Old Sow and Sow
July 13, 2008
Rev’d Dr. Kenneth McKenzie
Think of all the great figures of Scripture; the men and women who shine forth from the pages of Holy Writ. It is quite a listing of responsive role models who served God faithfully and continue to serve us in our struggling attempts to be faithful. There is, of course, Abraham. He strove and sojourned long, clinging to God's promise of property, prosperity and progeny. Then Moses, the Lawgiver, leading a new nation out of slavery and into the salvation story. Who can forget the prophets, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos and others who proclaimed at once God's righteousness and wrath against those who took advantage of the marginalized members of society?
Each of these and countless others serve to show us the lengths to which we are called to go in our obedience, faithfulness, and hope. They are the "good examples" of the faith. The heroes of the Sunday School class.
I believe that it was Winston Churchill, though, who once said that there are few greater annoyances in life than that of a "good example."
That's why Jacob gives me a modicum of hope for myself. Nobody really wants to model themselves after Jacob. And the primary reason may well be that most of us know that we have got Jacob pretty well down pat. He is the competitor, the schemer, the con man supreme who keeps us always watching out the corner of our eye with our hands firmly on our wallets.
To put him in a bit of a perspective, he was the barely second born son of Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac was forty when they got married and she didn't have children until twenty years later. When the twin boys did come along, bless Pat if Jacob didn't start out by clutching to Esau's heel, trying to keep him from being the first one out of the womb.
And that was just a foretaste. Twice he cheated his brother Esau out of what was coming to him. At least once he took advantage of his father's blindness and played him for a sucker. He out-did his double-crossing father-in-law, Laban, by conning him out of most of his livestock and later
on, when Laban was looking the other way, by sneaking off with not only both the man's daughters but just about everything else that wasn't red-hot or nailed down.
Jacob was never satisfied. He wanted the moon and if he'd ever managed to bilk Heaven out of that, he would have been back the next morning for the stars to go with it.
Jacob's growing edge was seen in his having to learn the lesson that there are some things in life that you just can't get. They have to be given to you. One of those things is love in general and another is God's love in particular.
Beyond that is the lesson which all of us, including Jacob have to learn and re-learn is that God doesn't love us because of who we are, but because of Who He is.
That, of course, is a hard bit of learning.
We think that there is so much of something that we have to be or do or become to merit God's love. The feet of the matter is that nothing is further from the truth. God loves us as we are. Always has; always will.
But there are some things which we can do to make our lives a little bit easier. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans seems to indicate that those who live according to the Spirit of Christ become more and more a reflection of what God designed them to be in the first place. Those who live only according to their own desires seldom make that transition.
Picture yourself trying to swim across a river. The current is swift but you have a need to get across to the other side. If you fight the current, trying to swim upstream or directly across the waters, you will quickly become exhausted, perhaps injured, and possibly drown. On the other hand, if you swim gently with the current and ease your way to the other side, you might even find yourself refreshed by the little dip.
As is true in the physical world, so it is true with the spiritual world. God made us in such a way that we are designed to be in communion with Him. He has placed us where we are, when we are, with the gifts of His choosing to do His will. When we are in accord with that, we surrender our need to be in control of everything and follow his lead. When we think that we know
what is best for ourselves and all others around us, we assume a mantle of authority and responsibility which is not rightly ours.
And the weight of that mantle is heavy, indeed.
I suppose that all of us struggle beneath the burden of feeling responsible for everything which happens in and around us. It doesn't matter how old your children become, they are still your children. Somehow, we have attached a corollary to that observation which says that they are also always our responsibility. I was speaking with a dear friend this past week whose son, only recently out of prison, had broken his probation by drinking a large quantity of beer and then wrecking his truck.
Now somehow, she felt responsible for that. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what made it her responsibility, but she couldn't help but feel if she had done more as a mother, taught him to behave, given him specific lists of do's and don'ts, then somehow all of the tragedy and sadness of his life could have been avoided. My counsel to her, as I said a moment ago, is that he will always be her child, but at 42 years of age, he is no longer her responsibility.
