Have you noticed a growing trend in our society to classify people according to personality types - as if we are trying to find a niche for every itch?
For example, in the world of advertising, there is a theory that divides people into different groups based on their supposed lifestyles. According to one theory of classification two of these groups are the "belongers" and the "achievers".
Belongers are middle-class folks who want more than anything else to do the accepted thing. Therefore, to sell a product to people in this group an advertiser will stress that the product is the most popular product of its kind. That same pitch would not work with a group of achievers, however. Achievers, so the theory goes, are financially successful people who would not want to buy the most popular product. They only want to own things that most people can't afford. An example of how this particular theory is put into practice can be seen in advertising campaigns for the financial firm of Merrill Lynch in the United States, whose slogan is: "We're bullish on America."
At one time, Merrill Lynch had a TV ad that showed a herd of bulls running about. Arnold Mitchell, the researcher who developed the theory that differentiates between belongers and achievers, argued that this herd image was all wrong for an ad designed to attract wealthy investors. "A herd is a belonger symbol," he said. "Rich people with money don't want to think of themselves as one of a herd. They want to think of themselves as achievers." If you have seen Merrill Lynch ads on American TV, you know that the company has heeded Mitchell's advice. One ad showed a lone bull (an achiever) pushing its way through a herd of sheep (an achiever's view of belongers.)
People are different. So are animals.
According to NEWSWEEK magazine, at least one scientist is now attempting to classify cats according to personality. "Want to find out if little Fluffy will grow up to be a mouser or a lounger?" the article asks. A Cornell University researcher is developing a kitten personality test to match pets with prospective owners. The researcher hopes that this test will cut down on the number of cats returned to shelters because of incompatibility. The test categorizes kittens according to their reactions to 13 measures such as prolonged petting, new environments, moving pull toys and silhouettes of dogs.
Pretty crazy stuff eh??? Nevertheless, as experiences surely does show us - there are differences among cats - and among people.
Jesus knew that people are different. Once he told a parable:
"Listen!", he said, "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
Later, as we know from our reading of the gospel today, Jesus interpreted this parable for his disciples. Basically his interpretation tells us that different kinds of people respond to the gospel in different ways.
Some do not understand the gospel - the pathway in their heart is too hard for the seed to bury itself and develop roots - so the seed is snatched away by the first critter that comes along.
Some receive the word with joy - but the soil of their heart is too rocky - and so the word endures in their lives for only a short time - it never develops the roots that it needs to survive hard times - the times when it seems that faith might cost us something a bit more than simply saying "I believe" - that it might actually cost us our wholehearted trust.
Still others, Jesus tells us, allow the living word to be choked out by the cares of this world, by the lure of wealth or power or prestige - or by their constant neglect of those things needful for growth - the pruning back of activities that crowd in upon the most important activities we can indulge in - the hearing of the word - prayer - and the fellowship of other believers.
And then of course there is the good soil - the people who hear the word and understand it, who indeed bear fruit and yield, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
What kind of soil are you?? How do you respond to the seed that is cast into your life?
The Reverend Jerry Anderson, a retired pastor, was an avid duck hunter as a young man.
Every fall when the first cold front moved in from the north, he would take out his duck decoys, clean them up and put new anchors on them. When duck season opened, he was ready. He and his father usually hunted mallards. Now, mallards are puddle ducks, according to Reverend Anderson. They paddle around in shallow water and feed on the marsh grasses growing there. They eat only what they can reach from the surface. Occasionally, though, he and his father would see a redhead or canvasback slipping into their decoys. These are diving ducks. They dive to great depths to feed on plants growing on the bottom of the lake.
Now, in some ways, Anderson says, Christians are like those ducks. Some are puddle ducks, satisfied with the nourishment they find in the shallows of the Christian life. Others are divers. They plunge deeply into the Word through study, reflection, and participation in the life and ministry of their church. The word yields a rich return in their lives.
People are different. People respond to the Gospel in different ways. As a result some people suggest that the parable of the Sower - as this parable is traditionally titled, ought to be really titled - the Parable of the Seed.
This suggestion is not that a bad an idea. It's not a bad idea because it focuses our attention on the question - what kind of soil are we?
How is it that we respond to Word of God - and to the various Acts of God -in our lives?
