Sowing
As January turns to February, do you start to think about spring? Some people start perusing seed catalogs about now. Soon the gardeners among us will sprinkle the contents of seed packets into small starter pots with hopes that good things will grow from them. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
It’s interesting that Jesus talks about seeds often. In Matthew 13:31 he likens the kingdom of heaven to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a tree. Let’s consider that for a moment. When you cradle a mustard seed in the palm of your hand, nothing much seems to be going on. It looks insignificant, dry and quite frankly, lifeless. Yet, we know that if we sow it, water it and then wait patiently, new life will sprout from that tiny seed. We also realize that the growth had nothing to do with us. The important thing is simply that we nestled it in the dark soil and waited.
Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus tells another parable about seeds: He talks about a sower who planted seeds with varying results. Some of them were eaten by birds, others withered in rocky soil, and still others were choked by thorns. Yet the seeds that fell in good soil grew and multiplied. Again, the sower really had nothing to do with what happened to the seeds, did he? He simply sowed them.
So it is with us at Christ Church. We are given the privilege of sowing the seed—of inviting people into the kingdom of heaven. We cannot control the results. That is what the Holy Spirit alone does in the hidden places of the heart. We plant the seeds and He does the work.
Like the mustard seed, the early church looked insignificant to the Roman world around it. A handful of mostly unimportant people were transformed by the Holy Spirit’s work in their hearts, and wherever they went, they sowed the seed of the Gospel that had awakened them. God’s promise to Abraham of blessing all the nations of the earth (Genesis 22:18) was being carried out by them! It’s still being carried out by us today.
At this moment, Christ Church supports eighteen foreign missionaries. Isn’t that wonderful? Look at their pictures on the wall near the atrium and read their bios.
As we head into our “Foreign Missions Week”, let’s consider how we can encourage these people who sow the seeds of the Gospel among the nations. There will be many opportunities to do this: On Sunday, our beloved Daniel Eguiluz, missionary to Peru, will be preaching. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say! He will also lead the Adult Sunday School session. Pray that his words will fall on good soil.