Monday 12 March 2007

Here goes another change in direction for these devotions. Sometimes situations in life demand some prayerful deliberation and reflection. I would like to run with some of the parables in Luke's gospel. We are presently doing a Bible study at Redeemer on the parables but these devotions will not be a "study." These parables are troubling and a sheer delight...but always material that keeps us on the edge of the in breaking of the Reign of God.

When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him (Jesus), he said in parable: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold." As he said this, he called out, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen. (Luke 8:4-8)

Jesus has been teaching and healing and forgiving and having a few "situations" with some religious leaders. In this parable, of the adventure of one sower, we see a number of outcomes and yet we do not see everything that happened to the life of the seeds - though we have a glimpse. This is one sowing. It occurred to me that people who sow...keep on sowing. That is what a sower of seed does. Of course the seed is being thrown across the land and not in nice neat rows that are controlled and can thus be guided and weeded and evaluated as is necessary to produce a bountiful crop. These seeds are thrown. Like the grace of God it flies out of the sowers hand and there is no telling where it will go. There is no word forbidding it from being tossed on the roadway, or in an area of potential thorn growth...or on the best soil around. It is sown - thrown - without condition. We don't even know anything about the sower. Is this a good sower...a lazy sower...a sower with problems?!? What we do hear a bit later in this chapter is that the disciples looked at Jesus and went, "huh!?!" Jesus notes that to them has been given "to know the secrets (mysteries) of the kingdom of God, but to others I speak in parables...." Could it be that we become so tied up with the details...and questions about this and that...or these seeds and those seeds...or judgments on the seeds or the land around them - that we simply miss the wonder of the one who sows and how it will befuddle everyone that the Reign of God ever comes. And yet...it does... always coming... always taking root... always with some context for which we have made no plan. The grace of God - as much as we would like to control it and see to its proper sowing in the world - will keep on being thrown around and nothing will diminish the expansiveness of its sowing. Often I grow weary of seed counters - so watchful of every seed and every place in which it is sown that they cannot see the harvest that comes outside of their control.

Connection: Have you ever noticed how tightly we attempt to control the Good News? Some days it seems like we would rather lock it away or make it into our own image - rather than throw it around for any and all to experience.

Lord of the blossoming fields of life, you bring to your people a wealth of new life and it is so often a surprise to us. We can attempt to control your grace and yet...you still count on us to rest and find peace and to let go and trust your ways of reaching and touching all your beloved. Amen.