“THE SOW AND SO LAW”
GENESIS 18:1-15 & 21:1

18:1 And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks [1] of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.
2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth
3 and said, “O Lord, [2] if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.
4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree,
5 while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs [3] of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.”
10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.
12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”
13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’
14 Is anything too hard [4] for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
15 But Sarah denied it, [5] saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

21:1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.

Murphy’s Law. Everyone knows all about Murphy’s Law right? According to Murphy’s Law if something can go wrong it will. The other day I found a web site that had a lot of information on Murphy’s Law and a lot of other lesser known laws. For example, have you ever heard of Statler’s Law? Statler’s states that there are 32 points to a compass, which means there are 32 directions that a spoon can squirt a grapefruit; yet, the juice almost always flies in the direction of the nearest human eye. Then there’s the MIST Law, also known as the Man In The Street Law. It states that at any given moment the number of people watching you is in direct proportion to the stupidity of your actions. Or how about the Margaret Meade Law of Human Migration. Margaret Meade of course was the famous anthropologist. Her law states that half the human population doesn’t want their mother-in-law within walking distance of their domicile. Here’s one more for you. Wood’s Law is pretty straight forward. If at first you don’t succeed, why try again?

Jesus and his followers also had a law that you could call the Sow and So Law. That’s sow, S-O-W and so, S-O. You’ll find the Sow and So Law in the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. “As you sow, so shall you reap.” It makes sense. If you sow or plant flowers that’s what you’ll get. If you sow or plant crabgrass that’s what you’ll get. The Sow and So Law also works for life in general. If you sow or plant kindness eventually you will reap a harvest of love and compassion.


If you’re not sure about that just look at what happened to Abraham. Abraham did a good deed and it came back to him in a way that he never expected. It all started while Abraham was sitting under that oak tree. He saw those three strangers walking toward him. Now Abraham could have just waved and wished them well. Instead of doing that though he ran to them and urged them to stay with him. Abraham then went and told his servant to prepare a fatted calf and his wife Sarah to bake a few loaves of bread.

By the way, this visit that Abraham had with those three strangers is actually mentioned in the New Testament. If you turn to the 13th chapter of the Book of Hebrews you’ll find these words, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. “

That’s what happened to Abraham. Those strangers turned out to be angels and they brought with them a incredible message from God. The message was that Abraham and Sarah were going to be blessed with a little bundle of joy. The message was that Abraham and Sarah were going to be blessed with a child. Despite their advanced years they were going to be blessed with a son. As you sow, so shall you reap. In God’s world no good deed ever goes unrewarded.

In order for the Sow and So Law to work though you have to rise above the me mentality that is so common these days. You have to go beyond the mantra that says the most important thing is to always look out for #1. You have to break out of the mindset that always asks the question, “What’s in it for me?”

You can see that way of thinking in a story that a woman submitted a while back to Reader’s Digest. The story was about the woman’s mother who was notorious for having a lead foot. Her mother was always getting pulled over. So, it didn’t surprise the woman when her mother got pulled over one day by a Georgia State trooper. Her mother pretended to be shocked and chagrined and did her best to get out of a speeding ticket. “Officer,” she said meekly. “I’ve never been stopped like this before.” The officer smiled. “I see,” he said. “What do they usually do, ma’am? Shoot the tires out?”

In order for the Sow and So Law to work you have to rise above the me mentality that is so common these days. Only then can God’s grace and goodness go to work and eventually bring your deeds of love and kindness back to you. You probably noticed though that I said eventually. I said eventually because the Sow and So Law isn’t like a lot of other laws like the Law of Gravity. That law is instantaneous. If you jump out of an airplane your descent to the ground is going to be instantaneous.

That’s not the way it works with the Sow and So Law. It isn’t always instantaneous. More often than not you have to for God to send your deeds of love and kindness back to you. You might have to wait until tomorrow or next week or next month or next year for it to happen. That another reason why it’s hard sometimes to follow the Sow and So Law. We live in a world of instant gratification. We want our payoffs, our rewards and our pleasures to be immediate.

You can see that in the little boy who surprised a lot of people one morning in the middle of his father’s sermon. The father had been invited to preach at a nearby church and his parents wanted their five year old son to be on his best behavior. So, they decided to offer him a little bribe. The deal was simple. If he behaved himself they promised to take him to McDonald’s after the service. Well, everything went along just fine until the father asked a serious question in the middle of his sermon. “Sisters and brothers,” he said, “where do you think those who live a good and pure and honest life before the Lord are going to go?” Immediately, the little boy stood up in the pew and with all the fervor of an old time revival meeting hollered, “To McDonald’s!”

The Sow and So Law promises that God will eventually send the love and kindness that you give to others back to you. Sometimes it just takes a little while. Sometimes it even takes years. Mark Medoff is a writer who among other things wrote the screenplay for the movie “Children Of A Lesser God.” Do you remember that movie? Marlee Matlin played a deaf woman in the movie and won the 1986 Oscar for Best Actress. As I said, Mark Medoff wrote the screenplay for the movie and because of his fame he was invited back to his high school to speak to the drama class. It had been many years since he’d roamed the halls of the Miami Beach High School. So, after he finished his speech he asked the drama teacher if any of his old English teachers were still there. It turned out there was just one, an elderly teacher named Irene Roberts. Mark Medoff wrote, “I was no one special in Miss Roberts’ class – just another jock who did okay work. I don’t recall any one special bit of wisdom she passed on. Yet I cannot forget her respect for language, for ideas and for her students.” So, he asked the drama teacher if he could see her for a moment. After a short walk down a couple of halls Mark Medoff found himself standing face to face once again with Miss Roberts. “I’m Mark Medoff,” he said, “You were my 12th grade English teacher in 1958.” She didn’t recognize him. So, in that awkward moment the only thing he was able to say was, “I want you to know…you were important to me.” Looking back on that moment he wrote, “And there in the hallway, this slight and lovely woman, now nearing retirement age, this teacher who doesn’t remember me, begins to weep; and she encircles me in her arms…and through her tears whispers against my cheek, ‘Thank you.’ And then, with the briefest of looks into my forgotten face, she disappears back into her classroom, returns to what she has done thousands of days through all the years of my absence.”

I believe with all my heart that God is great and good is good. I believe with all my heart that God’s grace is from everlasting to everlasting. That’s why I know that the Sow and So Law is real. Somehow, someway God will take the love and the compassion that you give and bring it back to you. That’s what happened one day to an English teacher at the Miami Beach High school. It’s what happened to an old man who showed three strangers a little hospitality. God can and will do the same thing for you. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
June 15, 2008