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Sowing the Seed
6 min
Gospel
Mk 4: 26-34
And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a
man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and
the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first
the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at
once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
And he
said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of
all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all
shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in
its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as
they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to
his own disciples he explained everything.
Readings are taken from Dynamic Catholic’s Bible: RSV Catholic Edition.
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Transcript
Sowing the Seed
What's the greatest thing
in your life? What's the greatest thing in your life? Throughout the gospel, Jesus has
these parables about the Kingdom of God. Today, we got two. We got one about sowing of
the seeds, and we got one about the mustard seed. But all of the Kingdom of God parables
have the same point. Every time Jesus says, "The Kingdom of God is like," He's
essentially asking us a question. He's saying, "What's the greatest thing in your life?
What's the most important thing in your life? What's at the center of your life?" And
He's trying to convince us that wisdom is to make the Kingdom of God the most important
thing in our lives, to make the Kingdom of God the greatest thing in our lives and to
place the Kingdom of God at the center of our lives, or rather, to place ourselves at
the center of the Kingdom of God.
I love these two parables. The
first one's about the sower. There are several parables about sowers in the gospels and
the sower has a job to do. And the sower's job is to go out and sow the seed. Sow the
seed. Now, does the sower worry about, if the seed will grow? Yes. Does the sower worry
about, if there'll be a storm? Yes. Does the sower worry about, if there'll be a rich
harvest? Yes. But God essentially says, don't extend your personal responsibility beyond
where it belongs. We do it all the time. We make ourselves responsible for things we're
not actually responsible for. Meanwhile, neglecting things that we are actually
responsible for. We worry about things we're not actually responsible for, and we use
that as an excuse for not actually doing the things we are, in fact, actually
responsible for. And God says, "Hey, be mindful of your own personal responsibility.
Your job's to sow. Let me worry about what sort of dirt it falls in. Let me worry about
the weather patterns. Let me worry about what the harvest will be. You focus on the one
thing you can actually affect because that's when you have the most effect." When we
affect the things we can actually affect, that's when we live in our power. That's when
we live connected to God. That's when we're most impactful. It's when we start focusing
on things we can't actually affect, we can't influence, we can't change that, we become
like a leaky tire. We just lose all the energy, all the air just sucked out of our
lives. And so what's God saying to us today? Focus on sowing the seed. Focus on sowing
the seed. Bring the message to as many people as possible. Share the message with as
many people as possible. Some of them will respond to it. Some of them won't. That's
life. Might not be their time. That's okay. Just keep sowing the seed. Just keep sowing
the seed. It's the first parable.
The second parable is about the
mustard seed, which is the smallest seed and yet becomes the greatest of all the trees,
shrubs, et cetera. There's a line here that I think a lot about, and I think we sort of
graze over it sometimes or slip past it. Jesus says, "Yet when the mustard seed is sown,
it grows up and becomes the greatest of all the shrubs and puts forth large branches so
that the birds of the air can make their nests in its shade." See, when we make the
Kingdom of God the most important thing in our lives, what happens is God grows us. He
gives us those large branches. And those large branches, that goodness, the goodness of
your life is like those large branches. It brings comfort to other people. It brings
shade to the birds. It brings shade, a place for them to make their nests. Your goodness
comforts people in their lives. And life is a long, weary journey. Life is a long, weary
journey. And sometimes, in the midst of that long, weary journey, all people need is to
spend a few minutes in the shade of your goodness. To spend a few minutes in the shade
of your goodness can completely transform their day, can restore their hope in humanity,
can restore their hope in their own lives. So what's Jesus saying to us? He's saying,
"Allow me to grow you. Allow me to grow you. Allow me to give you big branches. Allow me
to fill you with my goodness so that you can go out and share that goodness with weary
people in this weary world and restore their hope in themselves, their lives, and
humanity.
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