Michael D. Powell January 18th, 2009
Mark 4:1-11 2nd Sunday after Epiphany/Human Relations Day
Today is Human Relations Sunday, tomorrow we
celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and on Tuesday we’ll be
inaugurating our first African American United States President. The eyes of
the world will be on the celebration this Tuesday. It is the glorious harvest of powerful seeds
that have been sown in the struggle for Civil and for Human Rights in the
Our Human Relations Day
insert quotes Isaiah1: 17 from The Message:
“Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for
Justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.” These prophetic words are the essence of
proper human relations, but I want to draw your attention to one word
especially in this passage – the word “learn.” The ideal of right human relationships
involving justice, compassion, responsibility and accountability don’t just
happen naturally. Right human
relationships have to be learned, and they have to be taught. That’s what Martin Luther King, Jr. did, and
that what I want to talk about this morning.
I’ve chosen for our scripture the parable that Jesus
told about a farmer sowing seeds along the path of life. The parable speaks of “sowing”
seeds, and I should point out that sowing seeds is a whole different thing than
planting seeds. Planting is more intentional and deliberate, more personal, if
you will. Sowing, on the other hand, is simply casting seeds, some of which
inevitably fall upon soil that is unpromising.
Now, if you happen to be in a time of your life where you identify with
unproductive soil, or feel that you’ve never had the benefit of a teacher who
personally and lovingly plants the seeds of promise in your life, the love of
God and neighbor, this parable is especially good news for you. The good news is that God has scattered seeds
of hope and promise in your life. You
may not even know it, you may not feel particularly responsive, but the promise
is that those seeds are just waiting for an opportunity to sprout.
What
are the seeds? The seeds are the Good
News of not only a right relationship with a personal and loving God, but also
of right relationships in our human community.
The promise of the seeds is that a harvest of justice, mercy, joyful
compassion, mutual responsibility and accountability is the essence of God’s
master plan for the human family. God’s seeds are the potential and the promise
of a personal, purposeful, creative and regenerative power in the world, and
those seeds are eternal. Their sprouting and growth may be thwarted for a time,
but the seeds themselves are indestructible. As Obama likes
to quote: “The arc of history is
long, but it bends toward justice!”
You may remember when seeds of hope and promise, of
justice and mercy were very intentionally planted in your life. Parents and
grandparents, Sunday school and other teachers probably planted them. “You
are special” you may have heard. “God loves you and has a purpose for
your life;” “We are our brother’s keeper;” “Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you;” “Love one another, even as God has loved you.” Can you remember where you first learned those
lessons? Can you remember those
teachings being personally and lovingly planted in the soil of your heart and
mind? If so, you are truly blessed.
But,
beyond those carefully and personally planted seeds, there are the sown seeds,
the seemingly random and scattered experiences of your life when suddenly the
awareness of God’s presence and purpose became very real to you. It may have
been a time when you felt comforted, forgiven, encouraged or even healed. It
may have been an experience when suddenly you realized how we are all
interdependent, a recognition of how caring for one another, being gracious and
forgiving, or a healer is the most fulfilling, the most truly human thing you
have ever done. That was a moment when you experienced God’s grace. And here’s
the Good News - the sowing of those seeds of grace is not as random as it
seems. The Holy Spirit is the sower, using the chosen instrument of some friend
or circumstance of your life, and the whim of the wind upon which those grace
seeds were sown was none other than the breath of God. The soil upon which they
fall is the free will of your heart and soul.
A
farmer went out to sow, Jesus said. Some of the seeds fell upon the hardened
path, where the birds gobbled them up. A few verses later, when Jesus
interprets this parable, he explains that those hungry birds are like Satan.
You probably don’t believe in the caricature of a devil with horns and a
pitchfork, but you are familiar with the birds of appetite that gnaw away at
your sense of purpose and meaning, that devour your joy and feed on your
anxiety. We experience those birds of appetite when we’ve become like a
hardened path, when we’ve placed our minds and our hearts on automatic, when we’ve
become insensitive and unreceptive to God’s presence. That’s when our
relationships with other humans are hard and cold as rock, as stony soil.
Other
seeds fell among thorns. The seeds, which are the awareness of Gods’ personal
and purposeful presence, of the blessedness of our human relationships, those
seeds may initially be received with joy, but sometimes our soil is too shallow
for the seeds to take root, or too crowded with the ego drives of competing
interests that seem to suck the very life-force out of them. You’ve experienced
that. When the soil of our hearts is hardened, rocky or thorny, it causes
suffering. Our soil conditions come in many forms – everything from racism and
war to broken relationships, layoffs, bankruptcies, addictions, illness, guilt
and fear, spiritual emptiness - the list is endless. We may feel hard and cold
for a time, then hot and bothered, caught up in some hot flash of temporary
enthusiasm or fleeting success that unexpectedly lets us down with a thud.
But
some of the seed, Jesus tells us, falls on fertile soil. It takes root, grows,
and the fruit of its yield is thirty, sixty, even a hundred fold. That’s the
promise! The sprouting of awareness, the
growth of the seed of right relationship with God and with our brothers and
sisters may be thwarted for a time, but the seed of God’s grace is eternal. The
history of racism and slavery in this nation is a shameful stain on our
national character, but hope springs eternal!
The sacred seeds of redemption and reconciliation are still able to
sprout and grow and the promise of a rich harvest is even now coming to
fruition!
Look back upon the path of your own life. Remember
the hard times, the rocky times, the times when you
felt the thorns of pain. You may be in the midst of such a time right now, but
here’s the Good News. God has been sowing seeds all the while, and God is able
to use the worst in order to accomplish the best. Take just one example. So
often we hear the cliché that marriages are made in heaven. Well, here’s a
flash! Some divorces are made in heaven too. Breakups can bring redemption.
Relationships break. Careers break. Economies break. People break. The Good
News is that the seeds of regeneration have been scattered from the very
beginning, and God uses brokenness in order and to grow something new. And
here’s another flash - the way our soil becomes fertile and receptive is
through the mixing of manure in with our brokenness!
So I’ll close with this. An ancient agricultural technique was to first sow the seeds, and then plow the field - rocks, thorns and all. The Good News is that the regenerative seeds of God’s Love have been sown in your hearts from the very beginning. God uses brokenness, and it is never too late for the seeds to sprout and for you to experience the joy of New Life in Christ. It is never too late for the human family to grow into right relationship with one another and with God. That’s the essence of what we celebrate on this Human Relations Day. Thanks be to God. Amen.