A Sower went forth to sow

A well known and respected Bible scholar was on a trip to Israel.   His group was taken to the Sea of Galilee.   At a certain point their guide went to a pre-arranged boat by the lake side.   He was rowed out a little way.   Now this was a small inlet of the lake and the hillside wrapped itself around the inlet.   The group were standing round in a half circle and the boat taken by their guide was positioned in the centre of the bay.  Their guide stood in the boat and read them a story.   It was our gospel reading.   Each person in the group could hear every word the guide spoke.   It was a perfect natural amphitheatre.   They heard every single word.

Jesus picked such a place to tell the parable of the sower.   His hearers would hear every single word he said as he sat in the boat.   Teachers sat down whilst students remained standing.    Telling parables was something used often to explain the kingdom of God.   He woukld know all the best places to do it too.   So, sitting in a boat a few yards offshore with the people on the sides of the cove would be natural and would also be an ideal place.

Cast your mind back to the last few words in verse 9: “If you have ears, then hear”.   Jesus knew there needed to be understanding if the story were to get into the hearts and minds of those he addressed.   He was really saying: “Think about it.”   If the penny didn’t drop quickly then they would have to keep turning over in their minds what he had said.   This parable was in many ways food for thought.  

Note that this parable sits just about in the middle of Matthew’s gospel.   Scholars have long considered Matthew’s gospel as the one specifically direct at Jews.   If the chronology is also about half way through the ministry of Jesus then we can assume that by this point many Jews, thinking about their history and the words of their prophets that looked forward to a promise of great change and salvation, would have wondered if Jesus was starting this process of change.   I am sure they didn’t follow Jesus to this place to hear the old story of how, one day, God would judge the world, dividing the righteous from the wicked.   They already knew it and so would not be likely to follow a man to this point just to hear him repeat it.

They followed him there for a different reason.   They were starting to guess that this judgement was already starting through Jesus.   They probably hoped that Jesus would explain to them how God was beginning his task of rescuing them from their enemies.   They had heard, year after year in their synagogues how God would one day enter the fray and start a revolution.   Now they were wondering if that day was upon them.   Was Jesus the one who would lead a military campaign; was there going to be a call to arms?

Having a keen audience before him Jesus sat down in the boat and told them the story of sowing the seed.   There quite a few different places where the seed fell.   The result would always be in line wioth the sort of ground were the seed fell.   When the sower went broadcasting his seed he, as a seasoned farm worker, knew quite well that this method meant some seed would fall in places where it would not thrive.   In order to make sure as much as possible fell into good soil he sowed it absolutely everywhere.   When it fell into good soil that was where the harvest would be best.   To have walked round the field, searching for the best soil and making sure the seed went only there would have been a jolly different task.   Today we would say it was not cost effective.

These days we complain a lot about nuisance phone calls.   Telemarketing has grown in recent years.   The trick is to get as many telephone numbers as possible and ring each one till you find someone out there who is interested in what you are selling.   Twenty years ago, when this was still in its infancy, I had a job telephoning companies to offer free services underwritten with European money.   We could fix their computers, give them advice on marketing and also help them with inventions they wanted to develop.   From time to time other temporary staff would be brought in to help me in this task.   When I gave them training, I explained that they were sitting in a clearing in a jungle and that out there among the trees were people that needed what we were offering.   The task, therefore, was to ring the whole list of numbers they had before them to find the people they sought.   It might be boring, but it worked.   The first day I worked in that office I spent all day calling companies and getting no interest.   Imagine how I felt when, 15 minutes before the office closed, I got a hit.   I drove home with a big smile on my face!

Our gospel story sees Jesus explaining how blanket coverage meant there was bound to be a mixture of results.   It would be an experience of success and failure.   One had to sow the seed everywhere to make sure the fertile ground was found.   When he said “If you have ears, then hear” this was what he meant.

