The Planting Parable: Sermon John 20:19-31

Jesus was a master storyteller. When Jesus spoke to large crowds, he mostly spoke in parables or in little short stories. These little snippets contained deep philosophical ideas that Jesus was trying to convey to the people. One reason why he used stories is because like I said above, a good story is easy to remember. You remember the basics of the story and more times than not you remember the moral as well. Another reason is because the things Jesus was trying to say, the truths he was trying to teach were so radical that most people wouldn’t understand and because they didn’t understand they would just blow Jesus off as a kook. Remember Nicodemus, Jesus try to tell him about the kingdom of God using metaphors and examples but Nicodemus could not wrap his mind around what Jesus was trying to say.

One metaphor or parable that Jesus used often was about seeds. The planting and harvesting cycle was something everyone could understand especially the people in the Galilee, out in the country. People planted their own vegetables, their own grains, their own grapes and olives and so the could understand the concept of the seed growing into a plant.

The Scripture reading today is a two for one special. We have two parables that really interconnect together. One story is parable of the growing seed and the other is a more famous one about a specific type of seed, a mustard seed. Each of these fit into one another and both provide a glimpse into the transition from the physical world into the world of the kingdom of God, like we talked about last week. It is that transition point in which we are transformed from the physical world into the spiritual world; it is that point which our parables for today fit in.

The first of these parables is that on the growing seed. At the time of Jesus the planting of seeds must have seemed somewhat mysterious. You put this little thing in the ground and put water and fertilizer on it and almost miraculously it sprouts out of the ground and in a few months is mature and ready for harvest. That was the basis for the parable. The plant grows without the farmer knowing how it grows and the Spirit, which gains a person entrance into the kingdom of God, grows without our knowing how. It is one of God’s mysteries. Today, with the help of modern science, we understand the of process plant development. We know that in many seeds there are little tiny plant embryos and they feed on the starches in the seed and then sprout up and grow. Although plant growth is not longer a mystery the parable is not without worth and it is not without a lesson to teach because we understand about plants but the kingdom of God does remain somewhat mysterious.

Every Christian living on Earth today has something in common. Whether you are Billy Graham, Bishop Dick Wills, Pope Benedict XVI, Brad Smith, or any of you, our faith, our relationship began as a seed. Someone at some point in time planted the seed of the Christian faith in our hearts. It might have been a parent. It might have been a Sunday school teacher, it might have been a preacher, and it might have been Billy Graham. Each one of us had a seed planted and that seed began to grow, some seeds grow slowly and need careful attention and then some seeds are like kudzu and needs no help to grow abundantly.

Most of us living here in the country have had or still have gardens and if you do still have gardens I would be happy to take any leftovers you might have, we love veggies at my house. Anyway, I can remember having a garden at my grandparent’s house and I can remember tenderly planting the seed in carefully plotted rows and then watching the plants sprouting up and then bearing fruit. As most of us know gardens need certain things in order to grow just we do as newly planted Christians. One needs this information in order to produce a healthy garden and one needs this information to produce healthy Christians.

First we must plant seeds in good soil. This is so important that Jesus talked about this earlier in Mark in another parable so I won’t go in depth with this one, that’s for another sermon. However, we do have to plant in good soil, at my house we don’t have a garden because the dirt is too rocky, and the topsoil is not deep enough. So when we plant seeds for vegetables we have to plant in good soil and when we plant seeds for the kingdom of God we have to plant seeds in those who are willing to receive them. The seed of the kingdom will only grow in those people who are willing to surrender to it and have hearts that are prepared to receive it. I could go on and on about this but like I said that’s another sermon.

Another thing most plants need is a steady source of water. Water allows the plants to convert sunlight into energy and it helps to draw in nutrients from the soil. Farmers depend on reliable weather for a good harvest, too much or not enough rain will ruin a crop. Sometimes water has to be brought in from other sources. Those who have houseplants or flower baskets on the porch have to water the plants yourselves. Newly planted kingdom seeds need watering also, but of course we are not talking about H2O. The water we need as Christians is time spent with God. God’s grace and God’s blessings pours over us like rain. Sometimes we have to go get the water ourselves when our kingdom plants get dry. We have daily Bible study. At Annual Conference this past week, we received journals to use in our daily Bible readings and I have only been doing it for a few days but I can tell a difference, I feel more spiritually refreshed. I cannot overemphasize the importance of spending time everyday with God. You might say “I don’t have time I’ve got to work and the cook dinner and by that time I am too tired”. I say you have to make time. God gives us more than we could ever repay and so should be give God at least 15 minutes back to him everyday. It’s not that much to ask. Spending time with God is one of the most important things we can do to help our kingdom seeds, our kingdom plants grow.

Many of us grew up on small farms. Some of you all may still have farms that you tend to. If you have ever had cows or horses or any type of farm animal you know that there is one inevitable by-product, manure. Manure comes with the same regularity as death and taxes and you have to do something with it. The more animals you have, you guessed it, the more manure you have to deal with. We deal with manure everyday in our own lives. Murphy’s Law seems to be always in affect. We have to deal with bad things on a daily basis and it comes in many different forms. It might be overdue bills, it might be large amounts of debt, and it might be a sickness that has come to you or to a family member. It could be any number of things but we all have to deal with it in one way or another. Adam Hamilton a UMC pastor in Kansas City talks about dealing with the manure on the farm and in our lives. We can try to ignore it. I try that strategy when it comes to dirty laundry in the floor. We can see the bad things in life piling up higher and higher and ignoring the problem only works to a certain point and then the pile is so high that you have an even bigger problem on your hands. You can try to burn the manure in a pile. Many people try to drown there problems in alcohol, drugs, and other vices, but just like burning that manure it only makes things worse. God’s plan for manure in our lives is the same plan that smart farmers have. If you take manure and work in with other soil in a compost heap or as we did on our farm we let the cows work it in with their hoofs in the hall of the barn. The product of that is very rich and fertile soil that can be used as fertilizer. God wants us to deal with the bad things in our lives. To work the problem and to learn from our mistakes and when we do this, then we have fertilizer that helps our kingdom plants grow strong and mature. We cannot ignore the bad parts of life, we cannot try to destroy them with any outside means, we can only work the problem until the problem is solved and then we are much stronger than we were before.

Once our kingdom plants become mature then we being to bear fruit and fruits are holding places for seeds. Many people keep some of their harvest to use as seeds for next year. Once we are mature in the kingdom of God then we can produce and plant seeds in other people. In fact that is what we are called to do by Jesus. It doesn’t have to be a big seed. That is where the second parable comes in. The mustard seed is the tiniest of seeds, only a speck in your hand and yet with proper nourishment it grows to be a large plant than bears its own fruit. Many things that we do as Christians plant seeds for the kingdom. We can help out a neighbor, we can give can goods to the Help Center, we can visit someone in the hospital; there are numerous things to

How is your kingdom plant this morning? Are you still a seed? Are you mature and bearing fruit? Are you planting kingdom seeds in other people? Are you in need of nourishment? I hope that I have given you some ways to make your life in God through Christ more productive so you can begin bearing seeds for God’s kingdom. We must always be growing in our relationship with God. We cannot stay spiritual babies and we cannot stay spiritual seeds. God’s plan is for us to live abundantly and bear fruit and live our lives to full potential. We can only do it with the help of God.