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.
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