Sowing Seeds

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 10 – Year A

July 13, 2014

Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!

"Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

One of the things we are doing in our family, that doesn't make our lives easier, but we hope is teaching our girls a lesson is recycling as much as we can. We collect all our plastic, our cardboard, our tin, and our glass together in a central location in our house. Now, in Cedar Falls, they don't have curbside pickup of recycling, so we have to load up all our stuff in the car and drive it to one of the local recycling drop-off points. Teaching our girls that it's important to take care of our world isn't just a political or cultural thing, at the core of why we do it is a theological understanding.

In the beginning, when Adam and Eve were still wandering around in the garden of Eden, they were given the responsibility of caring for the garden, for all creation. God didn't take away that calling when the garden was taken away. We are still called to care for all the things that God has created for us to live with and in. Without a doubt there are things we use from the world, we use the water, the wood, the oil and natural gas. But, we are called not just to use it, we are called to be stewards of it. Being a steward means we are to also care for it, and ensure that we are using all the things God has given to us in the best way possible; for ourselves and for the generations that will follow us here.

The concept that we are supposed to care for the things we have, that a great majority of the things we have will not last forever is important. It's a lesson that impacts many different parts of our lives. We tell our kids not to waste things. Not to waste the food on their plate; like at a buffet, you only take what you know you are going to eat. Even so, “In the United States, 31 percent—or 133 billion pounds—of the 430 billion pounds of the available food supply at the retail and consumer levels in 2010 went uneaten!”¹ I'm not sure how many people that could feed, but if you do the math that means that if we assume there are 8 billion people in the world that the United States could have provided an additional almost 7 pounds of food to every person on the planet, just from the food we waste.

We are careful about the things we do. For pretty much all of us, we know that there is a limit to the amount of money we can spend. We have to have budgets, and follow them. We have to be careful. As much as we might love our sweets, our pies and cakes, our candies, we know that there is a limit to how much we can eat. There is a price to be paid if we aren't careful with our diet – either in exercise, or in additional holes in our belts. We give our kids a treat, and tell them they need to be careful, because that's all they get; once it's gone they aren't getting any more for a long time.

Stewardship of our resources, conservation, caring for the things we have or receive is important. Understanding the necessity to plan for what we have is necessary. When you are going to cook something, you want to make sure you have enough of the ingredients. When you are going to build something, you want to make sure you have all the supplies; enough to finish the project. We know how much we need, how much we will likely have leftover. We've done all the work ahead of time. We've done all the preparation. If you are going to have a garden, you plan. You have to think about how big it's going to be, what you are going to grow. You have to purchase the right seeds and plants, you have to prepare the ground – make sure it will let things grow. Only after you have done all the prep work will you actually get to planting the seeds and plants; to have not prepared for it is to essentially waste the seeds and plants you have invested in. If you are going to do something, you want to do all you can to make sure it succeeds.

In recent years, one of the things that has become common in the church is the necessity to do a whole lot of groundwork and planning before embarking on a new venture. If you are starting a new mission outreach, a new church, a membership drive, it's not uncommon to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars and hours doing research and planning. What is the demographic you want to reach? Where does that demographic live? What is the best way to reach them? How many other people have tried and failed? How has that demographic group grown or shrunk in previous years, and what is it expected to do in the coming years? What form of marketing will be most effective, have the desired result? Only after all those questions, and many more have been answered do you move forward with the plan. If you are going to invest all the time, money and energy into something, you want to make sure you are going to get the result you are looking for.

Which brings us to our text. I think most of the time when we think about this parable, we focus on the different types of ground. We look at the various ways in which the seed of the gospel is received or rejected. We then try to recognize those same groups of people around us. We may even think about how we can go out and do different things to change the ground, to impact those who would normally reject; do some preparation so that the gospel can more easily take root. There is a great deal to think about there. But, today, I want us to think about the sower and the seed that is being sown.

