When you farm a little on the side, you wind up doing things later than you should because you have a full-time job that pays for your farming addiction. 

I knew I should have planted oat seed back in August, but I had stuff to deal with at work that took all my time. Then in September, I got sick and was out for a couple of weeks. Things were dry, and I was waiting for a good rain. 

Finally, we got some rain. I got up early to drive the forty-five miles to the seed place and get my oat and clover seed. Nine hundred pounds of seed later, I was on my way back home, just in time to make my 9:30 meeting. My plan was to get out to my pasture right after work and get that seed in the ground.

I don’t have a tractor for my little operation. That means I have to improvise. I have a small broadcast seeder that attaches to my receiver hitch on my truck. I’ve used it before with no problem. It is not as good as drilling the seed, but it works well enough.

It is getting darker faster these days. I got out to the pasture and the sun was already heading down. I got the seeder hooked up, then poured the seed in. Trouble then began.

The oat seed would not pour through the opening in the bottom of the hopper. I pushed and pushed on the lever that controlled the opening, but it wouldn’t budge. Exasperated, I did what any good farmer would do: I took my hammer and beat on it. It still wouldn’t move. 

With the hopper full of seed, I couldn’t really get a good look at how to solve the problem. I really couldn’t afford to dump fifty pounds of seed, so I reached into the hopper, scooped up as much as I could hold in my hands and scattered it. I did this about five more times, throwing each handful in a different direction. Then I got in the truck, pulled up about ten yards, and repeated the process.

It takes a long time to scatter fifty pounds of seed by hand. Throw out six handfuls in different directions, pull up ten yards, and repeat. Progress was slow. I wasn’t sure how good a job I was doing; I was slinging seed in every direction, hoping some of it stuck.

As I was throwing seed, Jesus’ parable came back to my mind. Remember how he told it? “A sower went out to sow. Some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it. Some seed fell among the rocks. It came up, but when the sun came out, it burned the little seedlings to a crisp because they had no roots. Some seed fell among the thorns. They came up but were choked out by the weeds. Some seed fell on good ground and produced sixty, eighty, up to a hundredfold.”

Jesus paused and explained this story to his followers. The seed, he explained, was the good news. Satan snatches it away from some people, just like birds snatch seed off the path. Some people accept the good news, but it never puts down a deep enough root. Trouble comes, and they stop believing. Some people accept the good news, but soon the cares of the world choke out the work God wants to do in their lives. But, Jesus explained, some people accept the good news, and it returns a crop. The multiplier may be different for different people, but the return on investment is still amazing. 

You would think Jesus would be more careful with seed. Why sling the seed on the path, or among the rocks, or among the thorns? Seed in his time was hard to come by and expensive. Jesus is trying to tell us about the extravagant grace of God. God spreads his good news in places not likely to justify his investment, but he sows it anyway. He wants the hard people, the rocky people, and the thorny people to have a chance to hear the good news, even if it is unlikely to stick. 

If this is how Jesus farms, what does this say about how we do church? Shouldn’t we be extravagant with the good news? Shouldn’t we tell everyone about how God wants them to experience grace and live in his Kingdom? Isn’t our job to spread the good news lavishly and not get selective?

I don’t know where most of my seed landed. I don’t know if it landed on hard soil or if it will be so choked by Vassey grass it will never come up. I don’t know if it hit some good dirt and will take off. What I do know is an old farmer’s saying: “Seed in a bag doesn’t do anyone any good.”

Tell people what Jesus means to you. Good news seed bagged up in your heart doesn’t do anyone any good.