If you take an honest look at the task of mission for the Christian church, it is obvious that what you offer on behalf of Jesus Christ is not going to be accepted by all you meet.   There will be those who will never believe in the existence of God, and no matter how hard you try there is no chance of winning them over.   There will be those who have had a hard time and might just cling to this new concept as a means of getting through.   Yet, they will not have the tenacity to hang on no matter what and will give up eventually.   There are some who will accept the message and run with it but will later be influenced by other pressures and give it up.   Then we come to those who hear the message and relate to it and commit to it.

Today we all receive nuisance calls on the telephone.   Technological advances have created telephone systems that automatically ring the numbers on a list gleaned from companies who have sold lists of purchasers.   The telephone is the classic interrupter and so we find ourselves being disrupted from whatever we are doing to answer a call from someone with sales in mind.   You may even get an offer to recover missold payment protection insurance or an offer to recover compensation for an accident you have not had.   Would you like solar panels?   Are you on benefits and would like a free boiler renewal?   Somewhere among all the recipients of what we call nuisance calls are people actually wanting the service provided.   That is the reason for telemarketing.

The sower in Jesus’ story is fully aware that some seed will not flourish for all the reasons stated by Jesus.   But the sower knows that by spreading seed in this time honoured way much of it will find ground in which it can flourish and that is the whole reason for sowing the seed in this way.

For a number of years I have heard this comment from church members, and I am talking about the United Reformed Church and the Methodist Church:   “THEY WON’T COME.”   Offered the sort of experience committed Christians benefit from will not appeal to people who have almost no knowledge of any religion.   So we have to offer them something in which they have an interest.   What things have we in common with most people, and how can we provide it so we make contact and wait for the buying signal when they enquire about Christianity?   Should we consider providing something they would like to join?

When asked about the lively tunes the Salvation Army were using, William Booth replied, “Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”   It is a well known fact in Salvation Army circles that many have accepted Jesus after joining the bands because of their interest in brass band music.

As long as we remember this adage we shall always have a chance of succeeding:

“If we always do what we always did, we shall always get what we always got.”

Our challenge in the parable of the sower is to plant good news everywhere so that in the fertile soil it will grow.

The Separation of the Sheep from the Goats.

When you read the complete chapter 25 of Matthew’s gospel you realise that the three stories are about judgement.   The story of the ten foolish girls is a reminder that doing nothing is the wrong approach to life.   The story of the talents is also a reminder that doing nothing is the wrong way to behave.   The third story warns about the sin of omission.   So we are looking at a particular kind of judgement which deals with those who do nothing when there are many things they ought to be doing.   The child, finding himself in trouble with his parents, complains, “But I haven’t done anything done anything wrong!”   The parents reply, “You haven’t tidied your room!”

You will, no doubt, remember the song “Busy doing nothing”:

We’re busy doing nothing,

Working the whole day through,

Trying to find lots of things not to do.

We’re busy going nowhere,

Isn’t it just a crime?

We like to be unhappy, but,

We never do have the time.

In 2 Samuel 12, when Nathan came to David and told him the story that spoke of David’s own sin it had great impact.   He was judged for something he had done.   When Stephen was stoned to death it was the judgement of the establishment for activities they considered beyond acceptability.   Neither did they like being told where they were going wrong.   But in this particular gospel story the judgement was about sins of omission.   In other words, we are listening to an admonishment for neglect.

Looking back, I remember my first days at Manchester Road Congregational Church, Nelson in Lancashire.   Each Sunday the church seemed to be filled with many people and there was a sense of worshipping with a great throng.   By the time I reached seventeen I began preaching in many different churches and there were more pews than people.   Some of them made me wonder why they had not closed because you had a job to find your congregation.   Sometimes there would be choir pews with one person sitting there, the remnant of a choir.   Well, these establishments did close – eventually.   Nothing was happening.   There was neither mission nor even a sense of mission – just nothing going on.

Looking back over 56 years of preaching I cannot remember the churches doing much at all.   One year, the Congregational churches were challenged to reconsider their lives.   Each church was encouraged to take part in something called the Every Person Canvass.   It was a call to consider how we could use three things: Time, Talent and Treasure.   It was all about doing things by giving more time, using our gifts and giving our money.   In our church it flopped.   The fellowship rejected the idea and carried on doing nothing.   A smaller congregation near Ashton Under Lyne adopted it and it worked brilliantly.   In later years I began to preach in that church and it soon became my favourite church because it had such a positive outlook.

From time to time I used to get despondent about the future of the church.   Occasionally, I would hear people being very honest about the future of the church to which they belonged.   One man at my previous church near Oldham said, “In ten years time this church will no longer exist.”   That was fifteen years ago, and he still worships there.   So, sometimes it s not all doom and gloom.   That church is planning an extension to its building, so they do expect to have a future.   But are they the exception?

Interestingly, it was only when we retired to Anglesey that I found myself involved in what I called practical Christianity.   Some of our circuit people were buying Welsh lamb at a pound per pound a few years ago.   Our Agricultural Chaplain made us aware of a sheep farmer who was facing almost imminent bankruptcy and devised a plan of direct sales to save the farm from extinction.   People’s orders were taken and numerous trips to the farm saw many people delivering lamb around North Wales.   I discovered places I had never heard of before.   After three years the farmer was solvent and able to continue without our help.   It was wonderful to make a difference in the name of Jesus.

Later, I volunteered to work with our local food bank and I found out how many people were suffering on little income.   I heard stories about how they had reached this point in their lives.   It was humbling.   It was a reminder that here was a practical way to follow Jesus’ command, “Feed my sheep.”    Recently there was an appeal from the food bank to our local churches to try to replenish stocks of vital foods as there had been a number of large families fed recently.   I drove over to the Lidl supermarket and bought milk, sugar, juice and fish to stock up the shelves.   On the day I delivered the food to the food bank they did not have a single service user!   But the food is there, ready for the next desperate plea for help.

During the last year I heard an expression that I found challenging.   Is your church a mission church or a maintenance church?   Here, in a few words we have a repeat of the story of the ten foolish girls, the talents and the sheep and the goats all rolled into one.   It really puts you on the spot when you are asked this question.   Looking back I have seen much evidence of a maintenance church not even achieving this.   I often feel that I should have done something in terms of mission in the past and found myself guilty of not having the remotest idea what to do.

But, returning to the sheep and the goats, we need to think very seriously what we should do when presented with all the challenges of life.   The only way to ensure the kingdom is served is to do what we can and not assume that someone else will sort it out.   One of the hard lessons we in the churches have learned is that doing nothing or sweeping problems under the carpet has led to serious abuse in a place which has been considered a place of sanctuary.   The old saying that “the devil makes work for idle hands” has never been as true.  

Beyond the church, many bad things are happening to people and there has never been such a time for people to help others.   There is no excuse for doing nothing.

 Let me tell you about a young work colleague of mine.   She was a Pakistani young woman who went to Pakistan and met a young goatherd who, it was suggested, she should marry.   She took a shine to him and agreed and they were married.   She returned to the UK and it was hoped her husband would be allowed to follow her eventually.   Normally, such a bride would go to live with her husband in his parents’ home but this was not possible if he was to be brought to the UK.   So his father’s mother (grandmother of both bridegroom and bride), who lived here got the father to agree that she should come to live with her and her husband.   They had a two bedroom house and slept on sofas downstairs so that she could have her own room because the other bedroom was occupied by her uncle, his wife and baby.   My young work colleague had to pay rent for this.

Things became very difficult for her when her grandmother placed a ban on her holding the baby.   She was told her hands were dirty.   They were not but she went to wash them, only to be told they were still dirty.   Later her grandmother began to talk about her to others in the room as if she were not present.   She was referred to as black which was very insulting.   She told me she would have accepted me referring to her as black but it was an insult within her community.

