Fourteenth Day of Lent

Fourteenth Day of Lent

Thursday, March 16, 2017

The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you. . . .
Luke 8:10a

Aren’t these wonderful words? We love secrets, and in this passage Jesus tells his disciples that a time-hidden secret is about to be revealed to them – knowledge of the kingdom of God!

Can’t we imagine how excited they were, with what anticipation they leaned forward to hear what this wonderful secret was going to be? And then he began to tell them about farmers! The kingdom of God is like farmers? Surely they had misunderstood!

No, his message is very clear. The kingdom of God is about sowing and planting and tending and harvesting. Every step is important, and every person on the farm team is important! If one step is omitted, the crop will be diminished. And if all steps are completed carefully and successfully, but the final step is omitted, the whole farm fails!

The last step is harvest. We don’t mind being sowers of the seed; we don’t even mind tending or nurturing; but that last step is the one that we don’t like. We call it evangelism, a word we are afraid of. It’s a process, and every step is critically important to success. Bringing in the crop is a joyful thing to a farmer, the evidence of his success in all the previous steps. We need to learn to harvest or we’ll never realize the joy God has in store for us in the kingdom.

That’s the secret! The kingdom of God is like farming – planting, tending, and harvesting!

Prayer: Father, farming is hard work! Teach us to be good planters, good tenders, good nurturers, and good reapers. Teach us to be effective, obedient citizens in the kingdom of God. Amen.

And He Set His Face toward Jerusalem. . . .

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2007,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator