Sowing Seeds

Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

--Matthew 13:8

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Newburyport,

I feel very glad that I can be here and that I can talk to you in this holiday.

First of all I would like to greet you personally, in my name, then on behalf of the group coming from Transylvania, which hereby I introduce to you. These are Borika, my wife, then Jozsef, president of our congregation, Suzy, his wife, and last, but not at last instance, my brother, Denes, standing near by me.

Besides, I would like to transmit to you the warmest greetings of my congregation, those people who, according to our expression, are staying home to keep warm the fireplace and household. Some of you already know several people from my congregation. Sanyi, Hajni, Anne, Kati, Bela, Zoli, Misi, Ilonka, Eva, Piroska send you their love and greetings.

After this I want to thank you from all of my heart for the immense effort and work you put in, making possible our present visit in the United States. I know that it took great endeavor, some sacrifices, and a lot of moral and financial support. In this way I would like to express our gratefulness for this support.

After all this, let me on this Sunday to transmit the message of God, as it percolates through my own personality, and as with all my effort I can present and portray it to you in the following parable.

I would like to confess to you that after one week's presence in the US, I feel myself as the hero, the main character of our well known Hungarian novel, The Glaucoma-blacksmith, written by Kalman Mikszath.

The story is about a blacksmith, living in a small village, doing his job and healing people suffering from glaucoma.

He had a simple sharp knife, and cut off the glaucoma from the sick eye with a natural preciseness.

After a while, all the country came to know about this brave and simple man, and his extraordinary healing skills. Then scientists and scholarly doctors invited the blacksmith to a hospital to demonstrate his skills in public. Unfortunately, one of the professors and doctors present at this demonstration first explained the very complicated anatomy of the eye and made clear that the least needless movement can hurt the patient's eye and make him or her blind for a whole life.

Needless to say our hero did not become wiser or more skillful, but scared of the possible consequences of his deeds, and gave up the idea of healing forever.

After a one week visit in your country I almost feel like the blacksmith from the above story: I changed my perspective, my former opinions about world, human beings, and the partner church relationship.

Experiencing the achievements of science and technology, the beauty of the nature of New-England, the loveliness of the people living within, the splendor of the accumulated human culture and arts, I wonder what novelty the future can bring to you and us? What is that you expect in the future? What is it that we can help to you with?

These are the thoughts and questions of a Transylvanian minister who thought of himself as somebody knowing everything that such a minister is supposed to know.

At this moment I turn my attention toward my homeland, where quite simple people, mainly farmers, perform their best for their living. This makes me deeply conscious with the parable of the sower from the Bible.

Using this parable, Jesus wanted to induce his interlocutors and disciples to understand that not only the land needs the seeds, but the human soul also needs to flourish; if not it becomes barren, similar to a piece of land full of weeds.

Taking in further consideration this parable of the sower, I think you, Unitarians from Newburyport, have the seeds, and we, Unitarians from Ujszekely, have the land, which has to be planted.

Human beings are happy when they cooperate with God in His creative work, happy when they preserve the fertility of the land. Take as an example the flowerpot. Is there anyone of you who would not feel sorry when seeing a dying flower?

Hereafter, I ask you not to regret the seeds you have sown, the effort you have invested in this partner church relationship. Do not hesitate to sow your seeds also in the future, because these seeds will not be wasted, they will be productive and alive.

The seeds of sacrifice, goodness, thoughtfulness, tolerance, friendship and love, but also the initiatives coming from the world of science, technology, arts, culture, and language, are of divine origin, highly valuable and of durable substance.

The farmer needs at the same time the seeds and the land. These two are in mutual relationship, neither can exist without the other.

Taking as a basis human life, the great farmer, sower and harvester is nobody other than God. God knows our particular life, as He knows the laws of nature and history, His laws are the frame of existence for all creatures and systems of being.

Let us thank God that as seed and land, or as land and seed we got near to each other, and in this way we can promulgate the beauty of His world. The parable of the sower and the story of the blacksmith in this way help me to refine my hope and to conduct my thoughts in a proper way. Thank God for this hope!

Amen.

Rev. Zsolt Jakab
Translation by Denes Jakab