One of my memories from childhood was planting our vegetable garden in Georgia. It was a big garden filled with all types of vegetables: corn, beans, peas, sweet potatoes, watermelon, tomatoes. A mule was harnessed up to a plow and the ground was broken into fresh furrows. I remember walking behind my daddy as he walked up and down each row planting different seeds. It took a while because each seed required a different type of planting. I was amazed at how he would know, by memory, how many seeds were to be planted at each step…sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes dozens spread all over. And each type of seed was planted at a different depth. I remember wondering to myself, "How does my daddy know how to plant each of these different seeds?" But I didn't ask him about it; I just followed his lead, planting in each row just as he had shown me.

I don't remember now how each specific type of seed was planted, so don't ask me after the service, but I wish I did. It is one of those times that I wish I had paid more attention to what my parents were teaching me, but I had more important things to do as a child like throwing rocks and wading in the creek.

I thought about those times when I read today's scripture from the Gospel of Matthew. It is commonly known as the Parable of the Sower. Now remember that Jesus often used farming images for his teaching, which should tell us that he was usually talking to groups of working folks like farmers and fishermen. And Jesus usually just tells the parable without explaining it, leaving it to the people to decipher its meaning. But this time, we have the advantage of eavesdropping in on the conversation between Jesus and his disciples as he explains the parable.

Jesus explains to the disciples that the seed represents the word of God. The seed that is sowed on the hard, beaten down path doesn't even have a chance to sprout as it is eaten by the birds; this occurs when the individual doesn't understand the word of God. The seed that is sown on the rocky ground does sprout, but doesn't have deep roots, so it quickly withers away at the first sign of trouble. The seed that is cast among the thorns never has a chance to grow as it is choked off by the weeds; this represents the person who hears the word but is so focused on the cares of the world that it never produces fruit. Only the seed that is sown on good soil, the person who both understands and lives out the word of God, bears fruit. And the harvest is abundant, yielding a hundred, or sixty, or thirty fold for that disciple of Christ.

Well, that's easy enough, right? If an individual diligently reads and understands the scripture, the word of God, then they will live good, productive lives. Of course, it is much easier to say that than to actually live it. Each of our journeys of faith has some major obstacles and problems that we have to overcome along the way. Like plowing a filed, it takes a lot of hard work to see the fruits of our faith. Our trust in God is often tested by the harsh realities of the world, and we are often unsure what the harvest will be.

In 1998, I watched a film by David Sutherland on PBS entitled "The Farmer's Wife". It is the story about a young farm couple in Nebraska named Juanita and Darrel Buschkoetter. As the camera rolls for two years in the home, you witness how this family is struggling to survive. The family farm is heavily in debt and the Buschkoetters are struggling to keep the bank from foreclosing. Your heart sinks when an early frost destroys a large portion of their crops in the first year. Darrel is forced to work a second job as a hired hand on another farm and Juanita has to clean houses just to put food on the table for their three daughters. And you see the incredible strain that the couple is experiencing in their marriage, forcing them to the brink of separation.

When they just can't take it anymore, they go to their church and ask the parish priest for help. The priest refers them to free marriage counseling. Their marriage improves as they begin to work through their problems together. And in that second year, they finally harvest a bumper crop that allows them to pay the bills and keep their family farm for at least another year. Through all of this, Juanita, the farmer's wife, is the epitome of endurance and faith. Through all of these troubles, she persists in going to night school for her college degree which she finally achieves. At the end of the film, we see that she has taken a job at a crop insurance company, helping other farm families with their troubles. And Darrel is able to work on his farm and spend more time with his children at home.

Now the Buschkoetters know first hand how difficult it is to sow the seeds in good soil. They also know how difficult it is to grow those seeds in to plants that are mature enough for the harvest. Two thousand years after Jesus told his parable, we can still see it being played out at both the literal and spiritual levels in the "The Farmer's Wife." This is true reality television, not the other programs that make such claims. It is so real that I am sure that all of you here could relate your own struggles in your personal faith journeys.

