We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,
it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand…
it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand…
Whenever we hear the Parable of the Sower, I think of that beautiful hymn, reminding us that even as we scatter seed, God plays God’s part, as we do ours.
Whenever we get to these parables of Jesus, we need to remember that a parable is not like an Aesop Fable with a moral at the end, it is not like the stories we so often hear. Parables are metaphors rooted in images of everyday life and yet as the parable unfolds the metaphors are shattered, things are not as they seem, and they challenge our vision of reality.
Parables are open ended, with multiple meanings and layers to those stories, they are not so simple. That is why the disciples often asked Jesus to explain his parables. If Jesus had wanted to, he could have given a simple story or command like “love one another” as he did elsewhere. But to the crowd and his disciple he often spoke in parable.
A parable is “where the ordinary has gone askew and thereby shocks us into realizing that the parable leads us into another way of thinking about life.” (John R. Donahue)Today we have the Parable of the Sower – of one who scatters seeds everywhere…
"This is not about what good soil we are, and how well we understand the divine mysteries. This is about what God is doing in staggering numbers." (Anna Carter Florence)
So let’s think about this parable of the Kingdom as the sower sowing seeds everywhere, seeing where it indeed will take root through a story of today…
In 2007, Ozlem Cekic was the first Muslim immigrant woman elected to the Danish Parliament. Ozlem’s family came to Denmark in the 1980s when she was a child.
Soon after the election, the new legislator was inundated with hate mail — vile and racist, threatening her and her family. At first, she just deleted the e-mails, dismissing them as the work of fanatics. But one day a friend made an unexpected suggestion: reach out to the hate mail writers and invite them to meet for coffee. So Ozlem decided to call a man named Ingolf who had sent several nasty e-mails to her. Ozlem asked if she could come to his home for coffee; she would bring food.
In an interview on NPR, Ozlem remembers: “I was so nervous about what he would say. And the first thing he said was, ‘I have to ask my wife.’ And I think, wow, so he’s like my father — he always wants to ask my mom before he decides something, you know? So it was the first time that Ingolf [seemed] normal for me.”
After nervous introductions, the two began to talk, starting with their childhoods. From those stories, they moved on to talking about the things they disagreed about — and, to their surprise, things they agreed on.
Because Ozlem was willing to make the call, Ingolf became a real person to her — and she to him. It was the first of many conversations over coffee she would have in her eight years in Parliament with critics and detractors — and she continues her #DialogueCoffee initiative now that she is out of office.
“The vast majority of people I approach agree to meet me . . . Along the way, I have learned some valuable lessons. The people who sent hate mails are workers, husbands, wives, parents — like you and me. I’m not saying that their behavior is acceptable. But I have learned to distance myself from the hateful views without distancing myself from the person who’s expressing those views.
“During these meetings, specific themes keeps coming up. They all seem to think that other people are to blame for the hate and for the generalization of groups. They all believe that other people have to stop demonizing. They point at politicians, the media, their neighbor or the bus driver who stops ten meters away. But then I ask, What about you? What can you do? The reply is usually, I have no influence, I have no power.
“I know that feeling. For a large part of my life, I also thought that I don’t have any power and influence. But today, I know the reality is different. We all have power and influence where we are. So we must never underestimate our own potential. Trenches have been dug between people, yes. But we all have the ability to build the bridges that cross the trenches.” [TED Radio Hour, NPR, January 19, 2019.]
Ozlem Cekic’s #DialogueCoffee initiative is a contemporary image of Jesus’ parable of the sower: to possess the faith to sow seeds of compassion, understanding and justice on whatever “ground” we can. An encouraging word, a kind act, a moment to listen can all result in a harvest of hope we cannot imagine.
Jesus challenges us in the parable of the sower to be both sower and seed: If we seek peace, have we planted the seeds to realize such peace? If we seek trust and understanding, have we cultivated the ground to nurture such trust? If we seek a loving and giving family life, have we created the climate of acceptance and forgiveness that makes such love and understanding possible?
Christ calls us, as his disciples, to be sowers of the things and values of God in order to one day reap the harvest of God’s reign. For God is not done yet. planting seeds all over the place.
As Bishop Andy Doyle reminds us “We are to be, like Jesus, sowers of the seeds of the kingdom of God. We are to sow with abandonment. We are to sow in all kinds of places. We are to not worry about what grows but it is the production of fruit and the spread of the Good News that is our essential work.” Amen.