One Friday she rang me from her office as I was then in our other office on the other side of Manchester.   She was alone in the office so she felt able to speak openly.   It turned out that another uncle had told her to pay him a weekly rent for a non-existent house as part of a plan to get her husband to the UK.   My response was to tell her to make enquiries in the Rochdale community to discover who was able to give immigration advice because it was wrong to have her pay this rent.   If by Monday she had not made contact with an immigration adviser in her community I would contact a friend who used to do this in Oldham.

When Monday came a phone call advised us that she was ill and would not be in work.   On Tuesday I received a call from her sister to say she was now in hospital and asking to see me.   I guessed why she was in hospital.   She had tried to commit suicide over the weekend.   I drove over to the hospital in Rochdale and found a large group of Asian women round her bed.   She had overdosed on Paracetamol and was about to be transferred to the kidney unit in Leeds.   Another white friend and I told her that we wanted to help her and find a refuge where she would be safe.   Her response was, “OK, if I live.”

Two days later she died.   It was heart-breaking for our small workforce.   She was a lovely person to work with and a good Muslim too.   Sometime later I attended her inquest as a witness and tried to tell her story.   But the verdict given by the coroner was misadventure, interpreting what had happened as a “cry for help”.   But I knew differently.   Earlier, a day or so after she died, I just broke down and cried.   My dear friend, Hamid, another Pakistani and my best friend, came round to talk things out.   This death could have been avoided.   She had been treated badly and suffered neglect at the hands of her family.

This is the first time I have told this story publicly but I suddenly realised, when working on this blog,that it was a clear case of doing nothing that ended in disaster.   Back in the old days I used to think Christianity was about what we didn’t do.   We didn’t drink; we didn’t smoke, we didn’t swear and we didn’t blaspheme.   I remember an old lady rounding on me as I came out of a sweet shop after I had been to Sunday School.   “God won’t love you if you buy sweets on a Sunday.”   I am so glad we have moved on from those days, but we have much more to accept if we are to serve God, following Jesus.   In Lancashire there is an expression “If in doubt, do nowt” but it is so wrong.

Dying to sin and living in Christ

When God calls us and we answer, “Yes!” we move from one state to a completely new one.   So often when we get stuck in a rut we say “If only I could start again.”   This is actually what we get when we respond to God’s call.   It is an extremely fortunate state of affairs.   Whatever we have done, whatever we have said that has been wrong, it is all wiped out completely.   It need never concern us again.   Our past activities once tied us down as tight as the bonds that tied Isaac down as his father prepared to sacrifice him.

               

Not only do we experience the opportunity to start again but we actually gain freedom.   Some years ago there was a world church council slogan: “Jesus Christ frees and unites.”   This is the very truth.   In the story of Abraham and Isaac, both become free.   Isaac is released from his bonds and Abraham is freed from his promise to do God’s will, regardless of what he is asked to do at that point.   God frees Abraham from the act of killing and from the prospect of losing his beloved son.   This points us forward to Jesus on the Cross.   In this case God gives his Son to be killed.   He goes further than Abraham and makes the ultimate sacrifice.

So often we can look back through the telescope of time and make links between Old and New Testaments.   We encounter many echoes of the Old Testament in what we read in the gospels.   So much of the history of Israel connects with what Jesus said and did as he led his small band of friends and followers around the Holy Land.   Indeed, this was how the people were able to understand the relevance of Jesus – what he stood for and how God is willing to free those who are bound in sin..  It all found relevance in their amazing history.

The first section of Romans 6 in the Good News Bible is headed “Dead to Sin but Alive in Union with Christ.”   In committed alignment with Christ we are freed from sin completely.   In fact, Paul goes further and declared that we are dead to sin.   In other words this is a new life and the old one has died, gone forever.   There is a significant finality about this amazing death of the persons we once were.   All through the 2,000 years since Jesus walked the Palestine roads there has been an assurance that, in this new life, we can achieve goals previously not considered possible.   In the moments of doubt we have whispered to ourselves, “Yes we can.”   The price has often been high but the prize has been won.

