Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 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.”
A farmer went out to plant seeds in his field so that he might have a harvest of thirty, sixty or maybe even a hundredfold, right? “No” Jesus says, “LISTEN!” A SOWER went out to sow! This parable is called the Parable of the SOWER, but what I think a lot of us are tempted to do with it is to turn it into the Parable of the FARMER. Farmers have a goal of maximizing a harvest. They plant to maximize the return on their investment. To achieve that goal farmers understandably care only focus on the GOOD SOIL. But Jesus says “LISTEN!”
“LISTEN!” This is the Parable of the SOWER, not the Parable of the FARMER. The Sower sows! And she sows with a much broader vision than the vision with which the farmer farms. The Sower cares only about sowing the seeds of God’s infinite and unconditional love, grace, forgiveness and compassion in EVERY kind of soil EVERYWHERE! The Sower knows, you see, that seeds have important work to do in EVERY kind of soil… work much broader than just a simple harvest.
When Farmers come to the hard packed soil of a path, a farmer wouldn’t plant there because hard packed soil would not produce the harvest he is looking for. The Sower, however, has a greater vision for her seeds. The Sower intends, in addition to a harvest, that the birds of the sky will be fed when they eat the seeds on the path and eventually those same birds will “deposit” those seed, along with a healthy dose of fertilizer right where they need to grow. The Sower loves, values and has important work for that hard packed soil do, and for the hard packed places in each of us, Jesus has love, value and use for those as well, because the work to be done there can’t be done in any other sort of soil.
The same is true of the Rocky Soil. A farmer would never plant in Rocky Soil where the plants would spring up but fail to take root and wither away. But the Sower knows that even quick growing plants without deep roots have something to give. Even plants that quickly whither in the sun make compost and the compost builds the soil making a place for another seed to grow. The same is true for the Rocky parts of each of us. God has use for enthusiasm that launches out in a particular moment. We all know that the energy to turn out to protest in the past month will not be sustained by everyone for the long run, but that quick reaction, that short lived energy made things happen I never thought I’d see! Mississippi took down their state flag with the confederate battle emblem! That had never happened before, even with decades of work by people with deep roots in anti-racism.
Even the seeds that are sown among the thorns... and you know who we are! Even us, in our thorniest soil, have value and is important to the Sower. The realists, the prophets, the truth tellers, those that hold up mirrors we are loathe to peer into. They challenge us, refuse to allow us to get off easy, keep us from falling into cheap grace. They insist we work meticulously through our history and our fears.
In the end, when Jesus says “LISTEN!” he’s challenging our narrow vision of what we think God is up to in our world and the narrow ways we believe God has in the Divine tool box to get that work done! This parable tells us that the power of God’s infinite love, compassion, grace, forgiveness and the transformational power of what God is sowing among us reaches WAY beyond our limited idea of what “good soil” looks like and is actually at work.... in, with and under every person, every type of soil, in each one of our churches, and in every red, blue, and purple part of the world.
Our call as people of God, as we confront the plagues of our day… pandemic, denialism, white supremacy, injustice, hate and despair is to talk and dream and plan and work in the way of the Sower! That as we meet and talk with others and build relationships and ask questions and plan how to move forward, we are called to do that by sowing the seeds of God’s love and God’s promise literally everywhere… into everything… with reckless, uncalculating abandon and then do our best to help each other trust that God will get each of those seeds, no matter where they have landed to do whatever it is God needs that seed to do in that particular place, person, church or corner of the world.
The Gospel calls us in this lesson to be SOWERS not Farmers. We are called by Jesus to recklessly cast into the world God’s love with the same generosity with which God put stars in the sky… remember, God put stars in the sky that we can’t see from where we live! It is that level of reckless sowing we are called to. It is that far flung we are meant to distribute God’s love and grace.
What will happen when we recklessly spread God’s love even more than we do now? I have literally NO idea! But this parable reminds me that we’re called to be the SOWER, not the Farmer and that God will certainly see that none of what we sow goes to waste. Amen.