Now let's consider this. What if Jesus was not just talking about individuals in the parable, but also about the church? Let's focus on the condition of the ground that the seeds fall upon in the parable rather than the sower. What if the church is the hard path in which the seeds never grow? What if the church is the rocky patch that does not allow for deep roots, or is filled with weeds that chokes off the new plant's growth? And what if the church is the plowed, rich soil that allows the seed to grow into maturity?

We need to think about the church as being something greater than this congregation or this denomination. Let's say that the ground encompasses the whole world, yearning to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Think of the abundance that gospel would bring if it were planted in the rich, deep soil! It is the condition of the field that requires attention. We need to think of ourselves as a community that provides the opportunity for new disciples to be planted and grown. I realize now that's it not so much how my daddy planted the seeds, but how well the field was prepared before we even began the planting. It is our responsibility to make the church the well-plowed field that welcomes all no matter where they are in their own faith journey.

Our founder, John Wesley, also had to change his thinking about the church in his own life. Wesley is an unlikely hero for our story as Methodists. He grew up in a highly disciplined, religious family. He was educated at Oxford University, and regularly read the Bible in its original Greek and Hebrew. He was ordained an Anglican priest early in his life, and is always described as being very serious and proper. Here is a man who grew up and lived within the elite of the Anglican Church.

Now at this time in the 18th century, there was a dynamic preacher named George Whitefield who traveled throughout the country. Whitefield invited John Wesley to the town of Bristol to preach to the people there. But this wasn't preaching from a pulpit in a beautiful cathedral; Whitefield was preaching outdoors to the common folk, those who normally didn't go to local church. Let me read you what Wesley wrote in his journal on March 31, 1739 after hearing Whitefield preach to the masses for the first time.

In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.(1)

In other words, John Wesley was appalled with this outdoor preaching to the farmers and miners and common folk of England. It just didn't fit with his idea of what church was. But within days after Wesley's arrival, Whitefield left Bristol to go preach elsewhere, and John Wesley was left to continue the preaching. Now suffice it to say that John got over his discomfort of outdoors preaching real quick when he saw the dramatic effect on the lives of the people who heard him. It was a new of way being the church and it started the Methodist movement. From those early days in England to the camp meetings held in our country, Methodism was born out of this new way of being the church.

Brothers and sisters, we have to move beyond our own comfort zones in order to be the church. Like Wesley, I too have felt fear when an opportunity to share my faith arose. Many of you have shared that very same sentiment with me. Just hearing the word "evangelism" conjures up terrifying images of wild-eyed preachers on street corners, pounding their Bibles and threatening hellfire and damnation unless we stopped and listened. If that is evangelism, then I want no part of it.

But is that what Jesus is asking us to do? Our task as a church is to plow the fields, to make them ready for the word of God. You see, we are not the sowers in the parable; God is. God plants the word in each person, and each person decides what to do with that word. But a seed needs a place to grow, and that place is the church. That means we need to make sure that the ground has been plowed and the rocks removed and the thorns weeded out. We need to make the church a place where all are welcome, no matter where they are in their own faith journey. We need to move beyond our personal fears to share our stories and ourselves with others we do not know.

I know its hard work. Jesus recognized that too when he told his disciples "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few," (Matt 9:37). If we all pitch in and do our part, we can plow a lot of land and grow a lot of disciples. It is high time that we reclaim our heritage as a church of evangelists. As disciples, we are called to share our faith with others. There are a lot of different ways to do it: inviting friends to worship, welcoming the first-time visitor at coffee hour, sharing your own faith story with others when you engage in a deep conversation. Our denomination has clearly stated that "the mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ"(2). What I hear in that is to go and plow the fields; God is ready to sow the seed. I hope that each of you will harness up your mule (or at least your garden tiller) and go into the fields too. Amen.

NOTES:

(1) Quoted from The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. Nehemiah Curnock, vol. 2, (London: Epworth Press, 1938), 167.
(2) 2000 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church (Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House), par. 120.