I recently read a book entitled Finding Common Ground by Tim Downs. The subtitle is “How to communicate with those outside the Christian community while we still can.” This book challenged my thinking and today’s reading reminded me of some of the points he made.
Jesus was teaching in parables. He used the picture of seeds to talk about the word of God and how it is to be distributed. Because we all enjoy the fun of harvesting there is an aspect of the work that we often forget about. We need to remember that in order for there to be a harvest we need to be willing to sow. Sowing is never easy, and it is not going to bear fruit immediately. Sowing means that we need to till the soil and pick out the stones to get it prepared for the seeds. In some circles we have looked so much to the harvest that we forget there must be sowing.
Jesus did say that the fields are white unto harvest, but perhaps at that time the fields were ripe because the seeds had been sown, cultivated, and watered. We live in a day when society had been secularised to the point when the soil in many places is hard and stony. Part of that is our fault for dividing the secular and the sacred. We can we see our church activities as sacred and the rest of the week as secular.
In fact, all work is sacred. Every time we go out the door we are going out into the fields. Most of those fields are not white unto harvest, for the seed has never been sown. Every one of us every day are like that sower going out to sow. We carry the most marvellous seeds in our pockets, but too often we either try to throw out the seeds and harvest them immediately, or we just keep the seeds hidden away for our sacred work. Both are equally wrong.
We all know the soil we face everyday. We know when it is hard and stony. We know when it is ready for sowing, ready for watering and cultivation, and when the crop is ready for harvesting. We need to ask ourselves if we are willing to spend the difficult, laborious hours of sowing so that one day some one, maybe not even us, will see the harvest.
Some plant, some water, and some see the increase. All are equally important. Don’t neglect the opportunity to harvest if the crop is ready, but don’t forget to sow the seed wherever God has placed you. It is time to forget about sacred and secular. All work is God’s work.
“A sower went out to sow.” Are we willing to be that sower today?
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