I came across an inspiring story about a man named David, who spent a few years working to build a community of kindness and compassion. His experiences in volunteer ministry brought him into contact with many different people. It is a beautiful story, and I have framed it in the light of today’s Gospel from Matthew, while keeping the original account entirely intact.
David wanted to share with the community everything he had learned throughout his life as a follower of Jesus. He believed that if he truly wanted to make a positive impact on the lives of others in his newly found community, he first had to sow the good seeds of love and kindness.
He began his mission by visiting local schools. He spoke to students about the vital importance of kindness, compassion and forgiveness. He said, “When you cultivate a heart of kindness and compassion and become good at it, the world will always have a special place for you”. Many students listened attentively, and some of them were so touched by his message and asked him to come again to talk more someday. They were much like the good soil in the parable of the Sower in today’s gospel reading.
However, David also encountered significant challenges along the way. At one school, he faced resistance from a group of teachers who were deeply sceptical of his work. They said, “David, your talk was great, but our school and our community are already kind and nice enough.” The teachers were unwilling to learn because they thought they knew it already. So, they were like seeds falling on rocky ground. David’s message could not take root because they were stubborn and resistant to change at all.
Nonetheless, David continued his mission by organising some community events to foster his message of kindness and compassion. At one event, he met people who seemed very enthusiastic, but as time passed, their passion waned. Overwhelmed by the pressures and distractions of their own lives, their hearts became like soil choked with thorns, where the seeds struggled to thrive.
Despite these setbacks, David also witnessed the remarkable, transformative power of his message. Quite a few individuals, both young and old, embraced his words with their whole hearts. They listened, understood, and tried hard to put those lessons into practice in their lives. Before long, these people became beacons of kindness and compassion, eventually transforming the spirit of their entire community. This was only possible because their hearts were like fertile soil, allowing the seeds to take root, sprout, flourish, and eventually produce an abundant harvest.
Martin Luther King Jr. frequently spoke of Mahatma Gandhi in his sermons and writings, often referring to him as one of his mentors. However, King and Gandhi never met in person; when Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, King was a young man of 19 years of age. But King used Gandhi’s life to bridge the gap between Christian theology and the practical application of non-violent, compassionate action. He famously stated, “Christ showed us the way, and Gandhi in India showed it could work.”
This connection between the life of Jesus and the pursuit of a righteous society has resonated across cultures and generations. Many Western missionaries, such as Lesslie Newbigin, often encountered people in their mission fields, who were deeply impressed by the stories of Jesus. Newbigin once made this comment. “Their question was: ‘Is there any way to follow Christ without being a Christian?'”
It is a profound question: “Can anyone follow the Way of Christ without necessarily being part of an established Christian institution?” Many scholars describe Jesus and his early followers simply as the “Jesus Movement”. I find this description compelling. In those early days, believers followed Christ’s teachings without being part of a formal, established religious group. It was only later, in the 4th century, that the Roman Emperor Constantine embraced this movement and declared it as an official imperial religion, ‘Christianity’.
According to some church historians, Christian believers in the 4th century were still a minority—estimated at roughly 10 % of the entire population. But they were a highly influential group, not due to political power, but rather to their lifestyle. Their faith lives were defined by an extreme kindness, a deep concern for others, and a willingness to sacrifice for their neighbours in their daily lives.
The messages of justice, kindness and compassion have been already shared by many groups and individuals, such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Gandi, Bonhoeffer, and thousands of people with good minds in different places, and even different religions in this small world. Yet, hatred, discrimination, and injustice—along with wars and violences are still devastating many parts of our world today.
The messages have always been with us ,but we haven’t listened with our hearts. This reality brings a deep sense of frustration and helplessness to the messengers. I believe this is much the same feeling our Lord Jesus experienced around the time he shared this parable of the Sower. Jesus cried out, “Listen, then, if you have ears!”
This is more than a simple request to hear. It is an urgent and desperate invitation to engage deeply with the message. He is actually saying, “Please, pay close attention to my message. Take these words to heart, live them out, and prove that you are my disciples.”
As you listened to the Parable of the Sower this morning, some of you might have asked yourselves, “What kind of field is my heart like? Rocky soils, thorny ones, or good ones?” To be honest, I find that my own heart often contains a little bit of every field mentioned in the reading. There are times when I feel my heart is like the good soil, but at other times, it feels more like the rocky or thorny ground.”
Our human mind is often described as a landscape of constant change. Every individual has optimism, empathy and kindness in their minds and at the same time they also have pessimism, cynicism, and selfishness almost all the time. Our hearts are like rocky soils or thorny soils sometimes, and like good soils some other times. The question is not simply, ‘What is my heart like as a Christian?’ The real question is this: Are we prepared to consistently choose to remain a good soil to the teachings of Jesus Christ? Are we determined to prove that we are Jesus’ followers in this 21stcentury world?
When today’s Gospel reading tells us that seeds planted in good soil will bear abundant fruit—thirty, sixty, or even a hundredfold—we must ask ourselves a simple yet significant question: What is the fruit for, and who is it meant to serve? If you look at this through an agricultural lens, the answer is simple. The fruit of a tree or a plant is not meant for the tree or the plant itself; it is a fundamental part of how nature sustains life and thrives by feeding others.
In the very same way, no matter what kind of fruit you bear as a follower of Jesus, and no matter how much you produce, your fruit is not for your own sake. It is for others. It is for others to see Christ our Lord through your lives and our actions. Your fruit is for them to taste and experience the goodness of God through you, so that they too join the community of Jesus’ followers.
This was precisely the way our early brothers and sisters in faith had lived and thrived during the first and second centuries. And this is the only way for Gungahlin Uniting Church to live and flourish around this area. ‘Bearing abundant fruits as Jesus’ followers will remain our primary calling for others to be fed. Christ did not come to give us a religion. He came to give us a life. It is that special lifestyle, that we are called to live out in our own time and space. Let us seriously choose to be the good soils toward the Gospel, so the Gospel itself defines us and our lives for the world.
