Scripture: Mark 4: 2-9
We use the parable of the sower as an example of Jesus’ ability to teach in language and imagery that his rural listeners intuitively understood. But are those rural scenes really meaningful to modern city-dwellers?
I chose this very well known piece of Scripture for a particular reason.
We, in “church-land”, have always made a point of saying that Jesus’ ministry was so successful in the villages of Galilee because he spoke the language that the people understood. When we think about his parables, they were about ordinary things. In this case, someone sowing a field. Other examples were people making bread (parable of the yeast); losing and finding sheep; finding a treasure chest in a field.
Down the centuries, these stories continued to resonate because most people either lived rural lives, or retained strong connections to the rural environment. But that’s no longer true. The large majority of Canadians live in cities; their families have done so for many generations. That’s true in my own family. But many people have so little connection to rural life that they don’t even know that cows provide the milk they drink. They have never even seen a sheep.
The challenge for today
How do we make Jesus and his fundamentally rural message relevant to people who live in cities? Folks who do not find that his rural parables have any resonance with them.
It may be one of the reasons that church attendance and Christian belief remain stronger in rural communities than in cities. It may be especially true, I suspect, for rural folks who attend strongly evangelical and fundamentalist churches. Their conservative voices have come to dominate society’s discussion of Christianity. For those of us who do not have fundamentalist views, this compounds the problem of making our faith accessible.
https://progressivechristianity.org/resources/the-toxic-evangelical-variant/
My approach has been to try to find 21st century analogies to the Scriptural stories. But I suspect that this is, at best, like plugging holes in a dyke. People who live in houses with gardens might reasonably relate to someone who sows a field by hand, scattering seeds as they go. But kids who live in a city highrise? Probably not.
The starry heavens
Here’s why I chose this evening’s reflection song. Stars of evening, softly gleaming. When was the last time you saw the stars? A couple of years ago, I lay on my back in the garden and counted the stars. In Guelph. I saw 12. Light pollution obscured the rest. Why would anyone in Toronto even bother to look up? There’s nothing to see.
My point is this. Societal change makes it ever harder to promote Christianity. The messages remain the same. Love God; love your neighbour as yourself. Do justice; love kindness; act with humility. But the clothes that the messages come in often look today more like Grandma’s wardrobe than Zara’s fast fashions.