This is a parable, and in the parables of Jesus different characters and parts are normally understood to represent something much greater than itself. Sometimes, we are challenged to interpret the hidden meanings within the parable; and sometimes, as in this case, we are given a key to understanding it. The seed being sown is the gospel, the good news, the message of love and salvation and the growth that occurs is the response to the sharing of the gospel – it doesn't take root, it grows quickly then dies, it grows weakly, or it produces abundant growth. Now, the identity of the one sowing the gospel isn't identified – it could be God, it could be Jesus, it could be the disciples. I like to think that it represents each and every one of us in whom the seed has taken root and grown. This parable is about evangelism.

Evangelism in some circles has gotten a bad name. Let's face it, how excited are we when Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, or other well-meaning folks show up on our doorsteps? How do we respond to the people handing out tracts at the entrances to festivals or malls? Even though I love God, I love my faith, I get a little annoyed; and when I have the chance I tend to try and avoid an encounter. But, I often don't just avoid those who are trying to evangelize me, I also avoid sharing my faith with others, and often I'm not even aware of doing it. It goes back to those demographic studies and plans. We carefully do demographic and community studies, we seek out specific types of people, we craft our outreach to be attractive to a specific targeted audience. We do the same thing on a personal level, being (perhaps overly) cautious about who we talk to about our faith, who we reach out to, who we invite to our services. When we carefully choose who we evangelize, we are also carefully excluding others. We are choosing where and when we are going to be spreading the seed of the gospel.

How does that match up with the actions of the sower in our parable? How much prep work did they do? How much time did they spend doing demographic studies, thinking about who would be most likely to respond favorably to the message? Obviously, there is a huge difference. The sower sows, the gospel is spread with apparent disregard for the situations of those who are receiving it. There were no demographic studies made, there seemed to be no thoughts about the type of people they wanted to attract, there were no thoughts about how future members would be able to contribute to the financial or communal life of the group. There were no thoughts about if they would fit, if they would get along with others. The gospel was spread about freely and liberally, there was no conservation of the seed. So, why is there a difference?

I think it comes down to the way we think about our faith. That is to say, we think of faith as being ours, as a possession that we have, something we need to take care of and cultivate. Faith becomes a treasure that we have received. It becomes something we have placed a value on, something that we think we can hold onto, something tangible; and if it is tangible, it must have limits of some kind. Could it run out, do we need to conserve it, be good stewards of it? Do we need to be careful about who we share it with, in case we run out? Obviously not!

How contrary our actions often are to the reality we all know. The seed we have is precious, but it will not run out. We do not need to carefully measure out where we will sow it, we don't need to be worried about running out, having to get more, about wasting the seed. Waste is worrying about the results first and foremost, not trusting in the quality of the product that is being shared. If this parable is about the seed and sower, it declares that God does not predetermine who is worthy of receiving the good news, who is good soil. All soil is worthy, and so the seed is sown. What an image, God sees us all as good soil, (places of potential growth) regardless of how rocky or choked with weeds we may be.

God sees us as good soil, even though we may be choked with weeds, even though we all have places that are far more filled with rocks and stones than good earth. It is because God sees us this way that Jesus came to walk amongst us, and deliver us in the first place. It is because of this love God has for us that the seed is sown so widely. We all know that the love of God is limitless, that it will not run out. So too, the seed of hope that is shared with others. It is not our responsibility to determine who is worth sharing our faith with. It is not our job to determine who has or hasn't heard the gospel message. It is not our responsibility to determine the chances of someone's responding positively to the gospel message.

Our responsibility is two: to grow, and to sow. We are called to grow in faith, to grow the seed that has been planted within us. To nurture it with prayer, and scripture, to care for it by providing it with others to grow with, to give it moments when it is challenged to grow and respond. And, we are called to sow. We are called to share the gospel message with the world. This need not be terrifying. One of my favorite quotes is, “Share the good news with others at all times, and when necessary use words.” Sharing our faith is best done when we are in loving service to others, when we are modeling the love that we have experienced in acts of love for others.

That is our calling, that is our charge, that is our privilege and our joy. May we come to discover that joy more fully, may we know the unending love of God more deeply, and may we sow the seed with reckless abandon as a sign of that unending love. Amen.

1http://endhunger.org/food_waste.htm