Seedy Living

Jesus often used stories about growing plants to teach his disciples about the Kingdom of God. This morning we heard the story of a farmer sowing seed.

The farmer is a typical farmer. He is going for maximum return, for the minimum of effort. It’s not laziness. It’s efficiency.

He scatters the seed across the field. Some of it falls on the path, some of it on the rocky ground, and some of it falls amongst the weeds.

It would be a more efficient use of the seed if all the seed went into the good soil, and none of it went onto the path, the stony bit, or amongst the weeds.

But the farmer has plenty of seed, and he doesn’t have time to be that careful with the seed when he is near the path, the stones, and the weeds. He just flings it out anyway. You never know, some of it might be fruitful.

It’s a great story. You can just visualise the scene. The field, the farmer, the seeds, and the four different outcomes.

Jesus has to explain it to his disciples. The seeds represent people who have heard about the Kingdom of God.

Jesus explains that the seeds on the path don’t really ‘get’ the Kingdom, and the message doesn’t grow in them at all.

The seeds on the rocky ground, grow for a while, and then die because their roots are shallow. The message grows in them, but because it stays shallow, it does not satisfy them, and the message dies.

The seeds amongst the weeds, get crowded out, and although the message doesn’t die, there isn’t any fruit.

You can read Jesus’ explanations yourself in Matthew chapter 13 at verses 1 to 23.

Paul also talked about planting and growing seeds. He was enouraging the Corinthians to respect the different gifts and styles of their different teachers, rather than falling out over which one was the best. Jesus is the foundation we should all be building our lives upon.

Instead of arguing about difference, let us recognise common purpose, common goals.

Paul and Apollos were both teachers, helping the Corinthians to know God better, to serve God more powerfully, to bring others to follow Jesus.

Some folk have a gift for bringing in new people. Some folk have a gift for teaching children. Some folk have a gift for prayer and helping others to pray. Some folk have a gift of helping those who are needing help. Some folk have a gift of visiting the sick and bring the healing of Jesus.

Paul had another example, of building a building.

Paul was the architect, finding a site, pulling together the materials like bricks and cement, and then laying the foundations. He was building a Temple for God out of living people.

Apollos had built on the foundations that Paul had created.

Together they were constructing a building for God. Each of the parts had their own role to play. If they didn’t stick together, and do what they were called to do, then the building would fall down.

We have seen that in Haiti this week. Buildings that were perfectly OK in normal times, were unable to survive the shaking of the earthquake.

When the time of shaking came - many of the buildings collapsed.

In this country people have stopped reading the Bible for themselves, and they have stopped talking to God themselves. Instead of coming to church every week, now they only came to Church at Communions and special events, or maybe even only at Christmas-time.

Nowadays, when trouble comes, people blame God, instead of asking for his help. When they need God, they can’t find Him, they don’t recognise Him, and they are lost.

As society has become disillusioned with God, folk who come to church are ridiculed for wasting their time. Society stops seeing the church as an asset, and instead sees the church as a drain on resources, a waste of everybody’s time.

Soon the church will come to a time of shaking, unless society changes direction. Then people will see what we are made of. Indeed, then we will find out what we are made of.

Paul exhorts the Corinthians to be united.

He doesn’t expect them all to be the same, all doing the same thing, thinking the same things, feeling the same things.

But he encourages them all to stay together as they follow Jesus. To encourage each other. To help each other. To teach each other. To comfort each other when things go wrong.

The Corinthians learned their lesson.
We know they were still in existence at least 100 years later.

Paul says, “Surely you know you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you!”

Therefore I say to you, “Build God’s Temple by working together. Don’t weaken it with disputes or disagreements.”