Pentecost VI: Sowing

In 1919 the United States passed the Volstead Act, outlawing all liquor nationwide, and Prohibition began in January, 1920.  Thereafter, the Crown Prince (future King Edward VIII) paid a royal visit to Canada, whose head of state is the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom.  Whilst in Canada, the Prince chose to visit a pub near the southern border and there was taught a little ditty by the local patrons.  Back in England, he sang it for his father the King who was delighted.   The song is to the tune of the nursery rime Four and Twenty Blackbirds and went:  "Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry, went across the border to get a drink of rye, and when the rye was opened, the Yanks began to sing, 'God bless America, but God save the King'."

You never know how something may be received,  There were strong emotions on both sides of the Prohibition movement but in practice the prohibition was a disaster which resulted in thousands of  illegal taverns (speakeasys), strengthened organized crime in our country, and wasted our resources.  It was summarily repealed in 1933.  Jesus, in his day, generated a variety of reactions.  This radical rebellious rabbi was a great teacher, used the standard rabbinic techniques (gross exaggeration, pun, answering question with another question) and relied on mashal or parables.  In John's late and a- historical gospel Jesus eschews parables but they are his stock-in-trade in the earlier, more factual gospel accounts.

Today he tells the parable of the sower who sows seed on various kinds of ground and which, of course, takes root in good soil.  Uncharacteristically, Jesus "unpacks" this one for the disciples who are portrayed as rather dense in the earlier gospels, but get smarter with each succeeding gospel.  For us it is obvious that  the ultimate point is that Jesus' message, falling into receptive hearts, takes root.
He closes by saying "the one who has ears had better listen" (my translation).  He is talking about hearing with compassion, hearing that leads to heeding and then to action.  And Jesus says that thirty-, sixty-, and hundred-fold harvests are possible.  Well, folks, there are no fertilizers or farming techniques that can do that!   He is talking supernatural results for a church on fire for justice and the building of God's kingdom.  Expect no less.