6th Sunday After Pentecost – Proper 10A July 12, 2020
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, Romans 8:1-11 Panzer Liturgical Service
Seed, Soil, Sower
The dandelions will always win. That’s one of the first lessons we learned about gardening in Germany. Our first house 16 years ago didn’t have a yard. We had a square of garden outside our front door that was beautifully landscaped and literally the only thing we had to do to keep it beautiful was battle the dandelions. They were relentless. Why? Because across the street from us was an apple orchard that was covered in the sunny yellow flowers, and when they were ready to distribute their copious seeds, we were right in the light of fire.
Fast forward ten years, 3 assignments in the US, and we moved back to Germany to a house with a large yard, a designated garden space, and a terraced perennial garden that wraps around two sides of the house. Not only is the yard filled with dandelions and other flowering groundcovers, but flowering weeds pop up in the middle of planned landscapes and between the cracks of every garden stone and around the edge of our driveway and sidewalks. I cannot tell you the number of hours we have spent plucking up and composting the spiky, relentless plants. Imagine my surprise when our neighbor, wanting to practice her conversational English, asked, “why are you digging up the Löwenzahn? Its bright yellow color is so beautiful with the purple irises and other plants in your garden.” Then I realized, one person’s weed is another person’s beautiful flower.
Along with the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the Parable of the Prodigals, this Parable of the Sower is among the most well-known of Jesus’ teachings. Remember, one of the reasons parables were such great teaching tools was because they presented the elements of faith in the language of the people’s common experiences. Jesus didn’t need them to learn a new religious language to understand what he was talking about. Instead, he spoke about the things they knew in their everyday lives and connected them to how God asks us to live and work in this world.
This parable is especially unique because Jesus actually gives an explanation of what it means, just to make sure no one (that is, the Pharisees) misses the point. The actual parable is in verses 1-9, the explanation in verses 18-23. But just because Jesus gives a small lesson in interpretation, it doesn’t mean there are no additional layers to explore. So, we are going to look at three layers to this parable, and I hope that we’ll take away an idea of how intricate and woven together the life of faith is. It is for certain that without any one of these three components, a bountiful harvest cannot be accomplished.
Seeds, Soil, Sower… all three are required, but what is the character of each that ensures the best possible harvest? Let’s take a look at each to see.
First, the Seeds: This one is pretty simple - If you want tomatoes, you have to plant tomato seeds. You can’t plant pumpkin seeds and harvest cucumbers. The kind of seeds we plant matters. The same is true about our faith. We can’t plant hate and harvest love. Additionally, it’s good to know the best conditions for the seeds to grow and flourish. How deep should they be planted? What kind of soil do they like? How long from planting the seed until the harvest? Around here, if you wait until June to plant a tomato seed, you’ll barely start harvesting tomatoes before the first frost comes and kills the plant’s ability to set new fruit and grow something you can eat.
Yes, it’s certainly possible to have a fruitful garden just flying by the seat of your pants. But why, when a little knowledge can give you so much more. But the best gardeners understand the intricacies of the seeds and the plants and how to get the end result they want. And whether you are studying the best way to keep your $10 orchid plant blooming, or how to grow a prize-worthy watermelon, it all starts with the seeds.
The same is true with our faith lives. Believing in Jesus, having a personal relationship, asking Jesus to live in our hearts, being saved – however, you describe the process of accepting and professing faith in Jesus Christ – that is just the first step. An unplanted seed is still just a seed. A seed that is placed in a growing medium, watered, and given good growing conditions will produce a bounty overwhelming greater than the nature of the seed alone. Faith alone, when unplanted, untested, underdeveloped, or unchallenged, will wither up and die. We have to do something with the faith we have.
Next, the Soil: Many of the sermons preached on this passage today will focus on the soil. That’s actually where Jesus goes, too. He has four main points.
- The seed that lands where the soil has become hardened from being repeatedly walked on simply sits on the surface, waiting to become food for the birds.
- The seed that falls on rocky soil has difficulty taking root because the soil inhibits the growth of strong roots, necessary for plants to access the nutrients in the soil.
- The seed that falls on ground covered in thorns must compete with already well-established, invasive plants and stands little chance.
- But the seed that falls on the soil that has been prepared, turned over and loosened until it is fine, and replenished with nutrients from the decaying matter of leaves, thrives.[i]
Soil, like faith, is shaped by its environment. A pathway trampled by the traffic of life may be able to support the sprouting of a few seeds, but before long, wildlife will often swoop in for a snack before any good growth can be established. The hardness of the soil makes it an unfruitful environment. The same can be said for people. Those who are bruised and battered by the world around them harden their hearts to protect themselves. It makes it difficult for a loving faith to grow.
Anyone who has tried to plant in a plot of rocky soil knows that the rocks get in the way of good growth and also in the way of a successful harvest. Yes, you can usually get something to grow, but it will take a lot more time and energy to bring a harvest of great value to bear. The rocky soil, Jesus says, describes those who can’t deal with the problems of life. When the going gets tough, they go into retreat, often falling back on old habits, and seem willing to muddle along with whatever harvest they can get. They depend on the belief that something is better than nothing.
