Jesus knows the human heart and mind well. He also knows that we usually remember concrete examples better than abstract ideas, so he often used parables to get his message across: stories which we can relate to. However, he also cautions us to look beyond the images for their symbolic meanings.
In today’s parable, Jesus invites us to check our hearts. We should ask ourselves, “Is my heart rich, open, and fertile soil where the word of God takes root, “bears fruit, and yields a hundred or sixty or thirty fold?” Or am I living superficially, looking for material rewards and fleeting pleasures? God’s message needs to penetrate deeply in order to take root in us. But as Jesus points out, God’s seeds can easily bounce off the top of our thick heads unless we really listen to his message.
The Word of God is always the same, conveying a message of love which promises abundant life. Some people unfortunately have so hardened themselves that the word merely bounces off their surfaces. Others respond with immediate enthusiasm that wears thin before long. Still others surround themselves with so much clutter that the Word cannot grow to maturity in them. Finally, some people do what they must to receive the word, allowing themselves to be tilled, weeded, and watered. The receptive person understands God’s word and allows it to take root in his or her heart.
One such receptive person was a 52 year old nurse, a mother of five, named May Lemke. She was asked to care for a baby born blind, mentally retarded, and with cerebral palsy who had been abandoned by his parents. He didn’t respond to sound or touch.
May called him Leslie. As you can imagine, it wasn’t easy to care for this baby. Every day, she massaged Leslie’s entire body. She prayed over him, cried over him, placing his hands in her tears. Raising him was a daily challenge. Leslie was sixteen years old before he was able to stand alone. All this time, he didn’t respond to her. Still, May continued to love him and pray over him. She even told him stories of Jesus, though he didn’t seem to hear her.
One day, May noticed Leslie plucking a taut string on a package. She wondered if he might he be sensitive to music. May began to surround Leslie with music, playing every kind of music imaginable, hoping that one type would appeal to him. She and her husband bought an old used piano. She showed him how to press the keys but he didn’t seem to understand.
Then one night, May woke to the sound of Tchaikovsky’s Piano concerto no. 1. She asked her husband if he had left the radio on. He said no, so they got up to investigate and were astounded to find Leslie sitting at his piano playing the piece by ear. He had never gotten out of bed before, much less, sat at the piano or struck a key on his own. Now he was playing beautifully. May dropped to her knees and prayed, “Thank you, dear God. You didn’t forget Leslie.” Soon, he began to live at the piano, playing classical, country western, ragtime, gospel, and even rock. All the music that May had played for him was stored in his brain and now flowing out through his hands into the piano.
Doctors describe Leslie as an autistic savant, a person who is mentally retarded yet extremely talented. His story figures into our parable in that May Lemke extravagantly sowed and sowed the seeds of her love and her prayers for years with no return. Eventually she saw a harvest. Granted, not much of a harvest in that Leslie was still mentally retarded and unable to speak but still a bountiful one in that he proved to be a musical genius.
Too often, I suspect, we are apt to shrug off our potential to make a difference, yet the seeds we sow can and do. As May Lemke demonstrated so tirelessly, sowing seed is an act of pure faith.
This is where St. Paul comes in. he tells us that the sufferings of the present are not worth comparing to the glory about to be revealed to us. Creation eagerly waits for God’s children to be revealed. To be a Christian is to accept suffering and accept the challenge of the cross, just as May Lemke did. We are urged to let the Word of God take root in our hearts and grow. When it is nurtured by our prayers, and cared for with our charity, the Word of God will grow and make a difference in changing the world.
The dream of a renovated world was dear to the ancient Jews, and to countless peoples since who allowed God’s Word to be rooted in them. Perhaps the idea of her community being free from slavery to corruption is what prompted Rosa Park to refuse to give up her seat on a bus in Birmingham in 1955. Her bold act inspired Martin Luther King to tell our nation that he had a dream that one day his children would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. Years later, his vision motivated Lech Walesa, an electrician in Poland to start the Solidarity movement, which led to the collapse of communism.
We could say that this brave woman planted the seed that brought about the downfall of communism decades later.
So, who are you seeding, quietly and effectively? As we leave church today to love and serve the Lord, we go with the intention of making a difference, scattering our seeds of faith, hope and love wherever we can, thus bringing the world ever closer to experiencing the splendor of God. We can plant the seeds of God’s love in what we say and do, seeds that tomorrow’s world will someday harvest. As one teacher said, “Be in love with the sowing. Leave the rest to God.”