January 31, 2016
We are to sow the seed!
We are to sow the seed!
How many of us like simple?
We have heard the “KISS” principle, “Keep It Simple Stupid”. But we do make things more difficult than
they should be. Whether relationships
with family, involvement in the community whether VFW, Elks, school or even
here in the church. Even in our faith,
we sometimes put ourselves over a barrel, because we get over extended, with
too much going on and don’t get accomplished what we need to in a given day. What happens?
We get sick, run down and even worn out.
Unlike our society, God wants us to do one thing and do it well.
Our Gospel this morning is a parable of this sheer simplicity. Our Gospel’s simple message is Sow. Not S-E-W with needle and thread, but S-O-W. We as God’s children are called to SOW the
word of God.
Last week we heard how we are the laborers in God’s vineyard,
simply God’s hands and feet to do His bidding in our daily lives. This week, Jesus tells his disciples and the
people who came to hear Him preach, simply, SOW what you have been given. Don’t just put a single seed out there and
call it done, but scatter, cast and cover the ground with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Most farmers clearly would balk if I, pastor of Emmanuel
came to your farm and tried to tell you how to plant your corn, sow your wheat
or even fertilize your crops.
Justifiably so, because I don’t have the experience you have here in
Northwest Kansas. I don’t have the
experience necessary to be helpful or fully understand your process, your
machinery, nor your method for farming.
Yet, by the same token, if I did have a farm, I’d be tempted to ask you
what you did to be successful.
Yet, Jesus didn’t do this with the people to whom He was
preaching. Jesus knew what would be
success for the Gospel message and Jesus had one end goal in mind. Simply SOW the seed and let God, His Father
in heaven water it and make it grow.
Our job is simple for each of us gathered here today. We to have been called to SOW the seed of the
Gospel. We are enabled to share the love
of God, and God wants us to simply spread the message of what His Son and our
Savior, Jesus Christ did on Calvary for all of mankind.
Clearly this is why in 1886, Southeast of here, families
came together to worship and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The original sod church of our predecessors was
built, a cemetery was dedicated for the final resting place of the Lutherans of
this area and pastors from Cheyenne County and other areas of Nebraska came and
proclaimed the Word of God, sowing the seed of God here on the prairies of
Northwest Kansas. God knew that we would
be here this morning, installing our Church Officers, hearing and supporting
the mission of the Gideon’s to SOW the Word of God, but most importantly
gathering as a community of believers ready to SOW the Word of God.
We who gather here today are the first settlers descendants
and legacy. We have been called to this
task of sowing the seed of God as well.
Let us hear Jesus admonition clearly and be the good soil. For Jesus speaks to us today, “the
seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest
and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.” Let us be the good soil, sow the seed of the
Gospel wherever we go. And be enabled
through the Word of God to not only hear the Word of God, but share the Gospel
of Jesus Christ with all we meet. For
then, by our sowing, God will make the Gospel grow and bear the fruit that only
God is able to make grow in preparation for the harvest. So that in the end the one thing that is
glorified is God and His Gospel message sowed for all of mankind, including
each and every one of us. AMEN.
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