Read Mark 4:1-9 1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold." 9 And he said, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"
It was many, many, years ago, that I took the seeds from a slice of watermelon that I had been eating and decided to plant them in some soil in our backyard in Kingsville, Texas. I watered the ground and came out every day for many days to see what would become of this experiment in growing. Soon there was a plant and later a larger plant and leaves started to grow from this plant until soon a bud that seemed to be a little watermelon appeared. Soon enough it was a tiny watermelon and then a small watermelon, later a medium watermelon and I could wait no longer. I torn it from its plant and decided to eat it. I had not been patient enough.
Jesus begins this parable with the word, "listen!" A great tv preacher, whose voice I enjoy hearing, at some points in his younger years, would insert that word in key places, sometimes saying, "Now, listen." A letter recently came across my desk of someone upset that his or her pastor said that once in a sermon and this person felt that the preacher was assuming that the congregation was not listening. Listen, Jesus said, meaning that not only should we hear these words, we should allow them to go down deep enough for them to take root and bear some fruit from their teaching. And this was indeed a sermon story about planting and the results of this method of sowing seeds, a common practice for Jesus' day. And the story ends with the same admonishment, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen."
Are we, the Church, listening to Jesus? Are we patient enough to hear what God is sharing with us even to this day about God's love for all people? Are we willing to take the seed of God's word beyond our campuses to places where we know God needs them taken? Last night's preacher shared a story of a young man, Michael, who ran afoul of the law and was sentenced to 45 days of community service in his town's garbage dump. On his first day there, a woman pastor named Phyllis came out and Michael asked if he could help her with her trash. She replied she was not there for help with trash, she was there for him. She began by saying, "No matter what you may have done, you are a good man. and Jesus cares very much for you." And thus began a 45 day daily visit with this man. By the end of the 45 days this young man's life was different and he even joined Pastor Phyllis' church. The bishop telling the story said that he learned the story at Pastor Phyllis' memorial service. Right around the time she started her ministry with Michael was the time she learned she had terminal cancer and she decided she needed to do something to bless someone during the time she might have left on the earth.
What are we the Church doing with the time we have on the earth?
PRAYER: Loving God, may I and the Church, listen to what You are saying to us. May we listen with open and loving hearts so that we can be, even today, sowers of Your love and word. In Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
