Probably the hardest questions to answer is "Why?" Often we don't know how to handle it and just become irritated. The saying, "Y is a crooked letter and so are you", is a rather cruel evasion of an issue which may be important, even if the timing and situation are inappropriate.
At 1am last Friday morning I received a phone call. A major fire had caused serious damage to our Uniting Church hall here at Home Hill.
When I arrived a 1.15am, fire officers were still damping it all down. Under their strong spotlights, it was clear the blaze had begun in the storage area under the stage. It seemed possible - even likely - that it had been deliberately lit - whether maliciously or by some homeless person seeking warmth on a wet night.
As a church, we are committed to bring hope and help within this community. We feel deeply our congregation's loss. That building was the church from 1922 to 1952. The extensions in 1929 provided a kitchen and room in which the young single minister could live. Since 1952 it has been the church hall.
Many memories are associated with it. It has been the venue for many activities of our church family. It has been one of the means by which as a congregation we have endeavoured to fulfil our mission.
The fire officers are trying to piece together how the fire started. The police are working on "who", "when", "where" and "why".
These are our questions too. But we ask them for
a different reason. If the fire was deliberately lit, there was
someone - disillusioned and angry, or wet and lonely - who needed
(and needs) help. Through the burnt and gaping back doors of our
hall, we would see our community afresh. There is good news! There
is hope! Life does have meaning and purpose! God offers forgiveness
and reconciliation freely to all people - without exception.
In the midst of this disaster, God calls us afresh to consider again our mission, to commit ourselves again with vigour and enthusiasm to his work in the Home Hill community. Our most urgent question this morning isn't "Why the fire?", but "Why are we here?" - "Why has God called us?"
Today is Harvest Festival in Home Hill, and I want to ask that simple, basic and obvious question, "Why?" The landscape of the Burdekin is dominated by this tall green grass we call sugar cane. Why?
A few years ago we were holidaying at Caloundra. The younger members of the party had been at a Scripture Union Camp during the first week and wanted to go fishing in the second week. So we set off along Golden Beach to Military Jetty which, we had been assured, should be a good spot.
A number of others were already there. All were doing basically the same thing. Some bait - it might be a prawn or yabby, or some worm or whitebait, some squid… - was carefully put on a hook and the line was then cast into the water. After some time, during which the fishermen exchanged comments like, "Not much out there today" or "I think my bait's gone" or "I wonder what the cricket score is"…, the fisherman would wind in the clean hook and start the process all over again.
Now, apart from the people who load cartons of beverage into their boats before the fishing trip, why do people go fishing? I was thankful to have taught a younger member of our party how to cast a line, but nobody on that jetty caught a thing! We may have had dozens of interesting conversations, enjoyed the fresh air and the scenery, but… we weren't successful in what we had set out to do! Why do people go fishing? To catch fish! In this district, the aim - during the right season - may be to catch barramundi!
Today's reading isn't about the cane farmer who was planting cane, though I am sure Jesus would have found, from our experience, all the elements he needed for his parable. Today's reading is about the sower who went out sowing wheat seed.
For planting wheat today they have a clever machine that opens the furrows, drops the seed down tubes, then covers the furrows again. As a boy in Allora I saw a farmer do it the old way in a one-acre paddock! He was wearing a kind of apron, held up the bottom with his left hand so that it would hold a lot of seed which he could then scatter in handfuls with his right hand. That method of sowing seed is called "broadcasting". This farmer certainly knew how to do it. He planted half the paddock with wheat and half with oats. We watched a nice even growth of wheat and oats.
It seems the sower in the story of Jesus was not nearly as careful as my old friend of long ago! Some of the seed fell on the pathway - hardened by people's feet. The crows were there - greedily waiting for a feed!
Some of the seed fell on part of the paddock where the rocks hadn't been properly cleared. No doubt the farmer had chosen a time when the ground was moist. But on the rocky ground the sun soon dried it out and the little shoots withered away.
Then some seed fell in a patch of weeds - someone hadn't done the chipping properly, had they? Little spindly stalks struggled up towards the light and didn't produce anything at all!
But then there was the seed that fell into the good soil - cleared of rocks, chipped of weeds, cultivated, ready and waiting! The seed sprouted, grew, had nice big heads of grain and produced a good harvest! The farmer noticed the yield. In some areas a bag of wheat seed had produced a hundred bags. He was very happy about that! Some other parts had produced sixty bags for every bag he had sown. That was good too! And some produced thirty bags. He seemed content enough about that.
Now comes our big question - "Why did the sower plant the seeds? Whatever did he expect?" I mean to say - surely he wanted something better than crow food along the pathway, didn't he? He wasn't looking for a crop from that rocky ground, I hope! And what better could he expect from the seed he wasted among the thorns?
Do you think the first hearers of Jesus had these same questions? I think they did! All their villages were close to the farm land. I think they were natural questions to ask. Perhaps they knew some farmer foolish enough to plant like that!
Someone has said that this should be called the parable of the soils. In every case it is the same sower and the same seed. The difference is in the soil. Each grain has the potential for a good crop! The sower is looking for a good crop from each grain - at least thirty times as much, possibly sixty, preferably a hundred! By his unlikely reference to what no good farmer would do, Jesus is emphasising that each person - however unlikely! - is given an opportunity to respond to the Word of God. The Word of God has the same potential within each of us to enable us to grow and mature and be vital Christians in this world. It is only in the ways we respond to the Word that we are like the pathway, the rocky ground, the thorny patch, the good soil…
So the story isn't about how to plant wheat! His first hearers already knew that! It is about people - about us! We are the soil! Jesus is the sower, and the seed is his Word.
Sometimes we are all set to blame the Sower! Look, Lord, it's all your fault! You know about all the distractions I face - and all the pressures I live with - and you know me! So why do expect anything of me?
But in lots of ways we're just not like soil at all! We can think, respond, make decisions! We are responsible. It's not the Sower's fault! His Word of love, of forgiveness, of a new beginning, of a whole new way of life - comes to all of us. The soils represent, not what the Sower intends, but our response to him and to his Word.
So - whatever did the sower expect? A good crop, of course! Hopefully, but not necessarily, a hundred times as much grain as he sowed! Certainly some reasonable return for his effort!
And what does Jesus, the Sower, expect of us? Not our excuses - or accusations (it's your fault, Lord!). To translate it into the Burdekin, why does he plant his Word in us? Surely he knows we have a problem with the grub or the rust!
The Sower expects us to trust him, to welcome his Word, to accept his forgiveness and his help, to live as his person every day, to obey him in all our relationships and in all we do. He does everything necessary to produce a good crop. How do we respond to him?
Today is Harvest Festival and we give thanks to God for the cane, the fruit, the vegetables - for the rain, the underground water and the sunshine - reminders that, for all our sophisticated farming techniques, we depend very much on what God provides.
And let us day by day and week by week learn to respond to his Word of truth and grace. Did you know there is rejoicing in heaven over every sinner who repents? That's the great Harvest celebration in the presence of the angels of God!
© Peter J. Blackburn, Home Hill and Ayr Uniting Churches,
12 November 2000
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations
are from the New International Version, © International
Bible Society, 1984.
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