Casting seed

Mark 4:1-10,13-20

         One of my favorite expressions about faith is to 'preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words'. It is an absolute truth that our faith is expressed more by our actions than by any words ever could. Perhaps some will appreciate it's relationship to love. You can say I love you to some one until your blue in the face but it is the daily living, the actions of love that are more convincing, the actions are a testimonial and true evidence of your love.

         In that vein then, when we wish to 'plant the seeds' of God's good word, we do so more by how we live our lives. People see how we act and know we are a faithful person. People see what that means in our heart and in our actions.  In this way, we do not show the arrogance of aiming our witness at a specific person whom we would be deciding is a suitable candidate. We might very well miss someone else who is in greater need of 'hearing' the Good News. It seems better to cast a wide net by our expansive and loving actions, our lives being a witness to everyone.  Then God can do that special stuff that only God can do and open the eyes, ears and hearts of people to hear the 'words' of our actions. Our lives are simply the biggest testimony of our faith.

          The other day at work a part time employee whom I get along with very well shared a story. I'll call her Mary. Mary and I have a mutual friend, actually to Mary it's a relative but whom to me is simply a friend. I guess that's not quite true either in a way. Mary's 'relative' is actually a religious with whom I studied in seminary and was ordained with. When I came out this person along with most of the members of my ordination class and religious, they simply abandoned me. I was persona non grata. At a family wedding, Mary's relative apparently asked her how I was doing.  Mary , who is an avowed atheist, but who knows enough about the Good News to know how faithful people are called to act, told this relative point blank that she thought it was horrible my religious colleagues abandoned me. It must have been an awkward moment. Mary actually said she thought it was "un-Christian" But the point is not about cosmic comeuppance that I might revel in. The point is Mary knows what a decent person is and sees how I live out the Gospel. She is smart enough to see the hypocrisy and what true goodness, or at least how hard I try to live a good and decent life. In this case, I cast seed (by my actions) on an atheist.  I am not convinced she is truly an atheist so much as she is repulsed by pseudo faithful/religions and all the asinine rules and rubrics.  The seed of actions fell, unbeknown to me, on this intelligent woman who knows oh too well what I proclaimed in my first sentence today. Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.

            

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables.

And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’