Reckless Generosity – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Mark 4:1-20
When gardening or farming, one plans what to plant and where with preparation, precision,, irrigation, and protection so seeds may thrive. Jesus catches our attention with this one who casts seeds recklessly such that some fell where birds ate them, where shoots sprang up but quickly withered, where thorns grew alongside and chocked them, as well as where they bore fruit. No one plants like this, in places with little chance of survival. No one is so reckless.
God is no ordinary gardener. God is reckless with generosity, sowing love everywhere, including in the face of rejection.
My guess is you, too, have loved like this. There are times you continued to show up, listen, and provide even when a person wouldn’t turn toward you or did so only briefly before turning away. Remember doing this with children, family or others.
Remember, too, being on the receiving end. Remember when you were loved by friend, teacher or parent, yet soon turned away perhaps from hurt, self-focus, or distraction. Sometimes we receive love and let it grow, and other times we are too limited, without enough depth and courage to withstand wounds. We’re seared like the sun, burned by criticism or fear. We have loved like this reckless gardener, and we have rejected such love.
We also vary in our response through life. We are not just one soil. God gives us freedom to keep choosing day by day. God does not make us receptive, and God does not rejects us when we turn away. God keeps coming, sowing that loving Word in us.
If you or your neighbor or the world seem stuck and hard set in self-promotion, scorched by criticism, or choked by hurt, hear the good news. God comes sowing the Word including to hard hearts. God keeps inviting for fruitfulness in the long-view. God loves you with persistent, reckless generosity.
Dear Br. Luke, Ice and snow outside and I have to go out,. Still trailing the remnants of COVID so would like to be resting!! I shall carry this assurance with me all day. Thank you. Margo
What a powerful message. I have reread it several times and there is still much to unpack. A new angle– that I have loved like this and also that I have received love like this. The Sower keeps giving. Thank you.
I pray that I may not turn away from God’s love today. Thank you, Brother Luke.
Sometimes even the seed that falls in rocky ground sprouts; in fact, God’s counting on it! Thanks for that insightful reminder of God’s reckless generosity, Brother Luke.
Hallelujah! I need to frame this. Thank you for this joyous message, Br Luke!
Dear Brother Luke, thank you for this wonderful reminder of the abundance of God. Isn’t it astounding that God gives us the freedom to choose day after day? And astounding that we can be changed from rocky, arid soil to the finest, fertile loam simply by turning our hard hearts to God and saying “yes, I will follow you.”