July 12, 2020
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
INTRODUCTION
Of the four Gospel, the Gospel of Matthew is the most meticulously organized. One feature of his Gospel is that during this middle part of the Gospel, Matthew sets up five distinct discourses. The first is one of the best-known and often-quoted parts of the New Testament, the Sermon on the Mount, which outlines the basic tenets of Christian faith. Then we get what we’ve been hearing the past few weeks: the missionary discourse, instructions for the twelve apostles as they are sent out to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. Today we begin the third discourse, the “parabolic discourse” – for the next few weeks, we’ll be hearing a lot of parables.
So to set this up, let me ask you: what is a parable? Parables in the Bible are stories that teach us something about God. The word in Greek literally means, “throw alongside,” so often what you’ll see is something very common thrown alongside something else to help us understand that latter thing better. Today’s parable, for example, is the parable of the sower – an everyday image of planting, used to show us how the Word of God takes root for us. As you listen to it, think about which aspect of the story resonates with you – is it the sower, the seed, the birds, or one or more of the four types of soil?
Our first reading and Psalm are chosen to echo the planting image. Isaiah offers a poetic vision for a people in exile. He describes how all of creation praises and celebrates God for the ways God’s word waters and nourishes its growth. As you listen to that one, just hear the hope in it. Hear the joy. Let it be in this fearful times a word of hope, joy and peace for you, one that replenishes your soul.
Finally, in Romans, Paul will talk about what brings life, and what brings death. Listen for where you might find life these days. Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The other day, my sweet family and I were sitting around the dinner table, sharing with each other things that we love about each other. I love Isaac’s kindness. Isaac loves that Daddy plays cars with him. Daddy loves Grace’s creativity. When it came time for Grace to say what she loves about me, she said, “I love that Mommy teaches me about planting things.”
It’s true: during this quarantine, I decided to take the gift of time stuck at home together, and teach the kids about growing things. We read some books, we got some seeds and soil and celebrated when each little sprout poked through the dirt, we planted flowers from seed, and some flowers that were already blooming… but friends, I have to confess something. Despite Grace’s affirmation, I’m actually terrible at planting. The vegetable seeds we planted never got further than sprouting. That bucket of dirt you saw for the children’s sermon last week? Yeah, that was supposed to be peas, and you saw how well it’s doing! The flower seeds we planted never sprouted, the blooming ones mostly died, I have even managed to kill hostas and mint (yes, it IS possible), and this I’ve done on multiple occasions. I am just not a good gardener.
Though I have to say, for all my lack of success with gardening, at least I seem to know more about it than the sower in today’s parable. Because even I know that before you plant, you have make sure you have proper place for the seeds you have, proper light and water, and of course, that you have to prepare the soil. This guy, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to get any of that, least of all about preparing the soil. Instead, he walks about throwing seed willy-nilly, even though he must know that it is a waste to throw seed into thorns, or onto what amounts to a cement parking lot. He is reckless and wasteful, no model to follow for any aspiring farmer or gardener!
And I have to say, I find his method very irritating. You see, I have always been someone who carefully counts the cost. Just ask my husband about how long it takes me to order in a restaurant, as I carefully consider price, my mood, how hungry I am, and how good the leftovers will keep. I remember for one birthday when I was kid, a friend gave me a package of clay that came with instructions for how to make pottery based on Native American designs. It even came with some black paint so I could paint the designs on the side. Such a cool gift! I was delighted. But every time I looked at the package of clay in my closet, I thought, “No, not today. I might mess up, and then I will have wasted it. I should save it for a time when I am sure I will be able to make something beautiful with it. If I use it now, then I won’t have it anymore, and then I’ll be sad later that I was so reckless to use this before I was really ready to get everything out of it that I could.” See – I was careful, thoughtful, and I thought ahead. Nothing like this sower in the parable.
