O Lord open our lips.
That our mouths may proclaim your praise.
O God, come to our aid.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
'Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
'When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that
“they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’
'And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’'
[Mark 4.1-20]
Following his Baptism and sojourn in the wilderness Jesus begins his peripatetic ministry around the Judean countryside, preaching and healing. Each of the Gospel writers gives us an overview of what Jesus said, and the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) have Jesus using parables as a means of sharing his message. (A parable is a type of story where the meaning is contained within the narrative: as one theologian has put it 'as you listen to the story with your ears, them meaning slips in round the back.) John tends to have Jesus making long expositions and statements, rather than using parables as a means of teaching his listeners.
In St Mark's Gospel the focus is on one parable in particular, that of the Sower. The Parable of the Sower would have been a shocking one if you were a 1st century Judean peasant. The sower clearly has no idea of how the economics of farming, or its practicalities work. Israel is a desert country, with strips of farmable land surrounding the river valley of the Jordan; land suitable for cultivation was sparse and limited. Seed too was expensive, and something to used wisely, and not wasted.
Into this setting comes Jesus's sower who throws his seed everywhere: amidst weeds; in front of birds; on bad soil; on the footpath. In each of these settings the grain is wasted, either gobbled up by hungry birds, or the nascent shoots are destroyed even before they can begin to grow. Only a limited amount reaches good soil, and thus its full potential.
Jesus uses the image of the profligate sower as one for God. A God who throws out his message to the world, knowing that 99 times out 100 it will be ignored or forgotten, but knowing that it might hit good soil at least once, and their find roots. And from those roots comes another messenger who will share the task of transmitting the Gospel message.
On other occasions Jesus uses parables to get at it opponents, showing how the story of God's relationship with Israel has been one of trust and failure, but that God remains faithful to his people, even when they are unfaithful to him.
I like this image of the Parable of the Sower by Peter Bruegel the Elder because it shows the sower (bottom left) in the midst of the world. The sower isn't the focus of the image, but it rather shows him faithfully sowing his seed in his small patch of God's Kingdom. (A reminder that we are called to be where we are and who we are; that God uses us where we are, we don't need to go searching for him.) The world carries on around the sower, but the sower faithfully cares for what God has entrusted to him.
Envy and jealousy are a very human emotion. (St Augustine in his autobiography The Confessions talks about having seen jealousy even in babies. (Jealousy refers to our desire to posses and not share what we consider to be our own: Envy is a desire to posses what others have, but which is not ours to posses.) I have found it very easy to be envious of what others have, and find myself tearing myself apart through envious desire. When I get like that I have to remind myself that like the sower in Bruegel's image I am called to care for what God has entrusted to me, not to selfishly desire what has entrusted to others.
For reflection:
- Do you have a favourite parable of Jesus?
- What is it that speaks to you in that parable, and what is it that makes it so attractive to you?
- What might God be saying to you through this parable? Or what does it say to you about God?
- What has God entrusted to you to care for?
Concluding Prayer
- Our closing prayer today is the Collect from the Feast of St Benedict of Nurcia, a saint whose Rule of monastic life has been influential on my own understanding of ministry.
Let us pray.
Eternal God,
who made Benedict a wise master in the school of your service
and a guide to many called into community to follow the rule of Christ:
grant that we may put your love before all else
and seek with joy the way of your commandments;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Comments
Post a Comment