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A Sermon Delivered at First Christian
Church Stockton Psalm 119:105-112, Romans 8:1-11, Matthew 13:1-9 I moved
to Lubbock, Tx. during the summer of 1977.
I was 20 years old and I knew that I wanted to be a preacher. I was into “winning souls for Jesus”, saving the
“lost”, knocking on doors to share the “plan of salvation”.
Twenty years old and on fire or Jesus.
I was going to go to the “preacher school” so that I could
learn the best methods of saving souls.
I had arranged for a job working for a “Christian” man who was
looking to hire a married couple going to college.
He was a little concerned about hiring a man from California like
myself, because he had heard that Californians were into “mixed
marriages”. I told him that
I was concerned as well, since I was Irish and my wife at the time was
English, but I assured him that I had no affinity for England.
I had a job lined up, $200 in my pocket, and I was on my way to
becoming a preacher. When we
pulled into Lubbock we were lost, and I asked a police officer where we
should spend the night. He
asked if we were passing through or moving to Lubbock.
I told him I was moving to Lubbock to become a preacher.
He said to me, “Well preacher boy, you don’t want to go over
there”, and he pointed over to the left at the railroad tracks. “That’s the wrong side of the tracks. You want to stay on this side with our people.”
“And who exactly are our people?” I asked.
“The coloreds live over there, and the whites live over here”,
he said. “How about the
Irish?” I asked. He looked
dumbfounded, and I drove away. Within a
month I was flat out broke, totally disillusioned, and I called it quits. My car was out of gas, so I borrowed $50 bucks from a friend
to go back home with my tail between my legs, and I gave up on the idea of
being a preacher. Others gave
up on me as well. How do we
know when to give up on somebody? Some
people are lost causes, are they not?
Would you waste your time helping someone out who has absolutely no
potential? That would be
wasteful, wouldn’t it? We
should only invest our time and talent on people and projects that have a
good chance of success, right? Why
should we waste good seed on bad soil?
But in
this mornings reading we find Jesus casting the seeds on all types of
people, every variety of soil, irregardless of the quality of soil.
And why is that? Is it
because we humans do not have the ability to discern what soil is good and
what soil is bad? Is Jesus
saying that we are not able to tell where the seed will take root and
where it would be wasteful? Maybe
Jesus is saying that the soil is just not ready to be receptive to growing
the seed. I know plenty of
people like that. They are my
relatives, and your relatives. They
are not bad people, just people who have plates already too full.
When Sunday morning comes, they call their buddies for a round of
golf and off they go to the course. Or
maybe they just sleep in and read the paper and mow the lawn. Another
family joins the church, get involved and become active, everyone in the
church gets excited about them, and just as fast they stop coming and go
back to their previous routine. Why
is that? Why does the seed
not take root in them? Could
it be that they were sincere, but possibly shallow?
Fred Craddock says that a shallow person is one who has two things
on their agenda: One is pleasure, the other is displeasure.
They invest 100% of their time and energy in what brings them
pleasure, and no time on anything that is displeasing.
They do what they want to do and avoid what they don’t want to
do. That is shallow. Shallow is the person contemplating suicide but hesitates to
do it until she has lost 15 pounds so she’ll look better in the casket.
Some
people just have their priorities, and the Spirit of God is down on the
list, not quite off the list, but down with the unimportant stuff.
“Right now my career is really taking off and I don’t have the
time. Maybe when things slow
down.” They make little
cameo appearances in church just so we’ll know they’re not dead.
“Maybe when my kids move out and don’t occupy so much of my
time”, they say. Retirement
comes, traveling, volunteer work, and they still make their cameo
appearances. Still waiting. Finally,
there is the seed that falls on good soil.
It takes root and grows, it survives heat and cold, rain and
drought, is nourished by God. Truly
humble and loving servants, giving of their time, talent and treasure,
expecting nothing in return, not even a little recognition.
We do not
know which seed will grow and which seed will be plucked up or whither and
die. It is not for us to
know. All we are asked to do
is scatter the seed and let God do the rest.
We do not need to look at others and say we shouldn’t waste our
time on them. We don’t
know! People can change. God
could work with their soil over time.
Just cast the seed and let God worry about the rest. Don’t
give up on somebody, whatever you do.
They may not turn it around today and get it right, but sow the
seed and then maybe someday, after it has been dormant for many seasons,
it will come to life and take hold. Plant
the seed now, and sometime down the road there might be a tremendous
harvest where it looked hopeless. It
isn’t our job to win souls to Jesus or to save another person.
God is taking care of that. Just
sow the seeds everywhere, on all sides of the track, even on the track.
Don’t let anybody tell you to stay on this side of the track with
our people. Just take those
little bitty seeds of love and scatter them all around.
Michael Malone
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