Matthew 12:1-9, 18-23
7-16-23
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| The Sower Vincent Van Gogh |
Parables are tough. Especially
Jesus’s parables.
They’re metaphors.
They show a point by telling a
story.
And sometimes the point of the
story isn’t all that clear.
And it’s even harder for us today because
a lot
of the metaphors Jesus uses rely
on information
or references that the people then
shared and we do not.
But
this week Jesus tells them this story about growing things.
Fortunately, how things grow or
don’t grow hasn’t changed
too much since Jesus has been
around,
so we can understand this one
pretty well.
And we get a rare gift in the
gospels:
Jesus explains the parable to his
disciples.
So a farmer goes out and spreads seeds
on different terrains.
A path, rocky areas, a place with
thorns, and good soil.
Jesus tells us that the seeds are
the Word of God.
And there are four types of people
outlined in the parable:
Those who don’t understand the
word of the kingdom.
Those who receive it with joy but
it doesn’t take root.
Those who hear it, but worry too
much about the cares of the world
and so it doesn’t amount to
anything.
And those who hear it and it grows and it bears fruit.
So,
there it is. Jesus has done it for us.
Nothing
much for me to do except lay it all out there.
My job is done this morning.
Amen.
Except, I have some questions that I would
like to have asked if I was there
with Jesus that day.
I’m really interested in that
soil.
Isn’t
there anything we can do about the soil?
-Can we make it better?
-Can we cultivate it? Improve it?
-can we, metaphorically speaking, put
some dirt on top of those rocks
- Can we go and take out some of
the thorns?
-Once you’re bad soil are you just
bad soil?
-Are some people just hopeless?
-And who is bad soil and who is
good?
-How can I tell who is good and who is bad?
so that I don’t waste seeds?
-And
Jesus, which one am I?
-Because some days I feel like I’m
that good soil.
-But some days I think I’m that rocky ground
-And some days the thorns come in.
-And some days it just depends on the hour of the day.
So
I have a lot of questions about all that soil.
I
think the temptation we have when we hear this parable
is to make this into
“the parable of the soil.”
But it’s important
to remember that this is
called “The Parable
of the Sower”.
Jesus even gives it
that name, which is rare
in the world of parables.
So we should pay
attention to the sower.
Whenever we garden,
we spend a lot of
time on our soil.
We mix nutrients
into it, we till it.
We make sure it’s
the correct place for sun exposure.
We make sure it’s
ready for the seeds.
And then we put
seeds or plants in carefully.
We do it very
intentionally and purposefully.
We
sow our seeds with prudence.
Cautiously, sparingly, we
have limits.
We don’t just put them anywhere.
We don’t want to waste them.
But
look what this crazy sower in the parable does.
He’s got some seeds, these
precious seeds,
and he throws them all over the
place.
He’s
not worrying where they land.
Good soil or bad soil. Rocks or
dirt.
And
this was at a time that you couldn’t talk to the Burpee dealer
and purchase more seeds if you
needed them.
Each seed was cultivated by the
sower.
Seeds were precious and limited
things then.
But still the sower in this parable
throws the seeds everywhere.
The sower is not thwarted by the
failure.
He just keeps throwing those seeds
around.
I
want to break in right now
and tell you about my saga of
gardening.
Most of my adult life, I lived in
apartments.
Texas was my first ever house with a yard,
but it was too hot and most people
didn’t
grow vegetables in their gardens.
So when we bought a house in Columbus,
one of the first things I did was
to plan a garden.
A friend of
ours picked the spot with me
and I started the garden in 2013.
I did
everything that you were supposed to do
tilling, adding, things to the
soil.
Things were looking good at first.
But the
first year, I planted too many things
in my plot and I got a bunch of beautiful
leaves
and not a lot else. But I learned
and I started
again the next year. And the next.
Every year I would start with big
hopes and things would look good
and by July, I would have a bunch
of leaves and a lot of
sweat and tears and not much a lot
to show for it.
I did this five years in a row. It
got worse every year.
Some
people blamed it on the walnut tree
on the corner of our property.
But realistically, the neighbors
all have great gardens.
And I had the soil tested and they
said it was fine.
So one year,
I gave up and I planted sunflowers.
Which seemed to like whatever I’ve
done to the soil there.
But
I couldn’t stop. The next year I picked
another plot of land, on the opposite
side of the walnut tree
And
I thought I had a good start.
Then the bugs at the pepper
plants.
And the birds ate my string bean
plants.
Actually I’ve started the string beans six times in one year,
seed after seed,
And something happened to each
plant.
But I had a
cucumber starting!
And
a few strawberries in the pot.
But then a deer came and ate lots
of it and
the cucumbers and the strawberry
plant.
And so I
bought a tent and put it over the yard.
And replanted the cucumbers and
the strawberry
and another pepper and some more
green bean seeds AGAIN
But the tomatoes got some kind of
wilt and I lost
three of the four of them.
And realistically nothing else good happened.
Just a lot of leaves and nothing
else.
And then we moved here.
But before we knew we were moving, I was making big plans
for the next year. Eight years I
tried to grow
a garden, I think in total for all
those 8 years,
I’ve gotten one basket of
vegetables.
Now, I don’t usually like to put myself
in the role of prime example in my
sermons.
But just to be honest, I am like
that sower!
I
keep trying and trying and gardening with reckless abandon
Not looking at the cost.
(I’m NOT looking at how much all
that cost).
As many times as I’ve failed, I
keep trying.
I am the sower! BE like me!
But
of course, in the end,
Jesus is
not talking about gardening.
Jesus is talking about people
and Jesus is talking about God.
I
wish I approached every person
the way I approached my task of
gardening.
I wish I looked at people with
renewed hope,
and without regard for past
experience.
I wish I shared grace and love and
the Gospel like that.
I wish I looked at every person anew instead
of judging them by what the last
person like them did.
I wish I
was as forgiving as that sower
when it came to other people.
But I’m not.
Like most
people, I judge people by what they look like,
and where they come from, and by
my past experiences
with people who look and act like
them.
I make decisions about who I want
to spend time on
and who I want to share the good
news with and with
based on all sorts of perceptions
that are often not valid.
I am stingy with my seeds
But God just throws those seeds of love out there
ham-fisted willy-nilly without
thinking much about the results.
God gives that love to people who
deserve it and
those who don’t just the same.
That is the grace of the sower.
That is the abundance God.
God's
grace doesn’t calculate the best choice
it
doesn’t hedge its bets on who’s worthy and who’s not.
It
doesn’t determine who’s bore fruit in the past,
who
will be the best and the brightest.
God
just throws grace around with wild abandon.
Our creator is
not worried where the seeds go,
just
that the seeds keep falling on everyone.
Remember,
Jesus was preparing the disciples to send them out.
He’s telling them, showing them, “don’t
worry where the seeds fall.
Just worry that the seeds keep
falling.”
Don’t count how many seeds you
drop on thieves,
tax collectors, prostitutes, Pharisees,
gentiles and other people that
seem unworthy.
Don’t
worry about whether people seem like good soil or not.
Just
keep the seeds coming.
There
will always be more when you look in the bag.
That is the
parable of the sower.
The
ground that we work in may seem rocky or thorny,
it may
seem hopeless and like no one is listening.
But God will not give up on us.
God will
continue to spread those seeds, confident
that they will take root in us and
in time
will yield a wonderful harvest.
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