We read John’s gospel and we hear Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”   Paul spells it out clearly in today’s chapter from Romans:   “Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self. ¹³ Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. ¹⁴ Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.”

The key words here are “give yourselves to God.”   To give ourselves to God is to gain immense freedom.   In his famous hymn, Charles Wesley wrote “Tis mercy all, immense and free.”   In his mercy, God sets us free and the immensity of his love is clear for us to see.   That freedom leads us to declare our love for God in Jesus Christ and to say “Therefore we can make a difference.”   After she moved in to the manse I went to welcome our new Superintendent Minister.  We sat together that morning and I said I thought she would make a difference in our circuit.   Her reply was, “Of yes, I’ll make a difference!”

The proof of the pudding is, as ever, in the eating.   We have all seen her make a difference.   Even though we shall only have her with us until next year that difference has liberated us and enables us to move forward in a way we might not otherwise have discovered.   We have become renewed and invigorated so we are equipped to keep the work rolling.   We can use the freedom God has given to drive our mission forward.   It is, I suppose, accurate to describe our circuit as comprising mainly retired people.   Yet, today, I see a light in the eyes of the elderly Christians who make up our little flock that tells me that the future is bright.   It all depends on that light not being put out.   So we need to be sure not to let our spirits dim, but champion the greatest cause of all – that of Jesus Christ.

Turning to our three verses from Matthew’s gospel we learn all about the word, welcome.   Jesus says “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me: and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”   If we turn a few pages over we arrive at Matthew 25 where we hear: “Whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!”   And the fact is that acts of kindness are not restricted to Christians.   The joy that kind acts can generate is possible anywhere and at any time.

Recently, during the month of Ramadan, a Muslim drove for an hour after sunset to share a meal in a restaurant with his wife in Manchester.   The restaurant management refused him access because his footwear was deemed inappropriate.   He was wearing slip on sandals.   He left the building and soon found himself in conversation with John, a homeless man.   Because he was homeless John had qualified for a new pair of boots.   He agreed to let the man borrow the boots so he could have his meal in his chosen restaurant.   John couldn’t wear the sandals because he took size 14 and the sandals were 9.   After the meal they met up again and John got his new boots back.   The man insisted on giving John £10 and a passerby, hearing their conversation, added £50!

Many years ago I was speaking to a woman about something I had done.   I cannot remember what it was, but I remember her saying, “You were doing it for the Lord.”   That didn’t make sense to me.   Whatever it was I was just doing it.   It never entered my head that I was doing it for God.   In these last verses in Matthew 10 it is spelled out very clearly that there is a four link chain going on.   Firstly, there is God, out of whose love the whole process of salvation began.   Secondly, there is Jesus who brought that message to humankind.   Thirdly there is the human messenger, the prophet who speaks, the good man who is an example, the disciple who learns, who in turn all pass on to others the good news they have received.   Fourth in the chain there is the believer who welcomes God’s people and God’s message and who finds life in his soul.

Each one of us is able to find our own place in this four link chain.   We cannot all be the same thing.   Imagine what it would be like if we were all preachers or all teachers, all playing out the same role.   It would be chaos.   But when we work out where we fit in with our many different strengths and gifts we find that we make up a complete entity and are able to organise the mission we need to follow.

Playing out all the many parts becomes enjoyment in all senses of the word.   We are set on fire and want nothing else but to go out and spread the good news. October will see two churches in our circuit involved in an event we are calling “Mixed Blessings.”   We have called it that because we all have our own abilities and talents which we can bring to God.   These are our blessings and they are a real mixture.

There is a church in America who, a few years ago, launched a new start with the title, “God is still speaking.”   He most certainly is speaking.   He speaks through Jesus who speaks through and we speak in our own turn as we talk to people who are looking for some purpose, something worthwhile in life.

This is the message in those three verses that complete Matthew 10.   We are all equipped with many gifts and if we put them together we can take the gospel to the world.