A few of you might have noticed my absence over the last three weeks. I spent that time wandering in the countryside around my hometown. Not that I was looking for the way into the town, nor was I lost. It was my idea of an active holiday combined with visiting my dear Mum. The countryside around my hometown is a flat mix of woodland and fields, plus a huge military training ground, obviously closed to the public. The fields of corn were swaying gently in the breeze like a vast yellow ocean, getting ready to be cropped. In some places, the wheat had grown almost as tall as I am. Although I was visually impressed, I knew the farmer would pay much more attention to the ripe ears of grain at the top of the plants. That’s the prize all farmers look forward to when they sow their fields; straw is only a relatively valuable by-product or waste. The conclusion of Jesus’ parable in today’s gospel refers to that: “Other [seeds] fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Another mildly interesting thing about the fields of corn I walked around was how neat they were, the result of modern, mechanised techniques of farming. In his parable, Jesus referred to a completely different, ancient method of sowing, when a farmer walked through the field, taking handfuls of seeds and scattering them across the ground. It was a far less precise, more random technique that landed seeds in various places alongside the field; some of them unsuitable for the growth and development of the newly sown plants. Then the field was ploughed or raked so the seeds were covered with soil. But – of course – the farmer didn’t plough the road, rocky patches or thickets, so the seeds there remained exposed to the elements and wildlife, and thus pretty much doomed.
Having listened to this parable many times over, we might be familiar with its meaning and assume the same of Jesus’ audience. But that wasn’t the case; we heard of His own disciples asking for the interpretation of the story. Following the same tradition, let us ask what this parable means to us, residents of the non-agricultural city of Aberdeen.
In the Gospel of St Mark, Jesus gives a very clear clue to the same parable: “The sower sows the word” (4:14), meaning the word of God. With this in mind, it’s easier to understand various threats to its reception by those listening to it. Another clue we can find in today’s passage of the gospel: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding…” A very common and dangerous misconception is that religious faith comes effortlessly out of thin air. The result of such an attitude is a gradual dissolution of the “legacy faith” inherited from childhood years. At best, it morphs into “religious tradition”, often combined with superstitions; at worst, the fallout is complete. Consequently, if we want to keep the faith alive, we have to make some effort; your presence here today is a clear demonstration that you do! So, how can you make your effort fruitful?
In His interpretation of the parable, Jesus mentioned the difficulties that life can throw at us or our own disordered attachments or desires – “rocky patches” and “thorns”, respectively. The Letter to the Hebrews teaches that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (4:12) In other words, when we attentively listen to the word of God, it can offer us consolation in difficulties and find solutions; or it confronts our undesirable attitudes in order to weed them out before they grow into bad or sinful habits and damage or destroy our lives and those of the people around us. When we keep the soil of our souls fertile, we can fulfil our main vocation as voiced by Jesus: “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” (John 15:16) On the face of it that sounds a bit vague; but in fact, the progress we can make is measurable and verifiable: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Growing in these attributes is what Jesus meant in the conclusion of His parable: “the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.”
