Get out into the fields

Yesterday we looked at the parable of the sower from Mark 4. I said that a parable is a story with a point. But I don't necessarily mean that a parable is a story with just one point. If a parable was a story with just one point then it would have been easier and quicker just to write a list of points - Mark could have simply used a load of bullet points, one for each parable - and then his gospel would have been even shorter. It would also be the case that once you'd worked out the point you would never have to read the parable again. But the Bible is living and active - and this means that it will speak to us today.

What the parable of the sower says to us depends on the perspective or focus we take on the story.

If we look at the sower the point might be that we are to sow the seed liberally - we don't know the kinds of soil the seed is falling on. The job of the sower is to sow the seed with apparently little concern as to whether that seed will grow or not.

But we might ask, from our own experience of gardening, whether it would not be more sensible for the farmer to do all he can to improve the quality of the soil - to take out the weeds before they go to seed, to dig up the rocks, to break up the path, to add fertiliser, to put up a scarecrow to keep the birds away...

Jesus tells us that the parable is about how people receive and respond to the word.

So whilst some hearts will be hard, or stony or full of weeds - surely there are things that we can do that will prepare people to hear from God. People who have had a bad experience of church or a bad experience of Christians are less likely to respond well to the gospel than the person who has been helped through a crisis by a Christian friend who has shown genuine compassion and care. 

Sometimes our behaviour might actually be stamping down the soil, spreading weeds, or adding rocks on the fields of people's lives - actions that make it less likely that they will respond positively to the gospel in the future.