Sermon: 31st Jan '21

The Sower and the Seed

Gospel Reading: Luke 8: 1-14

Dear Community of Christians,

in a few weeks the soil will be ready for the farmer. Then they can sow and nurture the first seeds to grow plants for our daily bread. Without healthy soil for a successful harvest, we would starve. 

We don’t live by bread alone. Man lives by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.

And the Word of God, the seed, falls in the ground of the human soul. The question is, do we have a clear understanding of what the Word of God means? I think we have to widen our thinking.

Can it be that a poem moves and opens our heart like a Word of God? Or the sunrise, and the sunset with all their incredible colors? What about a beautiful landscape? Or a loving word from a person?

It can be a daily struggle to be open for all that comes from the outside, into our hearts like a seed.  Yet we can easily overlook the beauty of a landscape. We can fail to recognize the loving word in a poem, or the helpful word of another person. Because our soul ground has become frozen.

We have to be aware, there are two different powers working in our soul. Those who want to prepare our soul-ground for the Word of God, and those who work always against it.

They will battle as long as there is no master who carefully cultivates the soul for the seed. In principle, the master knows exactly how to prepare, but if he is weak, or lazy, the counterforces freeze the ground of the soul. The master has to awaken to the importance of his will, and what he has to do to strengthen it. The fruits from the seed of this inner labor depend on mastering the soil of the soul. This ripening of the will is for ourselves, and for mankind as a whole.   

Rev. Ute Koenig