Dcn Tom Lindell
My brothers and sisters,
What a jackpot to land on one’s favorite biblical passage, the parable of the sower. While parables are often metaphorically enigmatic, some are rather straightforward. Theologian Sallie McFague has written: “…as New Testament scholars agree, the parables not only are Jesus’ most characteristic form of teaching but are among the most authentic strata in the New Testament.”[1]
As we place ourselves into the Gospel story today, Jesus is sitting in the bow of a boat, anchored just offshore, and ironically relating a parable in a language that most would understand, an agricultural theme of a farmer sowing seeds. However, the farmer is indiscriminately sowing valuable seed on to all kinds of marginal soil.
This would have been shocking to those listening, knowing how precious seed would be. Of course, this was a device to catch the attention of his hearers. You already know the rest of the story; some seeds fell on fallow rocky soil and if they germinated at all they would wither for lack of moisture. Other seeds were eaten by birds, or choked by weeds, and some fell on suitable soil to germinate and produce abundant valuable grain.
The beautiful simplicity of this parable can be appreciated if one equates the sower to God. Instead of seed, God is extending love to everyone without question or whether we deserve it or not. God loves us for no reason. We do not have to earn grace from God, it is there for the offering.
Again, McFague writes: …the most important characteristic of God…is love. Here we have the one word that we use to talk about God that is not a metaphor; that is …—stretched—to function somehow for God.[2]
If we gratefully accept this offer of grace, how can we express our gratitude? This then is the God I personally acknowledge. Once we begin to understand we are the recipients of something we do not deserve, it is our responsibility to turn that into the “hands” that God does not have, but we do.
It is then our responsibility to be “God-like” in the world, to use our gifts and talents in the service of others. Are we willing to assume this responsibility for our neighbor instead of appealing to God to fix things for which we ask God to intervene?
“What would Christianity look like from a cosmological as opposed to an anthropocentric perspective?[3]
—Dcn Tom
