RBWords

     I have preached in many different venues from Alaska to Florida over the course of my years as a Dominican friar.  This has included forest, desert and even in a large sailboat on the water, but I've never had to sit in a fishing boat and preach to people standing on the shore!  There were no megaphones in that day, so one wonders how Jesus was able to get his message across!  The parable he tells on this occasion of the sower and the seed could come true just in that venue.  

     Those in the crowd can ask themselves what kind of "soil" they are: path, rocky, thorny or fertile?  But there is another side to the parable of the sower and the seed.   Jesus preached with parables and images that were meant to challenge people to ask about how his teachings touched their everyday lives.  The harder the ground, the harder the challenge is.  As Jesus points out, there are a lot of environmental things that can impede understanding about his message.  Even his close disciples seemed to have trouble navigating what he was trying to say.  Preachers have to be persistent and consistent in preaching but they also have to be wise in understanding what the audience is working with or against in their lives of faith!  Although there have been some top-down efforts in the church to improve the quality of preaching, nothing works better than the audience telling the preacher that he just isn't "getting it" about them and their needs.  There ARE ears to hear, and the cultural, social and political environment may be difficult,  but is the messenger also paying attention?  If it takes sitting in a boat and shouting at people on the shore, then that's what has to be done. Just make sure it's worth shouting!   AMEN