The Extravagant Sower

July 16, 2023

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

The Extravagant Sower

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Farming techniques have come a long way. To begin with, the equipment: Modern tractors are enormous. When they extend the wings on their planting apparatus, they cover a huge swath of a field in a single pass. The planters they pull are very precise, too. They inject a seed at a prescribed depth and every so many inches.

Farming is science now. They’ve figured out the optimal number of seeds per square yard, exactly how much fertilizer they need.

Jesus tells a farming parable when he sees a huge crowd of people gather to hear him preach. The crowd is so large that he has to climb in a boat, row off from shore, and preach from the lake. This was way before the days of modern sound systems. And you know how sound travels on a lake.

Jesus looks at this immense group of people who have traveled from far and wide to see and hear him. What is he to them? Is he the spectacle of the day, something to spice up their ordinary, hum-drum days? Are they skeptics, come to heckle the prophet? Are they seekers? All of the above! They’re all present and accounted for along the shores of Lake Galilee.

So Jesus tells the parable we hear today. It seems like it left everyone scratching their heads in confusion, because even Jesus’ own disciples don’t get it. Jesus is talking about how we receive God’s word. How does that word fall upon our ears, in our hearts?

How does a seed germinate and take root? Moisture enters the seed. As the seed receives the moisture, its inner germ wakes up and begins to grow. A furry, white root sinks down and the emerging green shoot grows up.

There’s a receptivity to the moisture. The hard, protective hull allows the moisture in and the germ of life within awakens.

Something similar happens as we hear God’s word. We have a hard, protective shell wrapped around our minds and hearts. When we encounter God’s word, what will happen? Will that message seep into us and bring about the beautiful transformation of our lonely soul? Will it be able to bear its precious fruit?

Jesus’ parable lists a bunch of things which can prohibit that end. Hardpacked soil, birds, stony badland, choking weeds. The little seed faces daunting circumstances.

But the sower seems unconcerned. The seed is precious. It’s expensive, even. But he distributes it extravagantly. This is broadcast sowing. He isn’t planting individual seeds under the soil. He’s tossing handfuls onto the soil and there it lays. It’s not like planting bean seeds in a garden. This is like what we do when we seed a new lawn. We pour the seed in the spreader and then we walk across the area, spraying seed everywhere.

Jesus looks out at all the people gathered along the shoreline. So many people, each one with their own history, a unique journey that led them to this very time and place. Will they hear what he has to say? Will his words take root in their hearts? It doesn’t matter. He will preach to them, he’ll minister from his bottomless compassion. Like the sower who extravagantly broadcasts his precious seed, Jesus spreads the divine kingdom absolutely everywhere, to everyone.

We are now the workers Christ has called into the field. We now are the ones called to sow the seeds of God’s divine reign. Will we be as extravagant in our calling as Jesus was? Or will we say, “well, look at that poor soil. Why bother? Let’s save these good seeds and use them where they stand a better chance?”

As Pope Francis famously said, “Who am I to judge?”

Let’s take a look at a figure from Christian history, St. Augustine of Hippo. Born in northern Africa around the year 350, Augustine would become one of the principle theologians of the early church. His theology has echoed through the centuries. His thought was instrumental in shaping Martin Luther, who was an Augustinian monk.

Augustine’s mother was Monica. She was a devout Christian woman, but her husband was a pagan man. He forbade his wife from raising their children as Christians.

Augustine received a first-class education. Despite his privilege, Augustine was wild spirited. He lived hedonistically throughout his teens and 20’s. He was a carefree party boy. Much to his mother’s chagrin, he became a follower of Manichaeanism, an ancient religion. He later became disenchanted with Manichaenism and he migrated into the philosophical school known as Skepticism.

So far, Augustine seems like rather poor soil for the word of God. But when he was 31, he fell into the doldrums of meaninglessness. One day, he heard the voice of a child at play. The child was singing, “Pick it up and read it! Pick it up and read it!”