First, I’d like to express my gratitude to Rev. Rod Hale and to Kathi and Steve Genett who wrote guest articles on July 12 and 19, respectively. Both articles were excellent! Thanks to those of you who expressed your appreciation to me on their behalf. During the first week, we took some family vacation and spent some time with Melanie’s mom. I spent the second week on sermon preparation for the 23^rd, long-range sermon planning, reading and reflection, journaling and spiritual nurture.   

For the current article, I’d like to share a part of last Sunday’s sermon and a story I recently read that relates to it. 

Our text was from Matthew 13:1-9 where Jesus told the parable of the sower. The parable describes a farmer who went out to sow seed and 75 percent of the seed did not take. Some landed on the path and birds came along and ate it up. Some seed landed on shallow soil and when it sprouted, it dried up because it had no root system. Still other seed took root alongside weeds and the weeds choked it out. Finally, the rest of the seed fell on fertile soil and grew to yield an abundant harvest, a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.   

In the sermon, we established that good soil is necessary to experience growth and fruit. Sometimes the seed falls on soil with just the right nutrients and pH balance, and everything works like it’s supposed to. It sends out a root that takes hold, a beautiful plant grows, and it produces fruit.  As Jesus says, it produces an exponential crop compared to the amount of seed sown.   

The more fruit a healthy heart produces, the more it impacts the environment around it. When people see that fruit in people’s lives, the more receptive they are to the seed of the gospel. 

Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)  

After he washed their feet Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:35, NLT) 

As the songwriter says, “They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love.”

In the parable of the sower, we are reminded that we must cultivate a mindset of persistence.  

The Apostle Paul addresses this in Galatians 6:7, 9 — “ . . . A man reaps what he sows. ⁸Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” 

At work here is The Principle of Sowing and Reaping or The Principle of the Harvest. We always reap what we sow, later and greater. When we plant seed, it always yields a harvest that is both later (takes time) and greater (exponential). By the way, this applies to sowing both good and bad seed. The key for us is to remember that we are to plant, water, nurture and fertilize, but God brings the growth.  

Paul wrote about this to the Corinthians who were in major conflict as a church. There were factions and loyalties to certain leaders.   

He said, “Are you not acting like mere humans? ⁴For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? 

⁵What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

1 Cor. 3:6-9

So let us keep on sowing and watering seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And trust that God will bring the harvest! It’s worth every effort!  After all, Jesus said, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10) 

Next, here’s the story I wanted to share. In this summer’s issue of Christianity Today Magazine, Melissa Morgan Kelley wrote an article entitled, “Living Reconciliation: In Rural Georgia, Longtime Family Friends Grapple with a Shared History of Slavery.² The article tells about longtime friends and neighbors Stacie Marshall and Melvin and Betty Mosely.  Marshall is a former campus minister and Rev. Melvin Mosely is her former assistant high school principal (who later became a preacher) and best friend of her father.  

In 2015, Marshall discovered her family’s history of owning slaves. In 2017, Marshall was clearing out the family farmhouse when she discovered an 1860 county slave schedule in a boot box. The document listed enslaved people as part of the federal census and confirmed that her great-great-great grandfather had purchased seven people, including a woman named Hester. Subsequently, Berry College started a documentary on the story entitled, Her Name Was Hester, which chronicled her attempts to reconcile with the descendants of those enslaved as she learns to run her family’s 300-acre cattle farm. 

Stacie Marshall was overwhelmed with the discovery and felt the need to find Hester’s descendants to attempt to make amends. Her first thought was to seek counsel from Rev. and Mrs. Mosely who were very supportive of and prayerful for her.  

As Marshall began to do the hard work of genealogical research, she made a stunning discovery: Hester was the great-great grandmother of Betty Mosely. This turn of events could have driven a wedge between these longtime friends. However, they turned it over to the Lord and began to work together toward reconciliation and repair through their Christian faith and respective churches. The article reports that they have founded Hester’s Heritage Foundation to “support Black history preservation, education and farming initiatives.” Later, Betty Mosely said to Marshall, “I just want you to know that this doesn’t change the way I love you.” 

Rev. Mosely said, “In all our families, there are generational things it’s up to us to break.”   

Marshall desires to continue to sow seeds of hope and influence generations in this area in the years to come. She said, “I just want to keep sowing good seeds alongside the Mosleys.” 

I hope that this story, coupled with the thoughts from Sunday’s sermon will encourage you and me to continue to sow good seed all around us.  Some will not take root. But some will . . . and God will make them grow.   

And there will be an abundant harvest that will change the lives of generations to come.  

So, keep on sowing church! Never allow your fervor for evangelism to be extinguished. If we do our part, God will most certainly do his. 

God’s grace and peace,