Today’s Scripture

Psalm 92         Ezekiel 17:22-24         2 Corinthians 5:1-10   Mark 4:26-34

 

            Many times when I am down visiting my mother I will say, “Mom, let’s go out and look at your dirt.”  She is always happy to take a ride through the farm fields no matter what the season.  In the dead of winter we see the stubble from the previous crop, the bare plowed ground, and the interesting bright green of winter wheat.  In spring-time we see the fields being worked, the narrow furrowed rows indicating planting has begun, and the seedlings poking up.  As the summer progresses we see the farmers harvesting the wheat and oats as the corn and beans mature.  Each part of the harvest season the farmers go out into those fields and gather in the different grains.

 

            In today’s Gospel Jesus uses these fields to explain to you and me what the “Kingdom of God” is like.  God’s kingdom is the assembly of believers, those who trust his saving grace in Jesus Christ.  A kingdom needs a defined territory, people and a product or wealth.  This week we celebrate the kingdom of our nation, a patch of dirt on this earth, the people who live here, and what is produced both economically and politically.

 

            In God’s kingdom, you and I and other people begin as nothing but dirt; raw, bare, undeveloped dirt.  And in this dirt, as the dirt in Mom’s farm-fields, seed is sown.  After that seed is sown, does the dirt grow?  (no)  Does the dirt make the seed grow?  (no)  Does the seed grow to harvest without dirt?  (no)  Is the dirt fruitful without seed?  (no)  Does the seed grow in the dirt and does the seed make the dirt fruitful?  (yes)  Is the dirt valuable with or without the seed?  (yes, just ask any farm owner what it is worth and would he like to own more)  What makes the dirt valuable and produces the value of this dirt?  (the seed)  Is it the seed alone that goes into the dirt and is gathered?  (no)  It is the fruit that the seed grows in this dirt.

 

            Part Two.  After the seed is planted, it grows by itself.  Yes, we cultivate and fertilize, but the actual growth of the seed is a miracle that we cannot replicate outside of the seed itself.  Man cannot make a seed out of something else.  The seed has its own unique qualities in and of itself.  If you have never seen the resulting plant, you have no idea what that seed is going to do.

 

            God’s seed is his word.  His word is, from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, his Gospel message of his love to you in Jesus Christ that begins with making you, redeeming you, and making you holy again in his eternal kingdom.  That includes both law that shows us our sins, and Gospel that shows us our Salvation.  God’s word is the seed that grows faith in the dirt - your heart.  It is the seed that produces other seeds from the dirt of your heart as God uses you to be his witness, spreading that seed to others who will hear through the fruits of your faith, the good works God has given you to do, the wagging of your tongue as you speak the truth of the Gospel to others, and the gifts you give so that this Gospel is preached everywhere. 

 

            When I was growing up, my father and uncle would plant just a few acres of brome grass.  That grass would produce several bags of brome seed each year.  Each year that brome seed was purchased for various uses all across our nation.  I remember one year that brome seed was used on an interstate project in Pennsylvania.  One little plot of grass produced enough seed for a complete stretch of roadside and median, the equivalent of several hundred acres of grass.  That is what the kingdom of God is like.  The dirt of your fertile heart, having God’s word sown in it, can and will produce an inconceivable harvest that produces faith in countless other plots of dirt, other hearts waiting for the Gospel to be sown there.

 

            You and I are also those who are sowing the seed.  When you share God’s love in Jesus to another, that seed takes root and grows without any effort of yours.  As a good farmer, you can continue to feed that seed and tender shoot and you can cultivate that dirt, fluffing the soil to hold the moisture and nutrients as well as removing the weeds that come to choke out the seed.  But the seed germinates and grows of its own power.  Likewise the miracle of faith grows in the heart of one who hears the word, the one you plant that word  there. 

 

            “How can I sow that seed?” you honestly ask.  That is why we are here together as a congregation, Immanuel, “God with us.”  That says it pretty well by itself, that it is God with us that he does this wonderful work.  Together we have many abilities both personal and resources.  One can teach Sunday School and Bible Study.  Another can repair lawn mowers and broken pieces of the building.  Another can distribute devotional materials to someone he/she knows who’s heart is fertile dirt, ready to receive that seed.  All of us can pray together and encourage each other.  Each of us can contribute monetarily or other resources that bring the love of Christ to others through ministry and mission at Immanuel and throughout our Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. 

 

            “How can I sow that seed?” you ask again.  ABLAZE is a term you have heard some, and are going to hear a lot more. ABLAZE is the goal here at Immanuel that we are sowers of fruitful seeds in the fertile soil of hearts around us.  ABLAZE is the common goal of our church body to bring the good news of Jesus to 100 million new souls in the next eleven years.  ABLAZE is each of our hearts on fire to do as God has instructed us, beginning with the twelve, to go out (that is what apostle means, sending out) and take the news of Jesus to another.

 

            Take out a pencil and write September 24 in your calendar and in your plans.  That is the day for a special rally service at Northern Illinois University you are invited to attend with thousands of other Northern Illinois Lutherans.  It is a moment we will have just a taste of that final harvest day with uncountable saints singing God’s praises together. 

 

            That is the day we will begin home Bible studies for all of us.  These Bible Studies are specific for you as more of the seed is planted in you to grow in you to produce more seeds.  As we progress through the ensuing months, we will experience how this seed grows and produces new seed to be sown in others around us.

 

            This week we celebrate the Declaration of Independence.  How fruitful did Thomas Jefferson, as he wrote this document, and the signers gathered in Philadelphia, know that his document would become in this nation and throughout the world?  Likewise what did Columbus and the following explorers and settlers know what the dirt of this continent would become over the centuries?  It is no different than the planter with the seed.  It is no different with us here at Immanuel, knowing the extent of that seed planted in us and how it will grow as it is planted in others.  That is the kingdom of God.  It is far beyond what we can begin to imagine.  It grows in ways we cannot understand but in the ways God intends it.  And it does not grow unless planted and harvested, planted and harvested, planted and harvested. 

 

            Some of Mom’s dirt has been planted and harvested in our family for well over one hundred years.  Some of it dates before the Civil War.  How many seeds has it produced?  How many mouths has it fed?  Let’s get out and dig up this dirt in Des Plaines together, planting seeds that turn temporary bodies into lives eternal, earthly tents into God’s cherished souls forever.  That is what the kingdom of God is like.  Amen.