Do we allow trials and tribulations of this world to overwhelm the tender seed growing within us? Do we pull back when people harass us because we are believers? Do we decide that because things are not working out the way we think they ought - that God doesn't care for us - that He is powerless and weak - and not to be heeded.
Do we allow the cares of this world - our ambitions and our desires for success and happiness to choke out the messages that God sends us through the various events of our daily lives and through the various people we encounter?
Or, to mix the metaphor a bit - do we dive to the depths of the word that we have received it might be fruitful in our lives?
How we respond to the Word of God is key to how fruitful the gospel is going to be in our lives.
And, unlike the situation in nature in which seed and various kinds of soil encounter each other, we do have control over how we receive and respond to the gospel message; we can, as it were, change the kind of soil that we are.
We are not passive receivers of the Gospel - at least we don't have to be.
We have power over how we respond to the Gospel. God has given us this tremendous freedom to either say "Yes" to Him or "No" to Him.
And in saying either "Yes" or "No", God also has given us the freedom and the power to have hearts that are fruitful for him - or hearts in which the word is quickly snatched away or quickly withers and dies.
When you think about it - there is a lot to be said for calling today's parable "The Parable of the Seed". Yet for centuries it has been known as the "Parable of The Sower" and I think I know why - I think it has been called the Parable of the Sower because this title focuses our attention on just what it is that God does and how gracious he is in it.
You see there are many seeds that God casts into our lives - and all of them are meant to land in good soil and to produce abundant fruit.
But, as any farmer knows, some seed is going to fall in places where it simply will not thrive. Knowing this, however, does not prevent the farmer from sowing seed - nor does it prevent him from praying for and expecting a good crop.
When God deals with us - God deals with us even more generously than does the best farmer.
God allows the seed to land on the hard paths and the rocky ground and in the thickets of our lives in the hope that in those places it will find a place to mature and bear fruit - in the hope that those things which impede growth will be removed - in the hope that the soil might be just a little deeper than it at first appears to be in those rocky places.
I know a couple just entering their middle age whose lives were, until recently, a total mess.
He was a heavy drinker and abusive at times towards his wife and intolerant of his children. Religion to him - especially talk about Jesus - was stupid and to be avoided.
She, in turn, was angry and bitter and had little good to say about her husband, her job, or her life. She had no hope and she let people know it.
Neither of them seemed to be very good soil. The cares and the troubles of this world were heavy upon them. Their goals and ambitions - to be successful in business - to have children who achieved at school was all they cared about. To put the matter quite simply - their values and their lifestyle seemed to preclude any chance that they would ever be saved - any chance that the Word of God could enter their hearts and live.
Yet God planted seed in their lives. They came to know that they needed help to save their marriage. And, one day, after a particularly ugly episode, they asked for help - from a pastor. And he told them that what they needed was Jesus in their lives. And that one seed - amongst all the others that had been cast their way over the years - took hold in a little bit of rich soil that existed amongst all the rocky ground and hard paths and thickets which composed their lives.
I stand before you and tell you - that one seed has already yielded a hundredfold - and that other ground - that ground upon which all the other seed previously perished - it is even now being transformed. They have plunged to the depths of the word that they finally accepted - and in so doing their whole lives are being changed.
Say Praise God!!!!
Praise God for the miracle of growth and salvation he performs! Praise God for His healing love!.
The Sower sows everywhere my friends knowing that when he does He will end up with an abundant harvest.
God does discriminate between the good ground and the bad ground when he goes forth to sow. He accepts the fact that some of the seed will be snatched away, that some of it will grow quickly and then wither, that some of it will be strangled, and he sows anyway.
And so we ought - So we ought to sow the word of God's love as generously as God sows. So we ought to trust that what we sow will, in the end, produce a harvest - even when it appears that the there is little chance for it - even when it appears that every inch of ground is worthless.
Today's parable is a farmer's parable. It is a parable about a sower and about seed and what happens to it.
It's message for us - is that there is hope for a harvest; it's message is that we should not discriminate in our sowing of God's seed, that while there are many kinds of people - and many kinds of soil - ultimately the seed that God sows, and the seed we cast in God's name will produce - some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Blessed be God, day by day.
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