August 4, 2024
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Introduction
“A sower went out to sow.”
Who is the sower? God? Yes. Jesus? Yes. Those are of course the usual correct answers whenever a preacher asks a question. They certainly are not wrong. God is always sowing God’s life into ours. We are created in the image of God and according to God’s likeness, so says the book of Genesis. “The kingdom of God is within you…” says Luke. Paul says to the Romans and to us, “The Spirit of God dwells in you.” In a few minutes we’ll hear Jesus’ words, “Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you,” and “Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Our prayers are often a request or a desire for the divine sower to spread seed into our lives—seeds that grow into bountiful blessings. Our thanksgivings, then, are a recognition of God’s sowing in our lives. There are thousands of ways in which God in and through Jesus shares God’s self with us—all of which are sowing God’s life into our lives. So yes, God and Jesus are sowers who went out to sow.
But are the usual answers the only answers? Again, there’s nothing wrong with the usual answers—that is until they become the only answers or the default answers. I am not denying or minimizing God and Jesus as sowers in our lives and world. I simply want to expand and enlarge the possibilities, to give the holy words of scripture every chance possible to take root in our lives, to bloom in new ways, and to grow into something we never before imagined or thought possible.
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When we hear or read this parable, we are almost always quick to judge ourselves, and others, as one of the four types of ground: the beaten path, the rocky ground, thorny terrain, or good soil. But have you ever thought, in context of today’s parable, of yourself as the sower? This makes me wonder… Might you and I also be sowers who are called to go out and sow? And if we are, what do we need to understand about the four types of ground?
Move 1
Have you ever had someone show up at just the right time and say or do exactly what you needed, and you knew it was not calculated, you knew there was no end game for him or her? They were sowing seeds. They were sowing seeds simply by being themselves. Whatever they did or said they could not do or say otherwise. They seeded your life because they were a sower.
By the same token you’ve probably had the experience of someone saying to you, “Do you remember when you said or did …? How did you know that was exactly what I needed?” But you have no recollection of that event. You didn’t plan it or intend it. You were just sowing the seeds of your life. It’s not so much what you did or said but who you were. You were a sower of seeds to that person.
All our lives we are sowing seeds, but often we don’t even think about it. The sower sows because that’s who she or he is. His or her being and doing reflect each other. We sow because we are sowers. We are sowers because we sow.
Sowing is simply our way of being and living, the way we engage the world and relate to others. It is the practice that shapes and forms who we are becoming. The seeds we sow reflect what is going on within us and who we are. We can only sow seeds that were first sown and cultivated within us. Sowing is always an interior practice before it is ever an exterior action.
Jesus sows in us “the word of the kingdom.” That word includes: love, peace, hope, joy, grace, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, beauty, wisdom, presence, encouragement, perseverance, courage, gentleness, wholeness, healing, reconciliation, integrity, authenticity—and the list goes on and on. Those are the seeds Jesus sows within us, seeds we are to cultivate within ourselves and sow in our relationships and the world. They are the kind of gifts and blessings that once we experience them we cannot keep them to ourselves. They take root and grow within us, and eventually, we seed the world.
Move 2
Now if those seeds are about an interior quality, so is the soil on which they fall. The four types of ground described in today’s parable are descriptive of our lives and the lives of others. No one is just one kind of ground. All four are aspects within each one of us. All four are interior landscapes.
I’ve known times when it felt like my life was nothing more than getting from point A to point B and it took all I had to traverse between those points. There was no room, time, or energy for anything else. Nothing was growing, nothing was flowering, there wasn’t going to be anything to harvest. The seeds of opportunity were lost, ignored, unrecognized, or snatched away. We all know what that’s like, right?
We’ve lived life on the rocky path. Fear, envy, anger, or hard heartedness spoil and deplete the soil of our lives making it that new life cannot take root. There’s no depth. We live at the surface. But when we pay attention, the rocky path will tell us something—it will tell us there is work to be done, our land needs to be cleared of the rocks that will, or are, preventing seeds from making their way to where they need to be to grow. So let’s ask ourselves, what rocks fill the soil of our life?
And still, other times there are thorns—which are different from rocks. Thorns of guilt, shame, regret and the like—they sprout up and choke out our strength to pursue something new. Our life becomes constricted, strangled by the past. We are pricked by the barbs of our own inconsistencies and contradictions. So let’s ask ourselves, what are the stabbing thorns needing to be weeded from the garden of our life?
