The Careless Sower

A Sermon for Proper 10 A – RCL (7-10-2011)

Offered by Nathan Wilson Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Genesis 25:19-34; Psalm 119:105-112; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Themes:         the birthright, understanding the word of the kingdom, the good soil

Title:               The Careless Sower

Just imagine this scene, my friends:

Such a large crowd of people gather to join us as we hear the word of God in our worship that this place cannot contain all of them! They are drawn by the power and beauty and mystery of this word, and more are drawn than this house of worship can hold. So we have to go outside and meet outside so that everyone can hear and see!

Can you imagine such a thing?

Our Lord Jesus Christ had a problem that we can only dream about having.

There was such a crowd of people gathered around him that he was not able to speak freely or to teach as he wished. So he got into a boat while all of the people stood on the beach and patiently listened to the many things that he had to teach them.

I guess folks there didn’t go away for the summer, and I guess they didn’t have their children so involved in sports that they were too busy to stop and listen to the word of God!

Oh well, what can we say? Many people are still drawn like this to listen to Jesus, in many different parts of the world, but not so much in this part of the world right now.

Things have certainly changed here in American society.

But, things have NOT really changed in the hearts of individual human beings.

In this great parable of the sower, the Lord describes 4 different types of responses to the message of the Gospel, the word of the Kingdom.

Here, the Lord places people into 4 general categories as described by types of soil which receive the seed cast out by the sower: the hard-trodden path, the rocky ground, the thorn-choked ground, and finally, the good soil.

I know that all of you here have heard this parable many times before. BUT the crucial importance of this word of the kingdom demands that we stop and reflect once more and ask ourselves: what kind of soil am I?

This was clearly the original intent when Jesus first sat in the boat and spoke to the crowds who gathered around him. Why did they come? What did they want from him? And better yet, what were they willing to give to him?

It is too easy to simply assume that, of course, WE are the good soil, that WE are ones who hear the word, who embrace it, who understand it, and who an abundant harvest.

Are we? Do we truly understand the word of the kingdom?

The Lord is clear in emphasizing that those who are the good soil are the people who hear the word of the kingdom and who understand it.  Do we understand the word of the kingdom?

It has been said that if you gather together a group of regular church-goers and ask them to summarize on one piece of paper the teachings of Jesus Christ, it is certain that you will get many references to the golden rule, to the beatitudes, to the commandment to love God and our neighbor.

But what seems always to be conspicuously absent from such summaries is any reference to the kingdom of God. And yet, Jesus talked far more about the kingdom than anything else.

Do we actually understand this word of the kingdom? And better yet, do we understand it in such a way that we have embraced it, taken it into our hearts and nurtured it and given it a place to grow, just like the good soil does to the seed that is cast upon it?

Is it true that trouble or persecution or hardship in your life does not hinder your growth in the kingdom? Is it true that your worries about money, your anxieties about the future, do not strangle the full flowering of your trust in God’s kingdom?

We must ask ourselves this question, again and again and again. Because we are always on the journey with God through this life, and it is very important not to take the openness of our hearts for granted.

But there is another aspect to this parable, one that offers a word of encouragement to go along with this word or warning.

Jesus is the sower. He leaves the house where he spoke in private with his disciples, and he goes out into the world to speak with the mass of humanity full of need and pain. And here he comes to cast the word of the Kingdom abroad to all people.

Jesus is the sower who has come to cast the seed, and who continues to cast this seed abroad through his Body on earth today, the Body of Christ.

We are part of that Body. We have been brought into this Body through the water and the Holy Spirit as given in baptism, and so we have been brought into a new life where Jesus continues to cast the seed of the kingdom out to every new generation.

Jesus is the sower, and he sows now through us.

But, note, please that he is not a careful sower.

His concern is not for taking care of the seed; it is not to ensure that not of it is wasted.

Quite the contrary: this sower seems intent, in fact, on wasting the seed, on casting it far and wide, onto every corner of the earth and into every human heart.

After all, it is the One he calls Abba who makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

God is notoriously careless and flippant in the distribution of grace and blessings. This divine sower can afford to be careless with the seed, because his supply can never run out! 

And this, my friends, gets us to what I believe is at the very core of our human dilemma.

We love control. We love to be in charge. In fact, most humans are quite obsessed with controlling their environment and with controlling the course of their lives. In many cases, we even make great efforts to control others as well.

This is nothing new, of course. We have the great ancient stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs of Genesis to demonstrate how this obsession to control has been central to the human condition in every age.

But to truly receive and understand the word of the kingdom means that we give up our desire to control, our obsession with being in control.

Instead, we rest in full trust in the goodness of God who loves us more than we can ever dare to imagine.

Because we know that the sower continues to cast abroad his grace in the kingdom of God, and we know that nothing will thwart the abundance of his harvest.  

What kind of soil are you, my friends? Are you ready to embrace the word of the kingdom, to open your hearts to the word, and to allow it to take root and to bear fruit in your lives, and so to give your life away for the sake of God’s kingdom?

If you do, I promise you that you will never be disappointed.  Amen.