A couple of years ago, shortly after I became a pastor in
Knoxville, Tennesssee, some friends from New York came to visit. They opened the back
door of the house and were thrilled to discover a back porch and a backyard. But
I had to admit to them that I had never yet ever even stepped out onto that
back porch or in that backyard!
Jesus did much of his public preaching and teaching
in rural Galilee. So it’s no surprise so many of his images and parables are
agricultural in inspiration. That may make obvious sense, but it also may make
them hard for those of us whose background is completely urban to relate to.
Indeed, to a non-gardener like myself, gardening seems incredibly complex and
difficult. To a non-farmer like me, farming also seems complex and difficult.
And, of course, real farming is hard work. But Jesus’ two parables which we
just heard [Mark 4:26-32] focus on something else – less on the human work
involved and more on the mysterious and silent part of the process. The kingdom
of God, Jesus says in the first parable, is as if someone scatters seed on the
land and over time watches it sprout and grow and yield fruit for the
harvest. If the first parable
focuses on the mysterious, silent, and patient process by which the seed once
originally sown sprouts and grows on its own, the second parable contrasts the
full fruition of God’s kingdom with its seemingly modest and maybe even
inauspicious beginnings.
Obviously, a lot of what we do in life involves
effort, even strenuous effort at times. Yet we all know that sometimes there is
only just so much, which work and effort can accomplish. However ambitious and
elaborate our plans, sometimes all we can actually do is to plant some seed, so
to speak, and then wait patiently to see what happens. If that is true enough
in ordinary life and in our ordinary activities, how much more true is it in
the mission of the Church? Much of what we do in ministry is like that, sowing
seeds, so to speak, sometimes in lots of different ways with no obvious or
immediate result, and then waiting – patiently and hopefully – for something to
happen.
Even in the first parable about the seed growing of
its own accord, the farmer does do his part. There is activity on the farmer’s
part, just as there is activity on the Church’s part - on our part - in the
coming of God’s kingdom. The farmer makes his contribution, as God expects all
of us to do. But, in both cases, the crucial action is God’s action – action,
which occurs mysteriously and may mainly seem hidden. Our culture encourages us
to be busy all the time and to be efficient, accomplishing a lot in our busy
work. But, just as the famer in the parable scatters seed on faith, with no
certain knowledge of how it will grow, the Church has to sow the seed of God’s
word in the world, not knowing how or when our efforts will find fulfillment
but confident about the coming of God’s kingdom in our lives and in our world –
the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we say we're praying for in every Mass.
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