This week I read Mark chapter 4. The parables of seeds.\r\n\r\nThere was enough in the first parable (“… of the sower”) to keep me puzzling for a long time …\r\n\r\n(are ALL parables really like this as says Jesus? and did Jesus’ theology came fully formed, day one, sermon one, or did it develop over three years? and so on)\r\n\r\n… so that I almost missed the second parable as I got up to leave -\r\n\r\n- “… of the man with seeds in his pocket”.\r\n\r\nThe story is simple enough. A man takes seeds out of his pocket and throws them to the ground. He goes home, goes to bed, gets up, goes to bed, gets up, and guess what, the seeds grow. How? He doesn’t know. The seeds, and the earth, together, produce life – shoots, stalks, harvest.\r\n\r\nUnlike in the first parable, the man in the second parable is just a man, not a farmer, so there’s no confusion that it’s the seed and the soil that do the work, not the skill of the man.\r\n\r\nThe man just throws the seeds out of his pocket.\r\n\r\nWhatever else you might think this story shows, we could probably agree that seeds in the pocket are no good. Seeds have to be in the ground.\r\n\r\nSo …\r\n\r\nThis week I have been throwing seeds out of my pockets.\r\n\r\nA letter here. A meeting there. A phone call. A conversation. A prayer. \r\n\r\nIt turns out that my pockets are full of seeds. It was a surprise. I usually spend so long trying to grow trees in my pockets that I couldn’t see the seeds for the trees, and hadn’t realised that there were other seeds to sow, and that …\r\n\r\n… the Kingdom of God works this way.\r\n\r\nAnd for more on fruit see Seasonal Fruit