Isaiah 55:10 – 13 Psalm 65: [1 – 8] 9 – 14 Romans 8:1 – 11 Matthew 13:1 – 9, 18 - 23
Well-worn paths.
Rocky ground.
Thorny soil.
Good earth.
What we refer to as the “Parable of the Sower” often seems to wind up being a commentary on the ground. And, because we’re clearly not the sower in the story, we can’t help but examine ourselves, doing an inventory of our own internal landscape to assess our receptivity to the seed:
Which type am I?
Am I so set in my ways that the seed has no where to go when it lands on the path of my daily rhythms and routines?
How much depth do I have? Do I react with enthusiasm – and then lose interest, going on to something else?
Do I get lost in the distractions of life, those pervasive weeds which seem to pop up everywhere? Do I allow them to choke out what I know to be the Way, the Truth, and the Light attempting to grow in me?
Have I done all I can to prepare the ground of my being?
We assume—
Responsibility for the ground on which the seed lands.
A straight trajectory – a direct, immediate, and obvious correlation between the seed sown and the crop harvested.
A kind of all-or-nothing thinking in which God’s purposes require ideal conditions under which to thrive. We forget that with God all things are possible…
Things to think about, all, and yet this morning I’d really like to shift the focus. I think this parable has a lot to tell us about the sower.
“Well, what kind of irresponsible sower is that?!” you might demand, still focusing on the ground conditions. “If he wants that yield of a hundredfold, or sixty, or thirty, why cast seed on ground that has not been prepared? Why throw it away – a total waste of time and effort, as well as seed?!”
What is with this random scattering – on the paths, on rocky ground, among thorns, as well as on good soil?!!
Why not just plant where the seed actually has a chance of growing, producing a crop?
What a profligate sower!
What a profligate God!
What a profligate sower.
What a profligate God.
We are much more careful about how we do things, of course: we like our seeds to bear their yield in carefully planned rows neatly labeled, “green beans,” “peas,” “squash,” “hope,” “forgiveness,” “peace,” “mercy…”
We have a sense of what soil merits what seed, and we plan accordingly, sowing here, not there…
In contrast, this morning’s sower seems positively reckless!
This sower works with abandon, seemingly less concerned with WHERE the seeds fall than with the fact that they are generously sown.
And that is good news for us! For, in spite of ourselves, our lives are not ordered in neat rows, nor are they so precisely compartmentalized and labeled… The reality is – they are every bit as messy and mixed up as the nature of which we are a part!
And we, in all our messy-ness, are every bit as much on the receiving end of those blessings falling from the sower’s hand, the mercy dropping from heaven, the seeds of love and hope cast so freely over us.
If we can shake ourselves free from that human mindset conditioned to measurable outcomes, we can take great comfort in this Sower, for he reminds us of all that God is:
God bestows blessings generously; we don’t have to be worthy; we don’t have to earn them.
God gives without condition.
God is patient; God doesn’t need immediate gratification.
God sees in each of us, not our limitations, but promise and possibility.
God believes in us, and trusts us.
I am reminded that at the close of each day in creation, God looked at what God had made, and pronounced it good.
Of course God wants to bless it – all of it!
Of course God wants to bless us – all of us!
I think of how narrow is our sense of “yield” compared to God’s: apple seeds grow apples in this amount of time, and corn, corn, in that....
God, on the other hand, sees the possibility that “yield” may well be birds fed from the seeds which have fallen on that hard path we’ve trod.
“Yield” may well be the hard and stony ground, softened and broken up a bit by the sprouting of seeds, beautified by their appearance, however brief, perhaps more ready and receptive for a crop the next time...
“Yield” may well be the long-term influence of seeds cast among the weeds and the thorns: who knows? One day, as Isaiah prophesies, instead of the thorn, shall come up the cypress!
There’s an extravagance about this sower, this God!
And it includes us, no matter what our condition!
It’s an extravagance we see upheld in the lushness of some of the Psalms or passages from Isaiah, conjuring forth images of just that sort of spilling-over abundance:
It’s as though all of creation is a glorious symphony, in which the Creator with his baton draws the music out of first one “section” and then another – here, you! Earth! Sprout forth! And you, mountains! Burst into song! Now, trees – clap your hands! Let’s feel the seeds, scattered everywhere – I want to hear them falling! Lots of seeds! Now, valleys – fill with grain – and meadows, fill with flocks!! And water – let’s have the sound of water everywhere – softening the ground, drenching the furrows, filling the rivers… Now the swell – let’s hear it! – and crescendo into the bursting forth of God’s plenteous abundance, leaving suspended in the air the iridescent sounds of goodness hanging over all…
Let’s rest in that abundance.
Amen.
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