Well, I’d love to say my thoughtfulness, care and foresight paid off. But guess what happened to that clay, that lovely, interesting gift from my friend? I kept it – for years, until I was too old to really enjoy it anymore, and then a little longer in case my interest might return… until the clay dried up and became worthless to me. I ended up throwing it in the garbage one day many years later. I never did get to enjoy it.
How much of life passes us by like that? How many opportunities do we miss because we are afraid of not doing it right, because we are waiting for the timing to be perfect, because we want to make sure we are absolutely prepared and so we know things will go well? How many of us need to make sure the proverbial soil is perfectly tilled before we take any risks and try to make anything grow?
There are many ways to enter this parable. We can think of ourselves as the sower, being sent out to spread the good news to others. We can think of ourselves as the seed that is being spread upon the world. But my favorite way to understand this well-known parable is to think of ourselves as the soil, and God as the sower. But – we’re not always the good soil, are we? At least I’m not. Just as I sometimes miss opportunities to share the good news with others, I have also missed opportunities to receive the good news. My guess is I’m not alone in this. Sometimes it is hard to hear and receive God’s Word, because our hearts have been hardened and burned too many times before, and we’re not in a place to receive the good news of God’s grace. “Well that can’t possibly be for me,” we think. “That might work for someone else, or at a different time, but not me, and not now.” Or sometimes we hear God’s Word, but quickly let it be choked out by other things that seem more important in the moment, or by our own preferences or fears. Or we hear it, but ignore it and let it be overcome by the elements and the ways of the world.
It’s a good thing, then, that the sower is so reckless, spreading seed even on the bad, unprepared soil – so that if we miss it the first time, we will still have another chance. This parable, you see – it is a parable of abundance. It is a story about a God who throws seed out to all different kinds of soil – not because God is a bad gardener who doesn’t understand about tilling and fertilizer, but because God knows that all of that seed will do some good. The seed that gets eaten up by birds – well, at least it is feeding the birds! The seed that gets thrown among thorns – it is fertilizing the soil for future harvest.
And the seed that lands on good soil – that not only grows and thrives, but is an abundance beyond our understanding! A good harvest is one that yields between seven- and ten-fold. Jesus tells his disciples that the seed that fell on good soil yielded 30 times, 60 times, even 100 times! Surely the farmers in the audience were laughing at his absurdity – it is impossible! But God’s grace IS absurd. It often makes little sense, is not at all the way we would do things, and certainly is not, in any reasonable mind, the “best” or most efficient way to do something.
But you see, what is impossible and unreasonable with humans is possible and effective with God. Because our God is one of abundance – who throws seeds everywhere without counting the cost, who doesn’t worry that some of those seeds may not do a bit of good, and some will do good that we didn’t expect; a God who knows that some of those seeds will yield a crop that is lavishly beyond human comprehension. With God, there is always enough. There is always more than enough.
That story I told about my clay… I think I got that for my 7th birthday, and it has stuck with me for 30 years since, probably because in some ways I am still that cautious little girl who wants to be sure she has what she needs when she needs it. But I wonder: what if I received God’s abundant grace the same way I received that gift of clay? Admiring God’s grace in its package – water in a font, bread and wine, a word proclaimed, a baby in a manger, a man on a cross – and I understood what a great gift it is… but I was never willing to actually delve into it and experience the joy it brings. What if I was unwilling to take it and touch it and use it, lest I use it up and then not have it when I need or want it. Concerned that I might mess it up if I get too invested in it, and so content simply to admire it from afar. What if all that was how we viewed God’s grace?
Thanks be to God, that is not how grace works. Our God, the Sower, is a reckless God of abundance, lavishly spreading grace and love upon the world. Some will receive it with joy, and bear fruit in absurd amounts. Some will not be ready to receive it – yet. But the seed keeps coming. The grace keeps coming. It never runs out, and it is never wasted. It may not make sense to us, but that is the way of our abundant God of grace.
Let us pray… Reckless Sower, thank you for throwing more and more grace our way, until we are ready to receive it. When we do, help us to bear fruit 100-fold. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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