And then there’s the thorny soil. Painful to deal with, for sure. We have this ornamental quince bush in our garden – it has very beautiful flowers for about one week, and the rest of the year it’s a thorny, overgrown mess. Every year, we trim it back and try to dig it out, with limited success. We’ve decided it would take dynamite to accomplish the goal. The same is true for the thornier issues of our lives. We have to be vigilant in keeping our thorny faith practices under control and pruned back. Our overcrowded lives often choke out the possibility of anything new and life-giving taking hold. Maybe that’s one of the biggest challenges we continue to face during COVID time. We miss our overscheduled, multi-focused lives. More than ever, we realize that we don’t know exactly how to put in the work to make our lives beds of good, workable soil.
What does it take to get good soil? I wish that it was just as easy as going to the garden center and buying bags labeled “garden soil.” It’s not. Every fall, we clear away the dead and dying plants and weeds from our garden, then turn the soil for the winter. And every spring we add compost, peat moss, and additional nutrients, like calcium, to make an ideal growing environment for the things we want to grow. It takes dedicated work. The same is true with our faith lives. We have pay attention to the impediments to a fruitful faith and be willing to do the work of removing or pruning them so that the goodness of our character can grow. Discipleship practices of all kinds help deepen our faith, allowing us to grow and change, and becoming more Christ-like in the process. Sometimes that even means changing our minds about things we were once certain of.
We must think about what kind of soil we are for God’s garden. Our work as people of faith is to prepare our lives, just like we would prepare good soil for growing. And it’s really hard work. We can easily be tricked into believing that the Kingdom of God must be fought for with the power that the world brings to the fight. But God gave us a different set of tools and asks us to use our fruit to bring the world up to God’s standards. From Galatians 5: 22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.”
We should not give up hope for the times when it’s too overwhelming or difficult to keep our soil in tip-top condition. Much of our hope comes in knowing that seeds will grow in remarkable places. Think about all the dandelions that are persisting in the cracks of your sidewalks, and the tenacious nature of bulbs that come back every spring, often in numbers greater than you planted years before. These tenacious plants offer signs that God will find a way to grow in us, even when we feel unable or unworthy to be what is needed for the task at hand.
Finally, the Sower is the last necessary component in building the Kingdom of God. And for me, this is the place where I ask myself the most fundamental questions about how I am serving God and the world. The parable says that the sower went out to sow. Being present is the first step in the journey. Yes, it’s a challenge when we spend a lot of time separated from others, but being with people doesn’t necessarily mean being close enough to take their hand. Being present is also about letting our hearts see the needs of others and do what we can to make life better.
It also says that he sowed seed generously. He didn’t have preconceived notions about what soil deserved the seed and what soil didn’t. To reach all of the fertile ground, he spread the soil into potentially problematic places, just to make sure that every possibility was covered. How are we doing with that? Do we ration our love, our care, our service, because we want to make sure that none of our efforts will be wasted? Or are we more afraid of failure than we are of trying new, crazy ways of loving people?
As a military family member and as a clergy person, this parable also reminds me that the sower planted the seed and then left. The sower wasn’t the one who harvested. For me, this is great news. I often do not see the fruit of my labor. And while others may attribute a piece of their faith story to me, I am happy that God has mostly relieved me of defining my value as a teacher or preacher or friend by the success of my interactions with people. I just keep sowing.
We are planting seeds wherever we go. And not just in church… but in scouting, and volunteering with the Red Cross or the SCSC… In the professional teaching you do in our schools and in the necessary teaching you do with your kids in online learning… In your work as a military member, civilian, or contractor. No matter what your age or level of faith maturity, your seeds are planted in the friendships you grow, and in the random interactions with people every day. The goal is for people to feel valued and seen… kindness and generosity are the hallmarks of our interactions. Often the most satisfying result is to know that we just did our best.
In the craziness and difficulties of the world today, we often ask, “Where is God?” The simple answer is that God is right here, with us in our pain, our joys, our grieving and feeling righteous anger with us. “Why doesn’t God do something about the terrible things that are happening?” This is the more difficult question. I close today with a quote from Teresa of Avila, a 16th-century Spanish nun and mystic, that I’m sure I have used before but which seems to answer the question for me and directly relates to our parable for today.
Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Be the seed… be the soil… be the sower – be the body of Christ in the world… today and every day. Amen.
Let us pray:
Gracious Lord, we give thanks that you have shown remarkable determination to be in relationship with us. We thank you for your presence during our times of worship, prayer, and praise. Especially, we thank you for your nearness to us during the course of our lives, during good days and bad. Assured of your never-ending love for us, we face the future with confidence that you will never let us go, that you will continue to hold us and your love, keeping us close to you no matter what tomorrow may bring. In life, and death, and life beyond death, we are yours. Amen.[ii]
[i] Holly Hearon, Commentary on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, for July 12, 2020, www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4510
[ii] Will Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Vol. 48, No. 3, Year A, “Honesty and Hope”, July 12, 2020.
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