This Sunday we come to the Parable of the Sower in our series in Mark. Many of you may be very familiar with this parable, but that raises precisely the sort of problems Jesus is addressing: the "I already knew that" of the hardened path, the suffering that withers us in the rocky soil, the "deceitfulness of riches" which chokes us with thorns... Yes, this is a famous and known image. But the questions that hit me hardest are the ones underlying Jesus' imagery here: Where is my fruit? Why is joyfulness such a struggle for me? What does that reveal about the "soil" of my heart? Jesus doesn't tell this story to slam us, nor does he tell it to make us merely passive. It is a warning, but it's a warning designed to bring us into greater, ongoing joy. How do we get that? Let's talk about feeling "Fruitless?" (Mark 4:1-20).
