Lectionary: Year B, Proper 6
Gospel Text: Mark 4:26-34
Introduction
Gardening is an activity and hobby that many people enjoy and find relaxing. My mother was one of them. I did not inherit any of it. I made an honest attempt at gardening when we bought our first house in Oregon, about 30 years ago. I found it neither enjoyable nor relaxing. My interests and skills do not reside with the dirt.
Probably around a decade back, when AeroGarden – the hydroponic system – was popular, I received one as a gift. I tried it for about a year. And it worked, mostly. But eventually the maintenance and upkeep of the unit became tedious and expensive. Even an automated system appears beyond me.
Most recently, I found another indoor, window garden system called Click & Grow. There is nothing complicated about this one, unlike the AeroGarden. There are no pumps. You don’t have to add nutrients to the water. You don’t have to tell it when you install new plant pods. There is a single bar of white and red LED grow lights that turn on for 16 hours and off for 8. You can mix different plants. Everything needed for the plant to germinate, grow, and mature is contained within each pod. The pod is placed into a receptacle with a wicking system that draws water from the reservoir below, so the reservoir and the water never touches the soil or the roots, keeping the whole thing nearly maintenance free. This is a system I just might be able to handle. The only thing I must remember is to make sure that the reservoir doesn’t run dry.
Seed Parables
Today’s gospel reading selection from Mark chapter 4 contains two of the three seed parables found in this chapter. The first one is the parable of the sower who scatters seed. The seed lands on different types of soil and the results vary by where they land. The third parable is the one of the small mustard seed that grows into a magnificent shrub where animals and birds find rest. Both of these parables are well known and much can be found interpreting and explaining them.
Parable of the Automatic Soil
This morning my focus will be on the middle parable which honestly, I don’t know if I’ve heard much spoken or written about. Here it is once more, in an original translation found in the book Reopening the Word: Reading Mark as Theology in the Context of Early Judaism, written by Marie Noonan Sabine:
And he said: “Like this is the kingdom of God: as though someone were to throw seed on the ground and sleep and rise, night and day, while the seed sprouts and grows – how, he does not know. Automatically, the earth bears fruit: first the shoot, then the full-grown head of grain. But when the harvest is delivered up straightaway he sends [in] the sickle because the harvest had showed itself.”[1]
This is the parable of The
Automatic Soil. There is no work that is found to be done in this parable.
Interpreters might be tempted to insert regular crop tending work in the “sleep
and rise, night and day” phrase, but doing so diminishes the impact of the
explicitly stated “automatically, the earth bears fruit.” After the seeds are
scattered on the ground, nothing else is done by the person sowing them. He is
baffled by the entire process. And why not? He isn’t doing anything! The crop
reaches maturity without any work done by the sower. He simply enjoys the
harvest.
My Click and Grow comes pretty close to this parable. The only “work” I have to do is make sure the water reservoir doesn’t run dry, and with certain plants, some initial thinning of sprouts might be needed. Everything needed for sprouting, growth, and maturity are contained in each pod and in perfect balance for optimal growth. All I do is “sleep and rise, night and day… and the harvest is delivered up.”
A Sidebar on Reading Parables
Before continuing, I should mention some of the purposes and pitfalls when reading parables.
A key purpose of Jesus’ parables is to provoke thought and questions. Parables are not allegory, where all key elements have a corresponding real-life analog. Rather, parables can be interpreted in many ways, and there isn’t usually a single, “right” interpretation.
Parables illuminate a facet of truth.[2] But a single parable shouldn’t be extrapolated into the entirety of truth, and by itself should not be the basis for doctrine. In the current parable we are reading, it shows something about the kingdom of God.
Automatic Soil at Creation
When I read this parable of the automatic soil, the image that came to mind was the Creation accounts found in Genesis 1 and 2 –
Then
God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit
trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was
so. The earth brought forth vegetation… (Genesis 1:11-12a)
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9)
What is described in Genesis
sure sounds a lot like the automatic soil in Jesus’ parable. The soil, the
earth, produces plants and causes them to mature and meet human needs.
Sin, Fall and the Curse on the Soil
So, the thought and question provoked by this is: in what way (or ways) is the new kingdom of God that Jesus is proclaiming like the old garden of Eden?
One answer may be found by looking at the account of the Fall –
“Cursed
is the ground because of you;
in
toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns
and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” (Genesis 3:17b-18a)
The automatic soil became cursed because of human sin. It will from then on require toil and labor to bring forth anything, and a significant portion of effort will end up wasted.
However one interprets the story of human sin and the Fall, one of the results is that it disrupted the harmony and balance that was designed by God into the earth and all of creation. Where humankind once gave no thought to not having their needs met, because all that was needed was provided and available, the fear (among other fears) of not having enough is introduced and becomes a constant concern. In an attempt to address this fear, those who have the means plunder and hoard resources, further exacerbating imbalances and inequities.
The Curse of Empire
This is the reality of life lived by most who are hearing Jesus’ parable. The Roman Empire, the visible kingdom headed by Caesar, is the political and economic ecology in which they are the smallest of fish. To survive from one day to the next is the best that many can hope for. The empire is efficient in exacting tribute and stamping out any opposition. Fear of not having enough to meet basic needs is a daily concern. They see the extravagant wealth and wastefulness of those who are in the favor of the empire.
At least to some listening, I can’t help but think that Jesus’ parable evokes a return to the Garden of Eden and a restoration of the harmony and balance that existed – where no one suffers from unmet needs, and where there is no longer violent plundering and amassing of resources at the expense of health, well-being, and lives of so many.
Proclaiming and Living the Restoration of Eden
Is it too much to think that there could be a society where every person’s needs are adequately met? Is it fantasy to believe in a world where all creation is in harmony and balance? The gospel writer didn’t think so. Jesus begins his ministry with the proclamation that “the kingdom of God has come near [that is it at hand].” (Mark 1:15, portion.) The signs that Jesus has already performed so far is evidence that the new kingdom is starting to break into the old. Immediately following the parable of the automatic soil, Mark places Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed in which a small seed becomes a great shrub and offers rest and habitation for the birds. This too, evokes an image out of the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life.
I grew up in a tradition that placed most of the fulfillments of the kingdom of God to a time after sin is eradicated, there is a new earth, and God reigns as king. But that isn’t how the gospels depict the kingdom. In the gospels, aspects of the kingdom have already been planted, are sprouting, and growing.
The post-Pentecost Christians had this kind of society; a community that was a restoration of Eden. Acts 4:34 describes this community where “there was not a needy person among them.”
Is it too fantastical to believe that this could be the reality among Christ-followers again? Are the echoes of the Garden of Eden found in Jesus’ parables too idealistic for our time and place?
It might
require a huge rethinking of individual, family, and church priorities to see
this kind of community. I know that I’ve been conditioned by a half-century of
scarcity-minded thinking, and my priorities and values are derived from that.
It will require a huge degree of rethinking – or shall I say, repentance – to
re-orient toward a mindset of abundance.[3]
God’s kingdom of abundance is already at hand. Do we trust God enough to dare to act on God’s promises? Do we dare to let go of fear and act in ways that will bring back harmony and balance to our relationships with one another and with the natural world? Will the world be able to see signs of the kingdom of God growing among us?
[1] Sabin, Noonan Marie. Reopening
the Word: Reading Mark as Theology in the Context of Early Judaism, chapter
2.
[2] C.f., Mark 4:21-25
(parable of the lamp).
[3] By abundance, I mean
enough to meet the needs of all. Not abundance as in gluttonous.
