Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Gospel lesson (Mark 4: 26-34).                 

My Dad use to take me out a few days after planting milo to check to see if the seed was growing. He had planted and with our planters not being completely reliable in the 1960's, he wanted to know if the seeds had been spaced evenly and if they had been planted at an appropriate depth. Too shallow and they would not be down in the moisture to sprout. Too deep and the plants may be delayed in their growth. We had to check several different rows because it was always possible that one of the planter's 4 rows had worked unevenly. He would wipe away the dirt on the top, then dig down carefully with his pocketknife into this smaller little "V" in the ground, not a half inch deep and wide, and slowly work along several feet of this "V" until he had found all the seeds in it. If we came out at just the right time and there was adequate ground moisture, the little seeds would have begun to sprout their first little white shoots. Dad would proudly show me the little miracle of life that was beginning to happen all across the acres he had just planted. At different stages in my life this little experiment amazed me, other times it bored me. But then when I came of age as a teen and Dad started trusting me to plant those critically important seeds, I was the one who got down into the dirt to make sure they were being evenly spaced and placed down into the moisture adequately.                 

Today's Gospel lesson is a fittingly timed agricultural parable, actually two parables. Here we are after (or nearly after) one of our major harvest seasons, and Jesus is here speaking to us about seeds and planting and harvesting the crop. But what does he mean? Is he teaching them something about earthly harvests? Or is he focused on something even greater?                 

The key to understanding this parable is to know the seed, the planted seed. Just a few verses earlier, Mark 4: 14 Jesus had said in a similar parable: "The sower sows the Word." The seed of God, His Holy Word, seems like a small thing. In our western world, words are often disdained and ineffective. We all get jaded by listening to the "spin," the words that the political spin doctors and advertisers use to convince us to vote for a particular bill or buy a particular product. Earthly words have been sapped of their power.                 

But in this Word, in God's strong Word of Holy Scripture we can put our trust. The Lord speaks and the universe was created. The Lord spoke and the entire world was flooded at the time of Noah. The Lord spoke promises to Abraham and Jacob and Moses and David, and the promises He spoke were fulfilled in the coming of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Christ is the Word of God, the voice of God given to us in human flesh. Whenever you feel tempted to ask God "Why don't you come down here and walk in my shoes for a few hours?" remember that He has done so. And when He did, he took upon Himself all of our sin and separation and rebellion against God on that cross. That Word of the Lord gives us new life, the only new and growing seed of life that really makes any permanent difference in the world. That Word of the Lord has power. The power of that Word just made Levi Long a child of God by the wonders of water connected with the Word in Baptism. In just a few moments, the power of that Word will transform simple bread and wine into a heavenly meal that brings to us the power of forgiveness and the strengthening of touching our Lord Jesus' body and blood. We know and believe this power to be in God's Word, but too often we act like we don't believe it. We forget his Word of Life or we want to see its results now rather than waiting for God's time.                 

The farmers around here have just finished or are nearly finished with wheat harvest. They had waited 9 months from when their seed was planted until the harvest came. The seeds they planted grew, and from the estimates grew pretty well for many in our region.   

Prayers for a bountiful crop were answered.      

But the waiting for God's final harvest continues.

The seed of his Word has been planted in our hearts and has produced faith, trust in Christ alone for our eternal salvation. But we're not there yet. As Paul said in our Epistle "Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling." (2 Corinthians 5)   

"We are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We live by faith and not by sight. We are confident and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him," whether still here on earth or with Him in heaven.                 

But while we wait for that harvest, for Christ to come again, we continue to share with others that Word that gives us confidence. As I matured as a young man, my earthly father trusted me to plant the milo. As we mature as our heavenly Father's children, he entrusts to us the privilege of spreading His Word, His seed to others. We look for ways to "gently and respectfully" (1 Peter 3: 15) share the hope we have in us. We always have opportunities to spread that seed of the Word. God gives us those opportunities. But this month you may have more opportunities to spread that seed this month than what a normal month might hold. Nearly 40 members helped put together a float that proclaimed the Gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ to our community on the 4th of July. If you didn't see it, it worked off the theme of the parade, "Proud to be an American" At the front of the float we had three people, one a soldier, one a scout, and one a baseball player all saluting the USA and Christian flags.   At the back the theme was "Humbled to be a Christian." There we had a Roman Centurion and a Biblically dressed woman kneeling at the foot of the cross along with two others of us in modern garb. Ask your neighbors, "Did you see our float?" They may respond in ways that allow you to tell them, to plant the seed of the Gospel of Christ in their hearts. This week our youth and youth leaders sponsored a booth selling Pop and Hot Dogs. Ask your friends if they saw our booth. At the parade we handed out over 400 color brochures telling people about our Early Childhood Center, brochures that went specifically into the hands of people who were taking care of small children at the parade. Ask your young neighbors if they got one of those brochures and tell them you will bring them one if they didn't. Today our ECC and Church begin to run television commercial spots on cable, inexpensive spots that cost only a few dollars each. Ask your neighbors if they've seen those spots.   

Use those spots to plant the seed of Jesus Christ among more people you know.

And last of all, this week we mailed out over 100 letters to people who weren't here two weeks ago to hear the sermon on the Third Commandment "Observe the Sabbath Day." If you know of some member who doesn't attend regularly, but that you would like to encourage, ask them "Did you get a letter and copy of that sermon about the importance of the Third Commandment?" I'd really like to hear of some of the responses. Did they and all their family read it? Did reading that Word of the Lord convict them and help them to appreciate the importance of regularly hearing the Word of God and receiving the Sacrament, the seeds of faith? Or did it simply frustrate them? Whichever it did, I'd like to hear some of their responses so that I can know how to visit with them pastorally.                 

Each of these little opportunities can be an opportunity to drop some seed, some of God's Word into some moist soil of human hearts. Night and day, slowly and surely that seed sprouts and grows. All by itself the soil produces grain. We don't know how the seed will grow. Visible success may or may not come. But we do know that as soon as our Lord knows that the grain of this world has fully ripened, when His people have come to Him, the harvest will come, and then we will live by sight, seeing our Lord Jesus Christ in all his love and splendor. We look forward to that Day because He has promised it and has planted that Word of promise in our hearts.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 7) Amen.