AtomMatthew 13.1-9, 18-23 “Farming God’s Way”
“And Jesus told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path…other seeds fell on the rocky gound…other seeds fell among thorns…other seeds fell on good soil…Let anyone with ears listen!”
I’m a resort owner’s kid. My Dad still lives on the resort about two hours east of here in the central part of the state. If you are vacationing here in the North Country, I’m the kid that was always jealous of you. When you were sunning on the beach, I was mowing lawns. When you were fishing on the lake, I was with my Dad seining some leech-infested pond for shiner minnows. Nonetheless, I loved life by the lake and when exiled to Nebraska and Iowa for some years, I would sometimes go to the vacation shows at the convention center just to chat with resort owners from Minnesota. I still remember one owner telling me, “Yeah, we used to live in Iowa, but we vacationed in Minnesota whenever we could and we always dreamed that someday we could live by the lake, maybe buy a resort so we could spend all our time there, fishing and boating. Well, it happened and we sold the farm and bought a resort. We moved up to Minnesota…and we haven’t had time to fish since!” Isn’t that the truth!
It looks so easy from the outside…which is kind of the way I used to think about farming. It looks so easy from the outside. All you do is go out into the fields on a beautiful spring day and plant your seed. Then you sit around for a few months sipping lemonade and going to family reunions and one beautiful day at the end of the summer you go into the fields again and come out with big trucks of grain. Off you go to the grain elevator by the railroad tracks to sell your grain. You make a deposit with your local bank and take the rest of the year off!
Thanks for not throwing your hymnals at me – those of you who farm and those of you who spent a part of your life on the farm. I hope you know that I know that this isn’t the way farming really is. I learned pretty fast when called to serve a farming community in Nebraska that farming is a pretty uncertain occupation with a whole lot of planning and a whole load of obstacles on the way from planting to harvest. If it doesn’t rain after you plant, you might as well not have planted. If it rains too much before you plant, you don’t get the crop in at the right time and the growing season is too short. If you don’t use insecticides on the corn, cut-worms and corn borers invade. If you don’t cultivate or use herbicides, weeds use up the moisture and the yield of the grain is less. And if it floods – like all over the Midwest this year…or hail destroys your crop…or the frost comes early…there’s no harvest at all. The more I have learned the more I believe that it’s a wonder that farmers even go out to plant!
But you probably knew all this. And so did those gathered around Jesus when he told this story for the first time. Many of these folks were farmers or lived near the farm. They knew about the risk and uncertainty that went along with planting a crop. And it’s quite possible that even as Jesus sat on an open hillside to teach, that there was a farmer nearby sowing some seed on his farm. Jesus may have even pointed to him as he spoke: “A farmer went out to sow…”
We probably learned it in Sunday School, have heard it in countless sermons, or may even have acted it out at Bible Camp. We learned long ago that Jesus is the sower and that the seed represents God’s Word and that the soils are people who hear. And usually when we hear this story we are invited to ask ourselves, “What kind of soil am I? Will God’s Word grow in me? Am I the hardened path – the ground packed so hard by the hectic pace of life with 1000 and 1 activities pounding through my day – so that God’s Word has a hard time getting through? Or, am I the stony ground, excited for a little while by a good experience of Christ’s love, emotionally high from friendships made at camp or a retreat only to come down quickly when life returns to normal? Or…am I the weed-choked ground, with so many interests and concerns in my life that the important things get crowded out, like my central and essential relationship with my creator? Or, am I – hopefully – the good soil, open and searching, listening for God’s Word in my life and translating it into faithful action?”
Well, looking at the soil of your life – of my life – can be a good thing. Looking at our openness to God’s Word is a good thing. Reminding ourselves of how easy it is to be drawn away is a good thing. But I’m afraid that if we spend all our energy focused on the condition of our soil, we may miss the main point of Jesus’ story…which I would suggest is more about the seed than the soil.
Consider, at this point in his ministry, Jesus is having little success, from a human viewpoint. The synagogues, which had once opened their doors eagerly to have him come and teach, are now closing those same doors. The religious leaders have now become his worst critics and are in fact plotting to destroy him. True, the crowds still came to hear him, but few seemed to be really changed, and in many cases seemed to come only to see the show. Eventually they wander off. Even the disciples who believed Jesus to be the One God had sent are beginning to have doubts. Jesus is just not taking over like they expected. His preaching about God’s kingdom seems to fall on deaf ears. His disciples are worried. They wonder what’s going on.
So, Jesus sits them down, points to a farmer nearby and says: “A sower went out to sow…and some of the seed fell on the path…and some fell on stony ground…and some fell among thorns…and some fell on good soil and reaped 30 and 60 and 100 times as much as was planted.”
I believe that Jesus’ point in telling the story was this: Even though things look bad now, God’s work will be done. A harvest will come and it will be big!
