“Listen! A sower went out to sow.”
Where are you in this story?
Where am I? How many times in my life have I not listened and instead stubbornly, doggedly attending to my own thoughts and plans?
There was an entire beach filled with people who had come to hear Jesus speak. They all had their own reasons. Wouldn’t you think each of them were receptive? Fertile soil...just by making the effort and being present. Why would Jesus even tell this story?
Evidently, if you understood, you understood, no need to “educate” people. It puts them off. I don’t like to go to a lecture and be told, “Many of you will not understand what I am saying.” Or perhaps that is a technique to get all listeners to perk up their ears and to pay attention. Because nobody wants to be the one who “doesn’t get it.”
Or if we are trying to get a point across, as Jesus was (and which I am humbly trying to decipher) would it not behoove us to speak as clearly as possible? To spell it out? Why a parable?
As in a dream interpretation, we can imagine each character in our dream, each personage, is actually a part ourselves...a version of ourselves.
Do the character traits of each disciple reflect a part of our own personality? John, the beloved, Philip the treasurer, Thomas, the doubter. Judas, the traitor.
Perhaps we ourselves are, at different times, acting and absorbing knowledge in different ways, like the different qualities of earth upon which seeds are sown.
Perhaps we are ready for information when we are ready for information, in the fullness of time. Or should we make an effort to cultivate our minds to be ready for the mustard seeds of God’s word.
I have listened to Bible readings since I was in Sunday school. How much have I really heard? When have my ears and my heart been open at the same time?
“Let anyone with ears listen!” That is funny! That is Jesus saying, “Pay attention!" The only people off the hook are those without ears. Ha!
Perhaps these four types of soil are four stages we go through in listening, comprehending, understanding.
Seeds thrown on the path
The evil one often snatches away my attention in church (and other places). I am zoned out, tuned out.
Rocky Ground
One who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy, believes until trouble or persecution arise. Then they drop away. They do not endure. To be honest, I most often identify as the “rocky ground” listener of the word.I get excited, I take up a new job, project, or cause with relish, with enthusiasm and excitement. Then as I start to dig in, the going gets tough. I lose energy, momentum.
Among Thorns
Why would the sower throw seeds anywhere but fertile ground? What a waste of good seed.
The cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word...it yields nothing, not even dried shriveled plants. Is the only acceptable way to open our eyes and ears each morning with the newly hoed, fertilized soil of our minds?
How do we prepare our minds and hearts to receive the Word? Music, meditation, prayer.
How do we remain open through the day to let God’s will rule our thoughts?
Awareness. Vigilance. Faith.
If Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people, Jesus plants his Word, teachings, and love. The crowd of people are a field mixed with thorns, rocks, and barren land side by side with patches of fertile soil. What kind of crazy field is that?
Church is a fertile field. The congregation in the pews are the multitudes gathered at the water to hear Jesus speak.
Sometimes I sit in church, and when scripture is read, my ears hear it. Yet my mind is preparing a menu for brunch. Bagels, cream cheese, onions. Peaches are in season. Maybe some vanilla ice cream.
Inattention is my natural, human, scattered-brain way.
God can work with that.
Prayers are not always answered during twenty minutes of timed meditation. They are answered in Gods’ time, in Gods’ way. It may be days, months, years later. The answers may come from the words of another human being. Words or actions. The answer may be unexpected or unwelcome...therefore we may not recognize that a prayer has been answered. If the answer was not the one we wanted, we may no recognize it as the answer!
What is the moral of this parable? Be ready? Be prepared? Approach each day with an open fertile heart?
I used to isolate myself when unemployed because it felt like if I contacted a friend I needed to have to have something concrete to say. I came up with business ideas that fizzled in the light of “needing” to pay bills. My dreams have retreated to their cave when frightened by the harsh light of daily necessity.
Perhaps my dreams are the mustard seeds?
Are the dreams and goals germinating silently in my heart sown by God?
- Some dreams land on the path and are snatched by Satan.
- Some land on rocky soil: Initial enthusiasm, shallow soil, no root, they wither and die.
- Thorns: the cares of the world, material worldly goods and money choke out my dreams.
- Fertile soil: DREAMS GROW BIG, BLOSSOM, FLOURISH, MULTIPLY, SERVE OTHERS.
Let’s keep our ears open for God's lessons. Let our hearts and minds be fertile ground for the Word of God, for love, for faith, for wisdom of Christ speaking to us in unexpected ways.
“All those who have ears, listen.”
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