The Sower

Haiku of potential

The seed is scattered

on the ploughed earth by the man,

hoping and praying.

It’s all about soil

and where the seed comes to rest;

where it sends down roots.

Some fall on the path;

the birds know that they’re in luck,

swiftly make their claim.

On the rocky soil

shoots come soon, then fall away;

lack sufficient roots.

The weeds claim their share,

choking tender shoots of green;

lacking commitment.

Seemingly against

the odds, some seed comes to rest

in good soil. Hooray!

Like in the kingdom

the gospel seeds find a place

where love can grow strong.

Take the seed deeply

in your heart, listen to it,

bear abundant fruit.

© Ken Rookes 2020

The kingdom

Haiku of emerging abundance.

The kingdom of God!

A diff’rent reality,

strange, unexpected.

The seeds are scattered.

The sower gets on with life;

the seeds sprout and grow.

First the stalk, the head,

then the grain swells full and ripe,

and the harvest comes!

Take a mustard seed,

the tiniest of them all;

grows big for the birds.

The kingdom of God;

growing fruitful love, justice;

though we may not see.

Many parables,

riddles to confuse and hide;

his friends understand.

The kingdom of God;

when God rules in hearts and minds,

grace and love abound.

© Ken Rookes 2018

Seeds are cast

 

Seeds are cast

to lie among earth’s dust,
tiny parcels of potential;
waiting for the clouds to gather.
Tears of anguish and compassion
to water the earth.
 
Suitably awoken,
some seeds sprout,
putting forth leaves of promise.
Buds form
and open into flowers. Behold:
beauty, colour and wonder
 
to welcome insects of pollination;
the wind too.
Fruits are set,
bringing fertile anticipation,
and swelling to the generous ripeness
of maturity.
 
Then comes the harvest
and the rejoicing.
And with all this abundance,
fulfilment, kingdom,
fruitfulness, uncertainty
and hope.
 
 
 

 

© Ken Rookes 2015.

A parable about ambiguity

"At heart, this parable isn’t about the nature of evil and provides little material for constructing a coherent theodicy (if there even is such a thing). Rather, I think this parable is about ambiguity. Yes, the sower planted with good seeds. Yes, there are now weeds strewn among the wheat that puts the ideal harvest the sower had imagined at risk. Ideally, the servants could just rip out the weeds, but the sower knows that to tear out the weeds now risks ruining the maturing wheat as well. And so the sower must wait, living with both the wheat and the weeds until the day of harvest when they may be separated in due time.

How often do we not also face similar dilemmas? If not with wheat and weeds (although there may be a few gardeners in your congregation who sympathize with the sower!), then with a multitude of other difficult choices:
like between getting a job to support the family or staying at home to spend more time with the family;
or between supporting someone who consistently struggles at work and pulls the quality of your team down or firing that person;
or between choosing the best school you’ve been accepted to or one that is more affordable;
or between two different treatment options in responding to a grave illness;
or between staying in your current call where things are comfortable or choosing to move on to newer, but unknown, pastures;
or between giving into peer pressure because it just plain sucks to be left out or choosing to stick to your values and risk isolation;
or….

Do you see what I mean, dear Partner? Our lives are littered with situations where there is no clear or easy answer. And yet we rarely talk about these things in church. Maybe we don’t know what to say. Or maybe we ourselves aren’t quite sure how the faith relates to this. But I hear in this parable Jesus’ promise that in ambiguous, challenging situations we have the promise that, in the end, God will sort things out."

http://www.davidlose.net/2014/07/pentecost-6-a-on-wheat-weeds-and-ambiguity/

we plant seeds

" This is what we are about: we plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
   We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own."
-attributed to Oscar Romero 1917-1980

Germination

Way back behind the jar

of rusty screws

we find the dust-covered

seed pack: Yates, Grosse Lisse,

plant before December1995.

Might be a bit late.

At the centre

of the created universe,

deep within each living molecule

a seed has been planted.

Buried in the cold darkness

a tiny parcel of potential

holding its divine dna,

splendid and auriferous, quietly

anticipating the promised rain

and the word of assent

that will permit it to sprout.

The smallest gesture of warmth

may be enough.

Then will come a burst

of hope-saturated life

to break through indifferent soil;

becoming,

growing and becoming.

With time, care and steadfast striving

much long-sought fruit can be produced.

Within each soul, a seed, scattered,

sown by the one who creates;

the rain is gifted by the Spirit,

but the word of assent

must come from ourselves.

Never too late.

© Ken Rookes 2012