Isaiah 55.10-13                                                                                                                                      Carol A. Solovitz

Psalm 65.9-14                                                                                                                                        Pentecost 8A

Romans 8.1-11                                                                                                                                      July 10, 2005

Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23

 

 

Listen!  A Sowing Lesson

               

 

 There once was a family that decided to plant a garden in their big yard.  They started by drawing a diagram of how the garden would be laid out.  They tilled the soil and mixed in compost.  Then they planted seeds in neat little rows.  As the weeks went on, they diligently pulled weeds and thinned the seedlings, watered and built up the soil, and waited for flowers and fruit.  A good harvest takes good soil, good seed, the gift of time, and patient waiting.  Alas!  There were others watching for the fruit, too – birds, rabbits, woodchucks, chipmunks, deer and raccoons who ate the fruits of the family’s hard labor.  That family sticks to growing flowers now, but sometimes even those are eaten before they can be enjoyed by human eyes.  My family remembers the time that we grew the most beautiful crop of apples on our backyard tree.  We decided that we would spend Saturday together and pick them, but on Friday night, vandals took the entire crop.  Take it from a gardener, folks:  Gardening has its share of hazards.

Jesus knew that.  Matthew 13.1-9 is the first parable that he told.  He talked about a subject with which his listeners were quite familiar.  They knew all about planting and soil and harvest and hazards.  How strange that this teacher spoke to them of farming; they were expecting a sermon on the Scriptures.  But Jesus was giving them a lesson as a biblical soil specialist, for he was teaching them not about seeds or those who sow the seeds, but about soil.

This parable is framed by the word, “Listen!”  It was a huge crowd that came to hear Jesus by the Sea of Galilee that day.  There were so many people that he sat in a boat offshore so that they could all see and hear him.  I imagine there must have been a lot of pushing and shoving and murmuring in the crowd.  Jesus got their attention, “Listen!”  Then he told this familiar parable that we call “The Sower and the Seed,” but which is better titled, “Know Your Soil.”  Listen!  He says to them. You can plant the best of seeds but if you plant them on the path, the birds will come and eat them up.  If you plant them on rocky ground, where there is not much soil, they will spring up but when the midday sun hits them, their roots will scorch, and they will wither away.  If you plant good seed in soil where thorns abound, the thorns will choke out the good plants.  Take your good seed and plant it in good soil, and you will have grain – a harvest of a hundredfold, or maybe sixty or thirty times the seed you planted.  “Let anyone with ears listen.”

There is that word again, “listen”.  But what are we supposed to hear?  We’ve come expecting a solid biblical sermon, and instead, we get a sowing lesson.   We are confused.  The crowd is confused.  Jesus’ disciples are confused.  What can we learn about God from this sowing lesson?

To the casual observer, Jesus’ parable seems like a story of waste and failure.  The growth of the seeds is more accidental than planned, and the harvest honestly is not all that impressive.  Yet, considering all that the seed has going against it, any harvest is close to miraculous.  Despite the sad end of most of the seed, some of it does germinate.   This is good seed under difficult growing conditions.  It is true that sometimes there is bad seed, such as the drunken, deadbeat father who said to his son after beating him to a pulp, “I’ve taught you everything I know, and you’re still a loser!”  Bad seed raising more bad seed.  But when it is good seed, the kind Jesus was planting, and the weather has been favorable, crop failure can be blamed only on the soil.

Jesus spoke in riddles that we call parables, and the people just did not understand, so he had to prepare them – work the soil – until they could receive the Word and let it grow within them.  Jesus and his disciples were the sowers; God’s Word was the seed; the hearers were the various types of soil.

So what makes the soil good?  It is rich and well-nourished.  It is not overcrowded or cluttered with rocks, so that the roots can sink deep.  It is clean; thorns and weeds are cleared away.  It is not overused and so hard and worn that the seed will not sink in.  It is not over-watered [or watered down] so that the seed drowns.  Good soil is ready.

I suspect that many of us here would qualify as “good soil”.  Oh, yes, there are a few rocks – hard hearts and maybe even a few hard heads – but the soil generally is ready and ripe for the Word to be planted.  I believe that our biggest problem is the weeds that spring up to choke out the Word of God after it has begun to grow in us.  What are some of those weeds?

1)       Busyness - How many of us take time each day – even 5 minutes – to read the Bible and to pray?

2)      Distractions – What is on your mind today?  The explosions in London?  The war in Iraq?  The party or ballgame you plan to attend today?  A friend’s illness?  An upcoming vacation?  There are so many things that crowd our minds and refuse to leave room for God.

3)      Worry – Who isn’t worried about self, family, friends, and people who are hungry, homeless, persecuted, or abused?  Who isn’t worried about the children and problems in our neighborhoods and halfway around the world?

4)      Preoccupations – Can we ever stop thinking about work, our self-centeredness, self-pity, anger, overwhelming troubles, and lesser gods such as money, power, and alcohol?

 

As an avid gardener, I find it hard to walk past a weed without trying to pull it out.  But it is really hard to get rid of the weeds in my own life.  Then there are the thorns.  I cannot describe how painful it is to pull out thorns.  Yet they must go in order to make room for good seed to grow.  Jesus said, “If you have ears, listen.”  Listen!  Let the Word of God take root – deep root – and grow into a bountiful harvest.  A good harvest takes good soil, good seed, the gift of time, and patient waiting.

The prophet Isaiah spoke about the Word of God, saying, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Let us pray:  Prepare us, O God, to receive your Word.  Let it take root in us and yield the harvest you expect. Free us from the weeds and rocks that impede its growth, and let us be vehicles to accomplish your purpose.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.