Sowing seeds

Journeying on rural roads last week, we saw tractor after tractor. Each was towing a trailer filled with freshly harvested potatoes. I think of morning assemblies at school where we marked the seasons with appropriate hymns of thanksgiving and praise. I well remember the headmaster berating us few hundred boys for taking a breath in the wrong place as we sang, ‘We plough the fields and scatter….’ ‘No, no, no,’ implored Mr Greenfield, ‘They don’t plough the fields and run off! There isn’t a comma after the word scatter. It’s “We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land.”’

We are used to getting our plastic bag of apples from the supermarket, each apple being virtually identical in size and shape. Our meat and fish in its tray looks nice and clean behind the taut clear plastic. As for my wheat? Well, it’s always been baked or comes in a yellow cereal box. I admit that for me there is some disconnection between the food in our cupboards and freezer and the hard work that takes place in the fields throughout the year.

When I was a boy, nearly all of our dads and granddads had a vegetable patch in the garden or an allotment. I think we understood our dependence upon the seasons and had some sense, at least, that our food was being given to us by God. This is certainly the idea behind the harvest festivals which we attended. We brought examples of the first fruits of our dads’ gardening efforts or, failing that, we resorted to something from mom’s shopping at the greengrocers. After the harvest festival service, the gathered produce was distributed amongst the local ‘poor/old folks’. At that time, it wasn’t so easy to find truly poor people in our locality. Today of course, food banks are in constant need of provisions and all the more so with the current COVID-19 crisis.

Back in March, when there were shortages in the supermarkets and the queues were long, I found myself appreciating my food far more. I was grateful for the shop workers, those in the distribution networks, those in food production but, above all, God himself.

Jesus taught that God demonstrates his love to all, even his enemies, by sending rain on both the ‘good and the evil’ and the blessing of his sunshine on both the ‘righteous and unrighteous’. This is what theologians call God’s ‘common grace’ i.e. the undeserved favour that God gives to everyone. There is another type of grace which Christians know as ‘saving grace’. This comes about following the planting of the seed of God’s word in the soil of a man or woman’s heart.

When God speaks his seed-like word into a person’s heart there is the potential for a new kind of living. If the soil of our heart is prepared and the seed of God’s word is embedded and nurtured by our faith, then God promises us a fruitful life to be enjoyed both now as well as in our experience beyond death.

Those truck loads of potatoes, at first glance, looked like lumpy mud! They would need to be washed and sorted out, before continuing on their journey prior to their reaching the dinner table. Jesus, metaphorically speaking, takes soiled men and women such as you and me, washes, sorts and leads us in order to make us fit to be brought to God’s table. This spiritual harvesting is what the message of Jesus Christ is about.