I believe that Jesus is saying much the same thing to His disciples in our Gospel Lesson for today. A sower goes out to sow. He scatters the seed everywhere, even in places where there is little, if any chance of germination. You see, the focus of the story is not the one casting the seed, but rather the receptivity of the ground on which it is spread.
Not too long ago I was working in the yard when I noticed a car driving through the neighborhood. Periodically, it would stop and toss something out. Now, being one who considers litter bugs to be only a half-step on the evolutionary ladder above pond scum, I knelt down and positioned myself to catch the license tag of the miserable offender. I suppose that I was spotted, because the car sped up and, as it passed by, the passenger threw one of the offending objects my way. It ricocheted off a tree and landed at my feet. I picked it up and discovered that it was a plastic bag which held a small stone and a Bible Track. I was the first known victim of a drive by evangelism.
When you think about it, though, the dastardly duo were taking Jesus at His word: They were casting the Word and trusting God to provide the increase.
There is a bit of wisdom there. In my first parish, many folk were passionate about what used to be called "Soul Winning." Basically, this consisted of first identifying a prospective sinner, convincing him or her of the error of their ways, and slowly but surely bringing them to the foot of the cross, preferably with tears in their eyes and a profession of faith on their lips.
There is a bit of skewed theology, there. God does the saving, regardless of and sometimes in spite of our best effort to bring in the proverbial sheaves. God saves whomsoever God wills to save. No notches in our spiritual holsters, mere. No credit for bringing lost souls to the Savior.
Still, we have a task in the process. We are to be the sowers of the Word. St. Francis once said, "Preach the Gospel at all times. When all else foils, use words."
So, how do we, the members of Christ's Body at 1941 Shorter Avenue cast the Gospel seed? As a group, we do it by participating actively in over 30 mission organizations and activities. They range from Habitat for Humanity to individual missionary support, to volunteering at the food pantry and the soup kitchens. The list is an impressive one indeed. And souls are reached every day with our compassionate casting.
But what about the individual? What about you and me? How are we called to be sowers? First of all, I believe we are called to be consistent. We are called to demonstrate in our lives the faith of our souls. Fewer things turn folk off more that hearing Christians say one thing but do another. "I'm not about to go to a church!" exclaimed a fellow some time ago. "The place is full of hypocrites!" To which the witness replied, "Come on anyway; there's always room for one more!"
Secondly, I believe that we are to be generous with our sowing. Never pass up on an opportunity show forth the qualities of the faith. Be joyful, optimistic, encouraging and, of course, grateful and faithful. You don't have to preach it, but you are called to live it. Sooner or later, someone somewhere is going to ask, "What is it that makes you so joyful? Why are you always smiling?" Then, when you have been invited, you can explain.
Finally, we need to quit taking responsibility for those who don't hear or respond to the Gospel. It may not be the time. We may not be the right
people. That kind of stuff is in God's hands, not ours. Let Him provide the nourishment after we have provided the seed.
One of my fond memories of youth is going to the market with my Grandmother. She would deftly pick out green beans individually, spending what seemed to me to be an inordinate amount of time selecting just the right ones. I came to realize later that part of her routine was to see who was out shopping. She always enjoyed showing off her grandson to her neighbors and was killing a little time waiting to see who would show up.
On occasion she would forget the name of a familiar face which was approaching her. She would then look down at me and say in a soft voice, "Well, here comes old so-and-so." That was my cue to remind her if I happened to know who was coming down the aisle.
It is a good tiling to know that God never forgets our names. He does, however, want us to be continually mindful of our brothers and sisters, whatever their names may be and wherever they find their stations in life. He doesn't call us to save them, since He already loves them. He just wants us to share the seed and leave the germination to Him. So, in a real sense, He calls us to be old sow-and-sows; casting the seed of the Gospel in a myriad of ways to all the corners, cracks and crevices of the world.
And, as the old Greyhound commercial used to say, "Leave the driving to Me."
