Being a mother is rather like sowing seeds. You know what I mean; your plant the ideas, the suggestions in your little one as to how to learn the basics of life. You teach them how to eat with a knife and fork, how to dress, how to be honest and polite. But the big question is, will they learn from what you tell them? Will they accept the wisdom that you have accumulated over the years and attempted to pass on to them? Will they learn from your mistakes or will they have to learn from their own? Or worse still will they just never learn?

Will they learn? That’s the big question; and it’s a question that brings anxiety and often heartache to parents. It can even bring a sense of failure and guilt. But there is some real comfort for us in the passage we just read from our bibles; the familiar story that Jesus told of the sower. The story tells us, that ultimately it is not the teacher who determines if the message gets across; ultimately it depends on the listener. Or to put it another way, the answer lies in the soil.

In the story that Jesus told, a farmer goes out to scatter the seed in his field. All the seed is good seed. Whether the seed grows and matures depends on the soil into which it falls. If the farmer hadn’t sown the seed then he would have been at fault. If we don’t teach our children right and wrong, then we are at fault. But if we have faithfully imparted to them what we know, then ultimately it is down to them.

Let’s look then at the lessons from Jesus’ story of the sower. First then we read that some seed fell along the path; hard ground where the seed cannot sink in. We know something of the frustration of knowing that what we are saying to our children just isn’t sinking in.

Then some seed falls on rocky ground where the soil is very shallow. Initially it grows quickly, but then the power of the summer sun beats down, and the plant withers away. We are familiar with that response too; the burst of enthusiasm at some wonderful new insight or experience, the new years resolution that’s put into practice on January the first, but by January the fifth has been abandoned.

It’s not just children either who act like this. Jesus told this parable to us all. By nature we are all a bit like wayward children. You see Jesus came to point all of us in the right direction. He came to impart Father God’s wisdom so that we all might know how to live life to the full, how to love God and love our neighbour. But sometimes our response to what he teaches is rather shallow and short-lived.

Then Jesus goes on and talks about seed that falls on thorny ground. The seed here faces competition. We live in an age when there are many voices clamouring for our attention. To be successful in life, sometimes we have to be very single minded, we have shut out the competing voices and concentrate on what is most important.

But really this is nothing new. Even in Jesus day there were competing voices for the attention of his hearers. There were voices in competition with God’s message that Jesus came to bring. In his explanation of the parable, Jesus explains what some of those voices were. The worries of life are one competing voice. Worry is a terrible thing; people can get so tied up in their own concerns and fears that they are deaf to God, to the message of his love. Jesus taught a different priority. He taught his followers not to worry about day-to-day needs, but to seek first the kingdom of God, and then all their other needs would be provided for as well.

There is another competing voice that Jesus tells us of. He calls it the deceitfulness of wealth. Paul went so far as to say that the love of money is the root of all evil. Some people put money first, it becomes more important to them than God. We mustn’t make the mistake of saying that money is evil; it is something that we all need to enable us to get by. But when people get deceived into thinking that money is the most important thing, when people make money the main driving force in their life, then they have been deceived and their lives have become futile and fruitless.

Jesus also speaks about seed that falls into good ground. When you see your children growing to adulthood, and becoming wise, competent, caring citizens and good parents themselves, then you know that all the patience, all the talking and listening was worthwhile. When we hear and really understand what God has said to us through Jesus, and let that transform our life and our attitude, then things are as they should be.

There is nothing wrong with the seed. There is nothing wrong with the message of Jesus that comes to us through this book. The answer lies in the soil; the answer is in you and me; in how we respond, in the attention we give to God’s voice.

Quietly, unobtrusively God is at work in our world. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man plants. And although the seed is so small, not much bigger than a grain of sugar, yet it grows into a massive plant over six feet tall. The truth is that where Jesus is preached, something miraculous is at work. The Holy Spirit is at work through the simple message of the gospel, and that message has the power to transform the lives of individuals, of families and bring hope and blessing to society.

Not everyone will believe, but there will always be those who will. Jesus also said that the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a large amount of flour. Even though the amount of yeast was very small, it made the whole batch of dough rise. Looking back over two thousand years we can see how Jesus teaching has spread from his travels and teaching in the tiny area of Judea and Galilee to every country of the world.

Not everyone gets the point. Even some who seem to get it can loose it, but for those who understand, those who persevere, blessing comes to them, and through them to others. Even Jesus fellow townsfolk missed the point. Many of the crowd only heard the stories Jesus told on a superficial level, but for those who believed and understood, they had found something very precious. Jesus told two more little stories to illustrate this point. (READ v 44&45)

One of the most precious gifts that anyone can have is the loving care and counsel of a mother, and hopefully a father as well. When a child is not loved and cared for, then that child may well be emotionally handicapped and face a bleak future.

The most precious possession we can ever discover is God’s love for us in Jesus. In Christ God gives us the privilege to become his children, we can come and talk to him in prayer. We can know the reality of forgiveness and freedom from guilt. We can know the promise of eternal life. We can know the help and strength of God’s Holy Spirit within us. But there is a condition. Jesus challenged people, and he still challenges us to put him first. To let his teaching govern our behaviour, and his love fill our hearts.

On this day when we especially give thanks for the love of our mothers, it’s good to also to remember the Gods who is the source of all love.

He loves us and wants each one of us to be what he created us to be, a man or woman who reflect his love in our family and to the world around us.
 

Amen.

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