It is the same message that we hear in another reading from the prophet Isaiah...a lesson also appointed for this day. “Like the snow and the rain that come down from the sky and water the earth, that makes the crops grow and provides seed for planting and food to eat, so also will the word that I speak…it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.” Isaiah was speaking to a people battered by their enemies and living in exile. His point was the same as Jesus’: Things may look bad now…there seem to be a lot of obstacles in the way…but…farmers you will understand this…God will reap a harvest from the seed that is sown: “My word will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.” The harvest will come!
You see, Jesus’ teaching here is not just about “hearing” the Word. It is also about planting the word. Remember that Jesus is speaking to disciples -- to followers -- to whom he has given the task of telling others about God’s kingdom. Jesus’ word is for sowers of God’s word, and perhaps discouraged sowers at that. It is for all those who tell the good news of God’s love and forgiveness to people who don’t seem to listen or care. It is for all those who tell the message to those who may not only reject the seed, but who may also reject the sower. Jesus’ word here is for men and women, husbands and wives, boys and girls, boyfriends and girlfriends, parents and Sunday School teachers and neighbors.
It is a message to all of us who may become discouraged when people don’t seem to care or when the precious word falls on deaf ears. I’ve talked with some of you: Sunday School teachers, parents, or grandparents who wonder if your kids are ever going to “get the faith.” Jesus’ word calls us to trust God for the harvest and to keep going about our business as Christians…to keep on planting the seed.
Insert another parable: A farmer’s wife says to her husband, “Fred, it’s time to go out and plant.” “Aw, Martha, I don’t want to go out and do that. I’d rather just sit here and look through the seed catalogue.”
“But Fred, you’ve got to plant the seed. It’s your job as a farmer to sow the seed!” “I know…but I’m not really very good at it. And it will just make the other farmers feel like I’m trying to show that that I’m a better farmer than they are. Anyway…most of it won’t grow.”
“But Fred…who’s going to sow the seed if you don’t?” “Martha, there must be others willing to do it. I’ll give them some money. Maybe we can hire somebody.” “Fred…how can you expect a harvest if you don’t sow the seed?”
Pretty silly, right? Hear then the explanation of this parable: The seed is the word of the kingdom – what Jesus means to you, to me, to us. We are the sowers. Our calling as Christians is to “sow the seed.” And yet it’s a hard thing to do. It’s easier to just read the catalogue or to excuse ourselves by saying we’re not very good at it or that people will think we’re trying to show that we’re better than they are. And it won’t get much result anyway. Why bother? There are too many obstacles – too much poor soil.
And Jesus said, “A sower went out to sow…” Why? Because that’s who he was; that was his calling. “And some of the seed fell on the path…and some of the seed fell on stony ground…and some of the seed fell among the thorns. And some of the seed fell on good soil. But it yielded 30, 60, a 100 fold!”
No farmer expects every single seed they plant to germinate and to bear grain. The farmer knows that some will be blow away by wind and some will fall in places that it will not grow. But this does not stop the farmer from planting. Nor does it make them give up the hope of the harvest. God will reap the harvest from the seeds that we sow. The harvest will come.
I dare say that none of us would be here this morning if someone had not been faithful in planting the seed of God’s Word in our lives. Perhaps there were even several people…people who faithfully planted and who probably wondered if that seed would actually take root in our lives. When I was a junior in High School, my girlfriend planted a seed in my life. I was at the point of trying to get away from Church. But one evening when we were together, she said, “What do you think about this Jesus?” “Oh, I don’t know,” I said, “He’s God’s Son, I guess…that’s what we’ve always said in Church.” “Okay, but if he really is God’s Son, doesn’t that make a difference in how we listen to what he says?” That seed stuck…a seed planted by my girlfriend. Sometimes we really don’t know what effect our planting will have or when that seed will bear fruit.
I’ve always liked the story H.L. Gee tells of a lonely old man in a church where he worshipped. Old Thomas, as he was known, had outlived most of his friends so hardly anyone knew him. So, when he died, Gee went to his funeral, thinking that there would be few there. He was right. And he was the only one who went with Thomas out to his final resting place…until they reached the cemetery gate. There, on that wild, windy, wet day, stood a soldier, an officer, but with no rank showing on his raincoat. When the graveside ceremony was over, the soldier stepped forward and stood at attention before the open grave. Then he swept his hand into a salute he might have given a president. Gee walked away with this soldier, and as they walked, the wind blew his raincoat open. Gee saw his insignia and the rank of Brigadier General. The soldier said to him, “You probably wonder what I am doing here. Years ago, Thomas was my Sunday School teacher; I was a wild kid, and a challenge. He never knew what he did for me, but I owe everything I am or will be to Thomas. He never gave up on telling me about God’s love. And today I am here to salute him.”
Thomas never knew what he had done. No sower of the seed of God’s word ever really knows for sure. And that should give us hope this day. Jesus’ word to us is a call to listen, but also to plant. “I have called you to follow,” says Jesus, “and to be faithful in planting the good news. You will not know which word or which prayer will bear fruit. Yours is only to plant and to trust – to trust that God will bring in the harvest…30-fold…60-fold…a 100-fold.
Let us pray…
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