continue planting seeds of God’s love and to nurture the plants even if we’re not sure how it will all work out… so that one day the grain will appear.

The parable that follows our story is worth hearing in conclusion because it indicates that the yield from the scattered seed will be significant.

Jesus said… “With what can we compare the kingdom of God…? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown, is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it’s sown it grows to be the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make their nests in its shade.”

If we do our job by planting the seed and nurturing the plant, with confidence and anticipation that growth will happen, and the harvest will come. We need not worry about whether God will do God’s job!