As many of you, I was NOT raised I a farming community. Los Angeles is a long way from the plains of Central Kansas, literally and figuratively. 4H and FFA were things that we only read about in books. While there was some agriculture scattered around the area where I grew up, it certainly wasn’t a world that I was familiar with. It seemed as though the only things that grew in the LA area were homes and highways. Custom cutters were a chain of discount beauty salons, similar to Super Cuts. “Combine” was when you mixed two things together, “implements” were something you went to the doctor for, and “drilling” usually involved a piece of wood. Now I know that I wasn’t as ignorant as some folks out there. I knew that flour didn’t just come from the store, but the “in’s and out’s” of the farming life were completely foreign to me. Needless to say, I have learned a lot about this most important subject in recent years, and I thank you all for your patience with all my questions as I seek to grow in wisdom and knowledge where all things farming are concerned.
This learning about agriculture has also deepened my understanding of Scripture, and many of the sayings of Jesus that deal with seeds, wheat, weeds, harvest and the like. Jesus uses many agricultural images, that before I understood with only limited success. Today’s readings help us to focus on some of those images. I pray that in our time together this morning, I can share some of my “new insights” with you. Perhaps they will be new insights for you as well. Perhaps you’ll say to yourself, “Well, Pastor, it’s about time you figured that one out!” In either case, I pray that you will be fed with God’s life-giving Spirit, supported in your walk of faith, and challenged into a deeper life of discipleship. As God sends the rain and snow with a divine purpose, so too God’s Word is sent out to accomplish the task for which God has sent it. As this Word goes out, may it fall on the soil of our heart, to sprout and grow in the light of God’s amazing grace.
“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…’” (Matthew 13:1-3) Farming was different is Jesus’ day than it is today. The tasks done today by tractor and implements were done either by hand or with a wooden plow, pulled by donkeys or oxen. There was no sophisticated equipment available to aid the farmer in planting the seed at the proper depth or distance between seeds; the work was all done by hand, and usually not by the owner of the field. The landowner would usually hire laborers to work in the field, planting, weeding, and harvesting. (see Matthew 20, 21) And as is the pattern with custom cutters today, the people who sowed the seed were most likely not the ones who were there to do the harvesting. Laborers would specialize in one aspect of farming, and would move around the region, as their skills were needed in each area. The laborer who planted a field would not be around to see the results of his effort. Nor would the laborer who removed the weeds. And likewise, the harvester would not know how much seed had been planted, or the exact amount of work that went into achieving the results. Each focused on their own task, and trusted that the rest of the process would take place.
Even though planting was done by hand, there was still some common sense involved in the process. In the same way that you do not throw pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6), you don’t bother to plant in an area that won’t grow crops. Even the city folks know you don’t expect to grow a bumper crop on the highway! But Jesus doesn’t seem overly concerned with this agricultural strategy as he tells his story. Sometimes seed ends up on the path, and when it does, the birds get a free lunch. The same is true with the rocky ground and the thorny patch. The seed got there somehow, and the sower isn’t overly concerned. That’s just what happens when you’re busy doing your job: getting out as much seed as possible. If it sprouts and is scorched or choked out, that’s not for the sower to worry about. The sower’s job is to spread the seed.
Finally Jesus gets to the seed that lands in the good soil. It brings in a variety of results: “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13: 8b) Scholars disagree about what was considered a “good crop,” but Jesus implies that even on “good soil,” the size of the harvest can vary by quite a large margin. And as we found out with harvest this year, there can still be a wide variety of returns when harvesting “good soil” today. There are many factors at work, some of which we can’t control. In Jesus’ day, as in our own, the act of farming was in many ways an act of faith, trusting that God will take the work that has been done and provide a harvest of God’s own design. We just do our job, and leave the rest to God. And Jesus is perfectly content to leave the parable there, no explanation needed: “Let anyone with ears listen!” (Matthew 13:9) It is only after some time elapses and the disciples get to stew on it a bit that they ask him to explain, which he does reluctantly.
Jesus explains that the seed is the Word, and the different types of soil are different types of people: The path is the person who hears the word but does not understand it. The rocky ground is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it; but falls away as soon as trials arise. The soil filled with thorns is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world choke out the word, and it yields nothing. The good soil, then, is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields.
As Jesus is going through his explanation, I can almost envision the disciples saying to themselves, “Oh yeah! I know someone like that rocky soil…nothing gets through.” And we all get caught up in this. Perhaps you know of someone who yearns for stability in their life, yet they can’t seem to get rooted into the Word of God. The Church has always faced these questions of why: Why do some people hear the message, while others don’t? Why does God choose some people to be receptive and others who need so deeply to hear about God’s love just can’t, don’t or won’t accept it? This mystery perplexed the disciples during the ministry of Jesus, and today, with all our technological and sociological advances, we are still asking the same questions. Why some and not others?
“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.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
As Jesus begins his explanation, he says, “Hear then the parable of the sower.” (Matthew 13:18) This isn’t some “Come here and I’ll let you in on a secret” or “Here’s what I really meant.” He tells them “You: listen up. This applies to you too.” The disciples are not allowed the luxury of an abstract teaching that applies only in the philosophical or only applies to other people. They too are drawn into the teaching. How do you hear? What type of soil are you? Does your hearing lead to understanding? Does your listing to the Word of God lead to the production of fruit? There is no room to stand in judgment of others, Jesus tells them, because if they are busy producing fruit for the kingdom, they will be more concerned with their task for mission and ministry than about the results of that task.
It’s just like the sower. The sower isn’t concerned about the fact that the birds are eating the seed from the path. The sower isn’t concerned that the seed sown on rocky soil will wither away. The sower isn’t concerned that the thorns will choke out some of the plants. The sower isn’t even concerned about whether the plants will produce 30, 60, or 100 fold. That’s for someone else to worry about. Jesus reminds the disciples; “You just worry about your task, and let God worry about the rest.” After all, God has promised that the Word will not return empty, but will accomplish that for which it was purposed, and it will succeed in the thing for which it was sent.
So here we are, 2000 years later, gathered together as the Church, hearing these same words of Jesus. How are our ears today? It’s easy for us to fall into the temptation of trying to judge success, or to feel that we have to do it all when it comes to spreading the Good News about Jesus. But we don’t. Jesus reminds us again today that our task as followers of Jesus is to lead lives of faithful discipleship, trusting in God for all that we need. Our task is to invite others to experience the God that we meet in worship, the God who promises to meet us in Word and Sacrament, and to let God worry about the rest. When we are inviting others to experience God in this place, then we are doing our God-given task. When we are eager to share our faith with others, and not worrying about “Will they think I’m weird?” then we are doing our God-given task. When trust that God’s Word will not return empty, but will accomplish God’s purpose, then we are doing our God-given task. We are called to bear witness to the God who names and claims us in the waters of Holy Baptism, and to live lives focused on pleasing God alone, not trying to make other people happy.
If we sow the seed and it produces a bounty, thanks be to God. If we sow the seed and it produces nothing, thanks be to God. If we share our faith and invite someone to worship, and it turns out that they join the Church and become generous financial supporters, excellent! If we share our faith and invite someone to worship, and it turns out that they only come Christmas and Easter, wonderful! If we share our faith and invite someone to worship, and they never come, terrific! We have still witnessed to the hope that is within us, and have let that person know that we believe in a God who works miracles. Whether we see the results or not, the seed has been planted. We may never see the difference that little seed of faith may make in that person’s life. But God alone can take that seed and make it sprout into a plant that indeed bears fruit and yields, “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” (Matthew 13:8b-9) Amen.
