Rabbits in the Field

I’ll chase a rabbit down any trail, and God knows that the Bible gives me plenty of rabbits and plenty of trails. This week was no exception. I discovered that there’s a century-old debate over whether the fields at the time of Jesus were plowed before or after seeds were scattered. Today, most commentators will acknowledge that either method was possible, and many wonder if it even makes a difference in what Jesus sought to communicate in the Parable of the Sower. Frankly, after I finished chasing that rabbit, I wondered as well.

I walked away from that odd fact and picked up an article by Theodore Wardlaw, a pastor and former president of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He recalls touring the city’s justice system with a group of civic leaders, and their final visit landed at a juvenile detention center. As they passed down a bleak hall lined with steel doors, a pair of young eyes rose up to meet his own. He stopped, leaned close, and whispered, “God loves you.” According to Wardlaw, those eyes did not seem to register anything, and Wardlaw has wondered ever since whether the words fell on soft soil or landed among thorns. “I will never know,” he writes.

And the rabbit suddenly jumped into my lap.

The sower in the parable flings seed everywhere, to the point that it almost looks reckless. The fact is, however, that if plowing occurs after the scattering, then the spot where the seed lands doesn’t necessarily have the last word. The sower can afford to be lavish, to scatter and move on, because the work of the field is ongoing. Wardlaw's words, “God loves you,” may have fallen on hard ground, but hard ground is not the same thing as hopeless ground. Some children grow up surrounded by love, healthy relationships, and people who help them learn to trust. Others inherit lives marked by neglect, violence, instability, or loneliness. They did not choose the care they received, any more than a patch of earth chooses the hands that tend it. If the ground has never been cared for, the seed is not the problem, but perhaps neither is the ground.

I've often heard the Parable of the Sower taught as an invitation to examine the condition of our own hearts. There is wisdom in that, but I wonder if the parable also teaches us to notice the fields around us. God scatters grace with astonishing generosity, and perhaps Jesus would have us pay attention to where that grace lands. Some soil has already been softened by love and encouragement, while other soil has never known those gifts.

As people who have experienced God's abundant grace, we share the good news of God's love as if it were an endless supply of seeds. It is! The remaining work is to notice where those seeds land. My rabbit trail this week reminded me that there may be more than one way to help a seed become a harvest. Sometimes we arrive before the seed, and we can help prepare the ground. Sometimes we arrive after the seed has landed, and we are then invited to tend the field where God has already begun to work. The kingdom grows through the faithfulness of many hands. So, we tend the fields where God places us...no matter how many rabbit trails run through them.