"A Sower Went Out To Sow"

Mark 4:1-20

In our Scripture lesson today, we discover that Christianity is a faith of planting seeds. I like that simple, very homey description. So often people overcomplicate our faith to the point where it loses all meaning. That's how it was with the religious leaders of Jesus' day, and that's probably why he used images people can understand to teach us what faith is.

Just try explaining the theology of justification by faith and the new birth to a small child! I'm sure you'll get only puzzled looks. And yet children do understand the meaning of Jesus' love. I heard recently of a four-year-old girl who was having a check-up with her pediatrician. As the doctor looked into her ears, he asked, "Do you think I'll find Big Bird in there?" The little girl remained silent.

Next, the doctor took a tongue depresser and looked down her throat. "Do you think I'll find the Cookie Monster down there?" Again, the little girl didn't answer.

Finally, the doctor put a stethoscope to her chest. As he listened to her heartbeat, he said, "Hey! I think I hear Barney in there!" At that little girl jumped up and said, "No way! BARNEY is on my underpants! JESUS is in my heart!

Jesus says we need to become like little children too!

And so whenever he can, Jesus takes the amazingly complicated Old Testament theology, the Torah, the Law and the Prophets, and illustrates their sacred truth by means of a parable.

A sower went out to sow.

Our faith is about planting seeds.

It begins, of course, with the seeds that God scatters all around the world.

Today on Worldwide Communion Sunday, we can especially appreciate the universality of God's love. One of the great illustrations of the subtle magnificence of divine grace is in the countries of the former Soviet Union where Christianity was outlawed for generations.

And yet, seeds managed to be sown.

I think it was Billy Graham who was visiting there a number of years ago who had the experience of being at a banquet. It was one of those public displays intended to demonstrate to the world the government's openness to free expressions of religion. Of course, the truth that it was only a show was evidenced by the fact that the banquet was not really open to ordinary people. The only ones in attendance were party officials.

And yet, in the middle of the meal, Billy Graham felt the elbow of the person sitting on his left. It was an older man bearing the crusty look of the Soviet status quo. But in his hand was a piece of bread which he slowly broke. Giving one piece to Billy Graham, the man held the other in his own hand, and before gently taking it into his mouth the man simply and quietly whispered, "I remember."

The words we speak at Communion. "I remember!"

And in just a few moments, we will break the bread and remember Jesus, too. But let us do so with a deep sense of wide the love of God is, and with the knowledge that we sit at table today with sisters and brothers even in the most unlikely of places.

Because a sower went out to sow.

And not only does God scatter the seeds widely and universally, but specifically and deliberately too. There is another story that comes from the great spiritual revival taking place in the former Soviet Union. In one small town just a year or two ago, a group of Christians was working to get some Bibles to the people of the community. Well, things were going very slowly and the shipment kept getting put off. Then, one day, someone remembered that, back in the 1930's, when Stalin had purged the town of all believers, their Bibles had been confiscated and stored in a certain warehouse. The believers, of course, had all been killed.

Well, they went to the warehouse and to the amazement of all, the Bibles were still there. The local officials gave permission to take the Bibles and distribute them to the townspeople. And while the group was doing this, one young man - a very skeptical and hostile student who had been hired to help move the Bibles - was found hiding, and weeping, in a corner of the warehouse. In his hands was clutched a tattered Bible which he admitted he had stolen. He took it, he said, to find ways to ridicule the book and bring discredit to the Christians.

But when the young man opened the book, he was confronted by a life-changing sight. Inside the front cover of the Bible he had randomly stolen from among the thousands confiscated, was the handwritten signature of its owner - his own grandmother!

Although it sometimes seems as though God's seed-sowing is random and unplanned, there is so much evidence that there is some kind of underlying purposefulness. Isn't it true that you can look back over your life and today see seeds of God's love that were planted years and years ago, and were nurtured by others who came along the way, until the seeds blossomed into reality for you? Everything you have by way of faith, by way of Christian love, by way of spiritual strength has come to you because a sower went out to sow.

Oh, the seed is scattered all around the world!

The seed is intended specifically for individuals in their need!

And the seed, when given a chance to germinate, brings new life to the world! Perhaps the most important element in this entire parable is that, when the seed takes root in peoples' lives, it multiplies and brings forth fruit that feeds the needs of others.

Do you see the three characteristics of the seed God sows? It is universal in its love for everyone! And it is specific in its love for you and others! And third, it is missional in its ability to reproduce and bring life to the world!

I see this parable at work here at Tellico Village Community Church.

We are a congregation of people that God has miraculously brought together in this time and this place. Why, when you consider where we came from, and how we got here, and what has happened in just nine short years, it is clear that the sower's seed found fertile soil in Tellico Village!

And when you examine the seeds we are trying to sow in response to God's love, isn't it incredible that they bear the same three characteristics of the seed in the parable?

We are, first and foremost, an interdenominational church that actively reaches out to include everyone in God's amazing grace! I will tell you that I am immensely proud and grateful for my heritage as a Congregationalist. And I believe we are blessed to have in our congregation people who bring the rich gifts of Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian and other traditions. It is not always easy for us to blend these gifts together, but we work hard at it because it is more important for us to bring people to Christ than to bring our traditions to people. By joining together, we become a church that is as inclusive as the love of God. Like the seed the sower sows.

A second commitment we make as a church is to make God's love specific to peoples' needs. Last Sunday afternoon, I was so deeply moved as I listened to Carl Burke reflect upon the beautiful life of Betty Logsdon. Betty and Don were among the earliest settlers of our Village. In fact, they were the very first people to arrive at the Cooper Sales Center on Christmas Eve 1987 for the inaugural worship service of our church.

What touched me as I listened to Carl's reflections was the sight out in the congregation. Many people had come to say "farewell" to Betty, and among them were a large number of those who also moved into the Village in the early years. And in their faces, I could see deep emotion, and from their eyes flowed streams of tears.

I sensed that these are people who deeply love each other. Christ has reached through each of them to welcome and befriend those who moved into our community. Christ has touched through them as they cared for each other in times of sickness and sorrow and loss. Christ has been glorified through them as they together planted the seed that became our church.

Today, we are still committed to sowing that seed of caring for people in their needs. Every day, members of our church are involved in bringing the real touch of God's love to others. And our now-developing Stephen Ministry is an important new embracing of the value that Christians are called to specifically care for people. Just like the seed the sower sows.

And, of course, the third major component of our commitment as a church is mission. Scholarships for college-bound young people. Affordable homes for hard-working people. Mentors and tutors for those who need help to develop important life-skills. And, just a few days ago, the grand opening of the Good Samaritan Center of Loudon County which brings together churches from all denominations and locations to pool our resources in caring for the poor, the hungry, the lost and the desperate.

These are the seeds we are sowing in Jesus' name! A Christian love that opens its arms to everyone! A Christian kind of caring that reaches out a healing hand to real people in real circumstances. A Christian outreach that remembers it is more blessed to give, than to receive.

Today, as we kick off our Trails Through Tellico campaign, and as you receive the information package about our church's work, I want to ask you to think about the seeds we are sowing in Jesus' name. And I want to place upon your heart a sacred call.

God needs our church.

God needs you.

For the sower still goes out to sow!

Now come to the Table, people of God! Taste the Lord's love for the world!