On Sunday the results get scattered out. I can see that some of you are preoccupied with your own thoughts and do not hear a word I am saying. Some listen and thank me for my words but forget all of them by the end of the day. But every now and then some one will quote to me a sermon I preached eight years ago that began a process that changed his life. Preaching is a highly inefficient enterprise akin to scatter sowing.
Nature is no more efficient.
One is struck by the profusion and thriftlessness of nature, as she sows the seed of life over the face of the earth. Even in dealing with the principle of life, which is so precious, she is reckless and her ruthlessness creates a grave moral mystery, as dark as her cruelty, or her indifference to ideals. It is extraordinary that Jesus not only faced this fact, but carried it over into the spiritual life. Even the Divine Sower saw how many of his words were wasted, and how few of those who listened, heard. Looking into the swarthy faces of the people about him, and reading their hearts, he divided them into four classes only one of which was fruitful.