SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

 

nagasakibomb            In their 1960 catalogue, the Ransom Seed Company of Arcadia, California offered for sale packets of “Atomic Blasted Seeds.”  These seeds were advertised as being of interest to both “home gardeners,” and “schoolchildren.”  These irradiated seeds were described as “perfectly harmless,” and were being offered to the public as curiosities, and as prime subjects for science fair projects. “Save seeds from any funny-looking plants or cripples; from these one can expect greater changes,” the catalogue recommends. It also makes two other recommendations: that seeds be entrusted to adults and to High School aged students only, and that customers refrain from putting seeds “in their mouths.” * I surmise that High School students, even in 1960, were more likely to place Atomic Blasted Seeds (or the plants grown from them) in Zig-Zag rolling papers than in their mouths. This whole notion of planting irradiated seeds to see what “funny-looking plants or cripples” pop out of the ground seems pretty bizarre. One might get lucky and grow a dollar-bill vine, I guess, or maybe one would grow triffids.

            The attraction of Atomic Blasted Seeds is that the seeds are variable – like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates (in the movie, not the book), you never know what you’re going to get. In Jesus’ well-known parable about the sower, the seed is definitely not variable. The seed is the word of God (Luke 8.11), and if given any chance at all, will grow in predictable abundance.

            The variable in this parable is the soil. Jesus mentions four soils: way-side, rocky, thorny and good. Jesus defines wayside soil as hard-heartedness, rocky soil as shallowness, thorny soil as distractedness, and good soil as spiritually fertile. I’ve thought that perhaps, if He were preaching to us today, he might add a fifth soil.

            “And some seed fell upon a garden bed, but because it was covered with mulch most could not take root. Those that did spring up were choked out by the petunias, pansies and impatiens growing in health and abundance there,” I imagine Jesus saying.  When Jesus was preaching, the kingdom had yet to arrive.  Local congregations had not been established. No one had ever painted a church logo on the side of an Econoline van.  Not one single flannel board lesson had been presented to preschoolers. When Paul described the members of the congregation at Corinth, he listed prostitutes, thieves, alcoholics, and adulterers.  Would this collection of sinners find a place to grow in the flower-bed of one of our local congregations?

            In the great commission Jesus describes making disciples as a two-step process: baptizing, and teaching. We understand the first part fully. But that second part – teaching the baptized how to be obedient - assumes that the newly baptized do not enter the family fully formed. They have baggage, bad-habits, and rough edges that will take time to love away. Honestly, do we really want to make space in our garden bed for such seeds? We raise our children here. We want things to be pretty and nice for them (I certainly do). Would we really make reforming junkies, prostitutes, and gang-bangers feel like this is their church home? If we won’t, would they have a chance to grow?

            Despite what we might think there are no “funny looking seeds or cripples”. There isn’t one garden for “Atomic Blasted Seeds,” and one for perfectly perfect seeds. The seed is the same seed. Only soils are different. We are all sinners. We are all saved by grace or not at all.  We are all growing towards Jesus. If we are not the kind of soil in which any seed can grow, are we not, by definition, bad soil

*Onward and Upward in the Garden, Katherine S. White, pp. 98-99

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