Mark:: The Sower

This Sunday we're going to be talking about the Parable of the Sower, or as I knew it as a youth "AM I GOOD SOIL WILL I DIE TONIGHT OH PLEASE DONT LET ME SUFFER FOR ETERNITY". 

Ok,maybe that was a little bit dramatic, but the parable really did fill me with a low level of anxiety. 

The story Jesus tells is about someone throwing out seed on soil and only one particular patch of soil actually goes on to flourish while much of it never gets started or quickly dies. I was really interested in discovering how I could be good soil and how I could maintain my place in the "Good Soil Society". 

The ultimate Christian aim in the world I grew up in was to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is beautiful in so many ways and is still a reason we take the bread individually when we do communion at Cascade. There's a very personal aspect to our faith journey. One area of faith that can be ignored in that world is the communal nature of faith. How does my understanding of Christianity help me understand my place in this world and relationally to other people? 

I'm starting to explore Jesus and Christianity in relationship to the social, corporate and political structures of our current context and of Jesus' context. What if there are structures in this world that serve as a kind of soil that we often don't choose but currently find ourselves in? Can these systems choke out a spiritual life that is all around us? Could God's design of the peaceful thriving of all people be compromised in certain systems in relationship to others?

I think about the spirituality many of us observed in the film "Harriet" this past week about Harriet Tubman. How did being a slaveowner impact your understanding of Christ vs your understanding as a slave? Maybe this rotates the conversation to include personal relationship with Christ as well as illuminating the cultural and societal impacts we're sitting in every day.