Gardening: Getting Down and Dirty

Gardening:  Getting Down and Dirty

Mark 4:1-20

            There are two things we know about this Scripture.  We know this parable.  We’ve heard it preached many times.  We know how seed was sown then—by hand, with the sower reaching into a bag and scattering the seed by throwing it.  We know that wasn’t efficient because he couldn’t always control the direction of the seed or where it fell.  We know about the four kinds of soil.  We know three of the four kinds were not conducive to producing a crop. 

-The seed that fell on the dirt path, which had been packed down by the tramp of many feet, was eaten by birds. 

-The seed that fell on rocky ground couldn’t take root, so the plants withered and died.

            -The seed that fell among thorns and weeds had no room to grow, so the plants were choked off before they could produce fruit.

We know this parable so well that we don’t even need Jesus’ explanation to his disciples. In fact, we wonder why people living so close to the land couldn’t figure out the meaning.

            We know that Jesus wanted his listeners to understand that they were the soil.  They were to receive the words that Jesus spoke and in turn share them with others, thereby bearing fruit for God’s kingdom.  We also know that at different times in our lives we’ve probably been all four kinds of soil.  There have been times when our lives have borne fruit for God, but there have also been times when we’ve been hard hearted.  There have been times when we have been “good soil,” and times when the rocks of tribulation have gotten in the way of our being fruitful.  There have been times when we have been attentive to God’s call, and times when other interests choked off God’s words to us.

            The other thing we know about this Scripture has to do with gardening.  In this parable the sower is not the main character.  He only exists to move the story along.  The central “characters” are the four kinds of soil.  True, the story couldn’t get started without the sower, but once he scatters the seed, his part in the tale is over.  He goes home and lets nature take its course.

            That’s not the way a gardener works.  A person who is truly committed to gardening spends hours with the plants.  He/she prepares the soil to receive the seeds or young plants.  The ground has to be tilled, either by hand or by machine.  Rocks and other obstacles to growth must be removed.  Sometimes fertilizer must be added. 

Once the seeds or plants are in the ground the gardener’s work is not over.  Everything must be watered regularly.  Weeds spring up in places where they shouldn’t, and must be removed—not just once, but many times during the growing season.  Certain kinds of grass love to sneak under garden borders and invade plant beds.  It has been my experience that grass often won’t grow where you want it, but is prolific where you don’t want it.

            The fruit, whether ornamental flowers or food for the table, doesn’t grow by accident.  It must be cultivated, tended, cared for, watched over, and then, if everything works out, the garden produces thirty fold, or sixty fold, or a hundred fold.

            Gardening is hard work, and you can’t do it properly without getting down and dirty—getting down on your knees and getting your clothes and your hands dirty.  That’s the nature of gardening, and that’s the nature of working for God’s kingdom.  We have to spend time on our knees in prayer and in service.  We have to get our hands dirty with people and tasks that might not always be as clean as we would like.  But down and dirty we must get.

            How else are we going to bear fruit?