2023 07 16 Sermon
A Sower Went Out to Sow…
Pentecost 7 A
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23; Romans 8:1-11
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
“A sower went out to sow.” There’s the hook, so to speak, that Jesus throws from his boat on the Sea of Galilee, to reel in the crowd of people who had gathered on the beach to hear him speak. “A sower went out to sow…” I can imagine the people on the beach perking up their ears to listen, because this sounds like the beginning of a story, and everyone loves a good story.
This was one of the key methods Jesus used to invite people to participate in God’s kingdom: Parables—a special kind of story used by prophets and teachers of the Old Testament, and now adopted by Jesus. And the way Jesus told parables was not simply to teach timeless truths (although we can learn timeless truths from them). Jesus wanted his stories to be vessels that people could kind of climb into and go somewhere, with God piloting the ship. Jesus wanted people to hear his parables and begin to makes these stories their own, as they worked out for themselves and with each other what they thought God might be saying, and what God might be nudging them to do.
Sometimes Jesus provided an interpretation to his parables, sometimes he did not. Perhaps in this case, with the Parable of the Sower, he sensed that a gathering that included a large percentage of fishermen might not know too much about the planting of seed and the harvesting of grain, and so he nudges them along a bit with an explanation. But it goes to show that even as parables use familiar images from daily life, you don’t have to be an expert in those things to take a stab at working out the meaning.
Even so, Jesus’ invitation to us, given at the conclusion of the Parable of the Sower, remains: “Let anyone with ears, listen!” You’ve heard the story. Now, what do you make of it? How does it challenge you to take a fresh look at who God is? Or what the kingdom of God is like? Or how might you join God in the things he is up to in the world?
It’s like, if you want someone to open up about themselves, it helps to ask open-ended questions, instead of yes/no questions. Same goes for helping people to talk about God or their experience of faith. Tell an open-ended story—a parable—and ask people to imagine what it tells them about what God is up to in the world.
So, let’s give it a try. I’ll read the Parable of the Sower one more time, then invite you to turn to a couple of people sitting near you, and just take a few minutes to share with each other 1) something you notice in this story, 2) what questions do you have, or 3) what do you think God might be nudging us to do. And if you’re watching on the livestream, I invite you to do the same. Listen to Matthew 13:3-9, the ask yourself 1) what do I notice in this story? 2) what questions do I have? and 3) what might God be nudging us to do?
After we’ve done that, then I’ll share some reflections from my sermon preparation time, based on those three questions—not to be the final word, but to propose a possible word that God might be speaking through this parable, as we all seek to grow with each other in following Jesus.
So, here it goes: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 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. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!”
[After the people have had a chance to talk amongst themselves…] So, I noticed that ¾ of the seed is scattered in less than ideal conditions and doesn’t produce grain for harvest—but the sower sows it anyway. Some questions I have are: Who is the sower? Is it God? Is it us? Is it both? And the soil—is each type of soil meant to correspond with a different kind of person, or do each of us have all four types of soil within us, with the type of soil that we are changing, depending on what we’re going through at the time?
So with those things in mind, I offer this interpretation: If God is the sower, he doesn’t seem bothered that ¾ of the seed doesn’t produce grain. God sows the seed everywhere, because the right soil for the right seed might be found anywhere. You can hike up a rocky mountain, high above tree line, to a place that looks inhospitable for any kind of life to grow—and in the right conditions you can find grasses, wildflowers, even trees growing from the cracks among the rocks. Nothing is impossible with God, and God can even turn the rocky soil within myself into good soil in due time.
Likewise as Christians, our calling is to sow the seed of God’s kingdom everywhere. Not to prejudge only where we think the seed will grow, but to recognize that God will grow the seed and produce a harvest when the time is right.
Our bible study group last Sunday was talking about how to share the message of Jesus, and came up with a metaphor of moving a mountain. You don’t pick up the whole mountain and move it from one place to another. You pick up one pebble at a time, and move it from here to there. How many pebbles does it take to move a mountain? Who knows?! Only God knows. But as far as we are concerned, it doesn’t really matter how many pebbles. All that matters is to keep moving the mountain one pebble at a time.
But back to our Parable of the Sower, and what might God be nudging us to do? To me the nudge is to keep sowing the seed, regardless of whether that is on the path, or the rocky ground, or the thorns, or the good soil. And while we do that, we can keep our hearts and minds open to notice where God is at work; where God is growing the seed of his kingdom; and then we can offer our love and service to join God in the things he is doing.
Any type of terrain—any person, any place—has the potential for God to be at work in, at any time. Saint Paul echoes this in Romans 8:10-11 where he writes about living by faith in Christ: “Christ lives in you,” Paul writes, “so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”
No one knows exactly when the influence of God’s life-giving Spirit will be activated within them. But God asks us to stick with him, even when we go through those times of being a well-worn path, or rocky and thorn-covered soil, so that in due time the Holy Spirit will be activated, in the good soil, whether that’s in this life or in the life to come. Amen.