And then there are those times when our life is fertile, open, receptive, rich in nutrients, flowering, flourishing, and fruitful. The seeds within us yield “in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” What are these times, and how can we create more of them in our life?
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We need to be careful that we do not make a conclusion or final judgment about the ground in which we sow, whether in our own lives or the lives of others. Jesus’ description of the four grounds is not intended to shame or condemn us, rather Jesus’ description of the four grounds is to awaken us. It is diagnostic.
Move 3
All four types of ground need attention and care in their own ways. Whether it be plowing to a new depth, clearing the land, weeding, watering, or fertilizing. And the truth is all four describe parts of ourselves. But what is crucial to this parable is the fact that the condition of the soil does not stop the sower. He does not seed only the good soil. She does not withhold seed from the thorny or rocky ground. Even the walked upon path is seeded— which makes no sense. At least not for those who want to calculate and quantify life. But that’s not the way of the sower.
The sower sows with reckless and indiscriminate generosity. The sower sows here, there, and everywhere without regard to where the seed might land or the quality or type of ground on which it falls. The sower sows not because of who or what the ground is but because of who the sower is.
The sower does not worry about the harvest or how much it will yield. That he or she sows anywhere and everywhere tells us that. He or she simply sows. But this isn’t the way of our culture, is it? It’s not what most of us have been taught or come to believe. We want a return on our investment. We want to make good use of our time and effort and resources. We strive for efficiency and success. We don’t want to waste resources or spend ourselves on a hopeless cause. We measure productivity, we keep score, and we seek to maximize profits. But that’s not how the sower into today’s parable lives. The sower sows not because of an expected harvest but because of who the sower is.
How would your life be different if you stopped measuring and keeping score? What would change if you trusted the seeding of this present moment more than you worried about the future yield?
Conclusion
The sower is not concerned about whether there is or will be enough seed. Life, creation, the world, the universe—whatever we might call this existence— is, as 13th-century poet and philosopher Rumi says, “a divine seed market” where there is more than enough. And the deepest and most gracious response to there being enough is to sow with generosity.
I don’t know what the land of your life needs but I’ll bet you do. So let us ask ourselves… Where and with whom do we sow? In what ways have we withheld seed because we deemed the ground unworthy? What would it take for us to be as generous as the sower in today’s Gospel? What has God sown in my life? Am I tending and cultivating new growth? Where and what am I sowing? What does the land of my life need?
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Jesus says, “Let anyone with ears listen.” What do you hear in all this? What in today’s Gospel makes your life more meaningful, lets you live a more sacred life, frees you to be your better, truer, and a more authentic sower-self?
What in today’s Gospel reminds you the sower is sowing God’s life into ours?
“A sower went out to sow.” Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, August 4, 2024
Merciful and mighty God, as we gather on your good earth, before the bounty of your Word and Table, and the majesty of your Holy presence, we remember you plant your seed in all kinds of soil, and you do so with reckless abandon because you know, no matter what or where, when you sow seed, there is always the opportunity for new and renewed life.
And we know your seed was scattered upon our lives again and again, and for each of those blessings we give you thanks, for without them we would never have grown as we have. And yet, we know there have been times throughout our lives when we were not good and fertile soil—and yet you still sowed. We struggle to follow your word. We fail to live up to your example. We like to pick and choose the recipients of your grace and our kindness. We show love to people who seem most deserving and often leave the rest behind.
Forgive us, Abiding One…
We keep you at a distance, we defy your bidding, we make it harder for people to know you.
We deny our weakness, we wallow in our weakness, we take advantage of the weakness of others.
We refuse your counsel, we waste your gifts, we withhold your compassion from others.
Forgive us, Holy One, and then break through our hardened hearts and views and make your seeds to fall on good soil where they can take root and grow and grow and grow.
Break through our gravelly hearts lest we have no root and wither to nothing.
Break through our thorny ways and keep our agendas and fears from choking out the promise of your word.
May all your seeds of grace and new life be sown in our lives.
We ask that you would listen now to the prayers rooted deep within our spirits that we need you to tend to—prayers we offer now in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we lift and share with you, in the now of the one who sows seeds of new life into our lives, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”