Whatsoever a Man Soweth that shall he also Reap.
The sower pictured below is from a window in St Paul’s Church Causeway Head, Silloth. The bible verse he is illustrating comes from Galatians 6;7. A modern translation of the complete verse reads, ‘Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.’ The little chap in the picture is from a Victorian stained glass window, but he is depicted as the Victorian mind imagined a sower would appear in the time of Christ. Sowing and reaping are human activities that are exceedingly ancient; human beings have been sowing and reaping for as long as we have had agriculture.
At some point people of a philosophical turn of mind must have realised that ‘sowing and reaping’ was actually rather a good metaphor for all human activity, everything we do has a consequence, we reap the consequences of our own actions so we had better be careful what we sow. This little piece of wisdom is so fundamental that most religions have picked up on it, you don’t even have to be religious to realise the logic; so for instance if you are generous to others then they are more likely to be generous to you and if you are mean to others they may well be mean to you in return. If we don’t like what is coming up in our field it may well be worth considering if we, rather than others, are responsible for it growing there. As Paul writes earlier in Galatians 6, ‘each should test his own actions.’
As anyone will know who has done any sowing and reaping, be they gardener or farmer, there are other factors influencing the harvest, such as inclement weather and discouraging weeds, but it is the persistent sowing of good things that brings a good crop. We don’t always reap what we sow, and that can feel like a great injustice, hard work is not always rewarded even if it tends to be rewarded in the long term. In verse 9 Paul writes, ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’ To be honest I think we would prefer it if hard work and goodness brought a more reliable reward, the vicissitudes of this life can be hard to take. Sowing goodness does however bring its own reward, a reward that is wholly reliable, as Paul writes in chapter 5, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ Not a reward that we can bank, but one that makes us truly rich. A reward that comes from the Spirit of God and is the gift He sows in us when we turn to Him.
In October we have our Harvest Festivals, one in each church, a time to give thanks for the work of farmers and for the harvest, and to reflect on our own sowing and reaping. Everyone is welcome to come along, after-all sowing and reaping is not just Christian, or religious, it is fundamentally human.
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