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The response was terrific! I can almost see some of the disciples like Peter, James, and John jumping up and down in excitement. There were crowds and crowds of people. Some were not there to learn but were rather curious about this wonder worker.

They pushed Jesus right out to the water's edge until he had to get in a boat and speak from it. Water does make for wonderful amplification of one's voice. He, seeing a farmer sowing some seed, used that scene to illustrate an important lesson for the crowd and the enthusiastic disciples.

The farmer carrying a bag of seed over one shoulder was reaching in with the other hand and in rhythm with his step, casting the precious seed on the ground. The point Jesus probably wanted most to get across that day was that our results will not all be the same when we try to plant the word of God in other people's lives. That's a great message for us when we get discouraged.

Later, the early church treated this parable as allegory which means they gave each part of the story a symbolic meaning: the shallow soil, hard soil, thistle-infested soil and, of course, the good, rich soil. I doubt Jesus had all that in mind.

Here is a wonderful story about expectation and discouragement. It says that people will each react differently to the same witness we give. One may be so angry and disappointed at a church or pastor, that he or she can't hear or believe the good news at all. Another may just hear because it's the fad at the moment and then abandon the whole thing later. Another may be doing so many good things in life, that the church and the Savior get completely crowded out.

But the nice part of this parable is the assurance that there always will be those who hear and believe, who grow and mature in their faith. This was a wonderful assurance for those disciples back there listening at water's edge and is a wonderful assurance to us who sometimes try so hard to witness but want to give up at the miserable results.

It was really an important message for that crowd and those disciples because at the time everything looked so good and successful. But the storm clouds were already gathering over Lake Galilee and before very long the crowd would melt away. Those who remained would turn hostile. A cross would be prepared in Jerusalem.

On days of discouragement like those ahead, the faithful would need to recall again and again this story of the farmer and his seed. And they did. Matthew, Mark, and Luke thought it so important that all three wrote it down.

A little later I want to stand this parable on its head and examine a whole different way of looking at it. But first, let's consider what it means to us personally today. I think there are times when we all are like the hard soil on the path next to the field.
-- We get angry at the preacher.
-- We get disappointed with the way things are done at the church.
-- The national body makes announcements on controversial issues we just don't like.
-- Changes are made which upset us.
-- We pray for favors from God and it seems like God ignores us.

Sometimes we come to worship not expecting anything worthwhile to happen -- and it doesn't. It's easy to let ourselves become closed and hard to the preaching and teaching, especially if it challenges us to think in new ways.

If you are in need of softening up the soil of your own soul, if so far your faith has been shallow, if in your life there are so many things which are crowding out learning and growing, then perhaps it's time to go into prayer for God's Spirit to help you change and be receptive to teaching, preaching, inspiration, and Christian guidance.

Becoming that good soil is possible, with God's help, for us. That's the good news here. We can move beyond lousy growing conditions to new, rich soil where we and our loved ones can mature in the faith.

Do you think, like a pastor giving a children's sermon which is really aiming for the adults listening, that Jesus may have been mainly aiming for his disciples? After Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension, and the coming of God's Spirit on Pentecost, no doubt their preaching would be received in all the ways described in the parable. They would need this assurance that there would always be some good soil which would be fruitful.

But they would also need to be told by Jesus that there are dangers in discipleship. One can be hardened like that which must have happened to Judas. One can operate from shallow roots, going with every fad and impulse like big fisherman Peter. One can be influenced by outside considerations and have the primary focus crowded out like James and John when they began to worry about the "pecking order" in the kingdom.

This parable told by Jesus, with a boat for his pulpit, says: cultivate yourself, beware of getting sidetracked, be the rich soil you are intended to be.

In a book by J. Russell Hale, titled Who are the Unchurched? we learn the kinds of soil we may be in danger of becoming and the kinds of soil out there in which we are sent to sow the gospel.
-- There are those who are anti-institutionalist who believe the church has become too preoccupied with its own self-interests.
-- There are the boxed-in who have belonged but found membership in the church too confining.
-- There are the many, many burned out. They feel the church has completely consumed their energy.
-- There are the happy hedonists who devote their lives to pleasure-satisfying activities.
-- Sadly, there are also those who consider themselves locked out, who feel the church has closed its doors to them.
-- There is the largest group, according to Hale, whom he calls the Publicans. They have the preconceived idea that the church is primarily filled with Pharisees.
-- In our day we must deal with the scandalized who think our disunity is a scandal which makes them reject us.
-- There are not only the true unbelievers, but also the pilgrims, whose beliefs are in process of formation.

