The Message
Jesus used a lot of agrarian parables. He talked about sowing and harvesting. It fits because of the world he was in, but there's another reason as well.
Farming can't be rushed. When you plant a seed, you can't work harder and make the corn appear in June. You can't rush the growth of a pumpkin. Wheat won't sprout faster because you spend all night staring at it. To farm is to be radically dependent on many elements outside of your control. It takes a tremendous amount of trust to put a seed in a hole in the ground, cover it with dirt, and trust your economic future to something happening in the ground that you cannot control.
To farm is to place trust in the weather and the seed, and to patiently and faithfully work while the natural world works on its own schedule.
In the same way, to be a Christian is to faithfully commit yourself to a lifetime of following Christ. Much of the toil of being a Christian isn't headline grabbing news -- it's the slow and steady growth that isn't measured in days or weeks but in years and decades. It's trusting Christ day in and day out, even though much of life may feel beyond our control. Following Christ is an act of trusting God and doing our small part.
The farmer went out to seed, and we receive with grateful heart what God offers. Each of us has a different lot in life. Each of us has different joys, different hardships. You and I could compare notes, and we have heartbreaks and sorrows, as well as moments of abundant joy. We see Christ at work in different ways, in different places, and thanks be to God for the diversity in the world.
May we trust in Christ, in the slow work of discipleship, and gather around the table and talk about how God is at work from our place in the soil.
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