“Get your hands dirty”

This is the sermon manuscript from the sermon preached on June 16/17 2012, the 3^rd Sunday after Pentecost.  The supporting scripture text is Mark 4:26-34.

So God made a farmer.  He wore overalls, carried a tooth pick in his mouth, and had dirt under his fingernails.  His hands were calloused from years of nurturing crops; trying to convince plants that they could indeed grow in the hot July heat of Texas.  He worked the earth, the rich black soil of Texas that had been worked by his forefathers before him.  His eyes spoke of experience and conveyed a knowledge that can only be earned through sweat and time.  He prayed for rain when the dust got too thick and cussed when it was too wet to plow.  The lines in his face could tell stories of forgotten times and patience, the patience of a farmer.  So God made a farmer and his name is Popo.  And I am blessed to have him as my grandpa.

            I just know that there was a man like Popo at the feet of Jesus in the story we hear from Mark today.  I just know that he was in the crowd that afternoon, sitting on the hillside listening to Jesus speak of sowing seed and watching it take root and grow.  It is one of the remarkable traits of Jesus, that he takes time for the common folk.  Jesus took the time to talk with the shopkeepers, and fishermen, and farmers, and mothers and sisters, and second cousins, the people that we meet when we go to the store or stand in line with at the bank.  Jesus took the time to meet people like Popo, and people like you and me.

Now remember, Mark’s story of Jesus moves very quickly.  Mark does not waste much time in getting Jesus out on the road and up to his elbows in ministry.  In chapter 4, where we meet Jesus today, he is moving through the countryside, stopping in the little towns and villages.  He would heal the sick and tend to those in need.  He would tell the gathered crowds stories of how kingdom of God was breaking into the world before their very eyes.  He would tell them parables using words they would understand and images to which they could relate.  And so for those in the crown who knew the rhythms of farming he would spin a tale of scattering seed and the mystery of growth. 

And perhaps the farmers would all have nodded in agreement as Jesus talked mystery of how the seed produced its fruit.  They all knew that once the seed was in the ground, all one could do was watch and pray, sleep and rise and repeat.  In time the seed would bear fruit, God willing, and then the moment to harvest would come.  But the growth of the seed remained a mystery.  The farmers could no more control the growth than they could control the rising and setting of the sun.  They didn’t have modern methods of irrigation and watering their fields, they waited and prayed that the rain would fall.  They hoped that the seed would take root.  But in the end, all they could do was scatter the seed on the ground and wait.  They could only sleep and rise and repeat as the seed did the growing.  Jesus wasn’t telling them anything they did not already know about farming.  He wasn’t talking of new methods for getting seeds to grow.  So perhaps he was telling them something deeper. 

Remember how Jesus introduces the parable, “the kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground…”    This is a story about how the kingdom of God breaks into our world.  A story of how God’s reign is present in our midst.  A story of how God’s love for all people is manifest in our lives.  And the seed becomes the object through which the reign of God comes into our midst. 

Notice that it is the seed take the prominent acting role in the parable.  It is not the farmer who scatters the seed and then goes to sleep who takes the lead.  The leading actor is the seed.  The seed sprouts and grows beyond the knowledge and actions of the farmer.  The seed is placed in the earth where it sprouts a stalk eventually a head a grain.  It is the seed that does all of the work to produce the harvest while the farmer sleeps and rises and waits.  The seed is the catalyst of God’s kingdom breaking into our lives.  And what could be a more powerful means of bringing God’s kingdom into our lives than Jesus Christ.  His life was not about teaching the good news, his life was living it.  The life of Jesus Christ is the seed of the kingdom that takes root and grows beyond the farmer’s ability to control.  Jesus is the seed of the good news of God that continues to break into our lives today.  Jesus is the seed of the kingdom planted in each of us who have been baptized into his name.

I can remember riding a tour bus into Leipzig Germany.  It was a rather grey day which when mixed with the block soviet architecture made for a gloomy entrance into that historic city.  Our tour guide told us the story of the Nicolaikirche, and 800 year old Lutheran church in downtown.  During the 1980s the Nicolaikirche played host to Monday prayer gatherings that met weekly for almost a decade.  Some nights there were less than a dozen people present, but the group carried on with prayer and talks of politics and hoped for a future where there was no divide between East and West Germany, a life where there was no wall and no fear.  On October 9^th the crowd swelled to almost 100,000 people.  They moved into the streets, facing armed guards and the threat of a violent stop to the marches.  But the seeds of the kingdom of God had been planted in those people.  Perhaps for some the seed of the kingdom had been germinating for a lifetime and in that moment the seeds of the kingdom were bearing fruit for the world to see.  The crowd double every week and the wall finally came down just five weeks later.  The healing could finally begin.  The kingdom of God broke into the world in that moment through people like you and me who stood up for love and peace.  The kingdom of God breaks into our world through the seeds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ planted in you and me. 

In baptism you and I become farmers of sorts.  We are entrusted with the seed of the good news and called to scattered this seed where ever we walk through this world.  It’s what we have been doing all week.  During Vacation Bible School we have been scattering seed amongst those who came through these doors and there is no telling what God will do with their lives.  In child and adult alike we have been scattering the seeds of the kingdom.  Every night we shared the story of who God is and of what God’s love will do in our lives.  Every night we proclaimed the world changing message of God’s love for the world poured out through Jesus Christ.  The good news that we proclaim can change the world. 

Dear people, we are entrusted with the seed of the kingdom and where ever we take this seed, it’s going to grow.  Regardless of what we do, it’s going to grow.  The seed of the good news of God will grow not because of who we are but because of who God is and God’s love will bear fruit in due season.  We who are called to be farmers are not in charge of the growth of the seed; we are simply called to spread it as we go.  So roll up your sleeves children of God and get your hands dirty with the seeds of the kingdom.  Take on the patience of a farmer, the patience I saw Popo live out over and over again as he planted seed and hoped for the harvest.  Take the seed of the kingdom and spread it far.  Spread it where ever you go and sleep and rise and watch as the Kingdom of God springs for around us.