The list could go on but I think you see why we can expect all kinds of response to our witness. We can see also how easily we can have our own receptivity to the gospel harden, or scorch from the heat, or be choked out with thistles.

Please, dear God, cultivate me that I might be most of the time good soil.

There is an exciting flip side to this story Jesus told the crowd. We've seen the traditional way of interpreting the message. Let's consider a totally different approach: perhaps the real message is not so much how we hear as how we sow.

This is a parable not so much about soils as it is about how God sows and would have us sow. As Jesus looked up there on the hillside and saw a farmer broadcasting seed, he thought, "Look at how he throws those seeds in the most unpromising places. Everyone knows it doesn't stand a chance of growing there, but nevertheless, he still tries."

This really knocks down the idea we often use for not sharing the faith with someone else. We often rationalize away our opportunity to sow the seed of faith with words like these.
-- They're not our people.
-- No one would accept them in our congregation.
-- They won't like our style of liturgical worship.
-- They are too tough and turned off by the church to consider it now.
-- They used to be members but got mad at the preacher.
-- I asked them already and they said, "No."

The Old Testament scripture had it years before Jesus told this parable: "Sow your seed in the morning and at evening, let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well" (Ecclesiastes 11:6).

That hillside sower could have said that the right-of-way path was too hard for seed. Or that the shallow dirt-over-rock couldn't support plants. Or that the thistle would choke out good seed. But he planted anyway!

That's good news for us who are far from the deep, rich soil we should be. And it's good news for those we invite into the body of Christ for we will not give up on those either, no matter how hopeless and unpromising the situation may appear. We sow the seed and really leave the results to God. We sow the seed even though our first judgment is it isn't worth the effort.

But in response to the way the gospel was planted in us, as unproductive as it may have seemed, we do the same for others. And often God sees the possibilities when we just can't make them out. The difference is God's Spirit which helps us. When we sow seed by witnessing to someone else, we also can sow in the most unpromising places. The Spirit will take over and the response will surprise us because God is at work in our planting. And because we sow in such reckless ways and places, our own receptivity and understanding of the gospel reaps more and more harvest.

Here in the U.S., all active members of a Christian congregation usually know an average of six to eight unchurched friends, relatives, neighbors, or people they work with. They are, by far, the best soil in which we can sow our seed and expect the best results. Just think of the possibilities of the harvest here! A congregation which has 100 active members has from 600 to 800 unchurched people who are already inclined toward their church.

In church growth language this is called the extended congregation. They are people who live within driving distance of our building and who already have an acquaintance within the congregation whom they know fairly well. We must invite them. We know the seed is good and we know the ground is probably receptive. And even if it isn't, just like that Galilean farmer Jesus spotted from the moored fishing boat, we ought to try to plant regardless of its promise.

In the musical, Evita, Eva Peron said of herself: "I am content to be the woman who brought the people to Juan Peron." Perhaps we can be content to bring the gospel to people we know and care about.

At Our Primary Purpose, an alcoholic treatment center, Dick said, "I don't lecture; I just tell them how it was with me being drug-dependent." They understood and wanted that same help. Dick said to them, "I don't have to be alone anymore."

Our planting of the seed is like that. We just tell them about our relationship with God. We don't have to be alone anymore either.

So on the flip side of this parable we learn a lot about spreading the good news. No one is unpromising in God's sight. God would have us invite all -- those of different skin color, those of different sexual orientation, those isolated by their wealth, those in prison, single, married, Republicans, Democrats, Green party and no party -- the seed goes out and to God is left the results. Consider right now where you will sow this week.

From a simple fishing boat at the shore of Galilee's small lake comes a simple story with very big implications for us. It says God would have us sow everywhere. It also tells us not to be discouraged at the results. After all, the real kick is in the sowing.