Seeds, Sown

This weekend Hopesprings in Sioux City spent some time in our community loving and serving people in a really simple way. We raked leaves. It is a small thing, but a tangible extension of the love we've been given by God. It was also a cool way to meet some of our neighbors in the city.  

I have mentioned Sioux City being diverse before, but living here I am beginning to see it more clearly. We raked 10 homes, and at five of those homes we met folks who were a different ethnicity than I am (3 Hispanic families, 1 Native American family, 1 Asian family). There were two elderly families. There was a distinct language barrier at two of the homes. These homes were all within a couple blocks of each other.

Yesterday I spoke about the parable of the Sower at Hopesprings. It is a great story Jesus tells, and I used to think it was all about who's in and who's out. I thought it was a way of seeing if I measured up, if there was enough growth in my life to call it good soil. I see the passage and the story a little bit differently now. I am obsessed with the farmer these days.

The farmer scatters seed indiscriminately. He scatters seed recklessly. Some commentators talk about how the ground wasn't tilled, so the farmer doesn't know what kind of soil is underneath. 

But do you know the farmer we're dealing with here? 

Without a care (it seems) for the response, for the yield, for the fruit, seed is sown. Sometimes the crop is bountiful, sometimes not. Sometimes the plants grow, other times the soil is too poor, unready, and the farmer gets nothing. 

Jesus tells us the farmer sows the Word. The Good Word. The Word of God. The Last Word. The I-made-you-and-love-you-and-will-keep-pursuing-you Word. We are challenged to sow like the Sower sows. Invited into the kingdom of God, His mission becomes ours. Our lives become the fertile soil and the seed is scattered further. Wider. Deeper.

We have no idea where the good soil is in Sioux City. I do know the soil is diverse, and the challenges in sowing here will be great. I don't speak Vietnamese, and my two years of high school Spanish will not be enough. I can rake leaves. 

There is little strategy and a great deal of faith and tenacity in a story about a sower who sows recklessly and yields bountifully. We will sow like the Sower sows. Because you know what? I have been every kind of soil and God still came after me. The Word was sown in my life long before any crop came up.