Readings for today (Track 1).
‘In my mind’s eye, I see today’s gospel story unfolding on a nearby beach - maybe Golden Gardens or Lake Washington. It’s a beautiful day like today. Jesus goes out and sits beside the water to teach the people. When the crowd gathered becomes unmanageable, he gets into a boat and moves a little offshore. I think it’s actually Lake Washington, fewer waves and no current so the boat stays in one place. Jesus sits in the boat, just far enough out so that everyone can see and hear him. He begins to teach in parables.
Today’s parable of the sower is the first of many we will hear from Matthew in the next few months. Using parables, Jesus unpacks the depths and richness of the kingdom with metaphors that would be familiar to his audience: farming, animal husbandry, household chores, vineyards. Each parable is like a seed, falling on the soil of our hearts and minds.
A few weeks ago we heard Matthew chapter 10, where Jesus sends the disciples out on their first mission trip, with the primary instruction to ‘proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”’ (Mt 10:7) The acts of healing and exorcism, justice and mercy follow from this first instruction.
Parables draw us into pondering the kingdom of God, how it comes to be, what it feels like, and how our lives co-create it with God. Parables intentionally create many ways to enter into the message.
Matthew passionately believes in Jesus’ Good News message of joy and abundance and thriving -- to the point that he also feels strong judgment about people who do not follow the Way. As we read more parables in the coming weeks and months, we will hear this judgment in Matthew telling of people being thrown out of feasts, locked out in the darkness, and always with much anguished wailing and gnashing of teeth.
In Matthew, judgment in parables is accompanied by words of great comfort and hope. Like last week’s invitation from Jesus to all of us who carry heavy burdens, that we can find relief in sharing our burdens and learning Jesus’ ways of gentleness and humility.
This balance of harshness with comfort suggests that we may not always know the ways God’s mercy and grace act in and through and upon us. Discipleship is an ongoing process of cultivating our understanding of God’s reign and how we participate in proclaiming and creating it.
Which brings us back to the parable of the sower.
First - the sower. Who hired this person?? Did they check their references? This sower goes out and throws seed everywhere! On the path, in rocky and weedy soil, and some fortuitously lands in good, well-prepared soil.
If you’re like me, you hear about each kind of soil, and think, “That’s me! That’s me. Oh, that’s me, too”
Sometimes like the path: not absorbing or receiving the grace of God because of our own sense of independence or self-sufficiency or just plain defiance. Watching with some dismay while others show up briefly and gobble up grace like starving pigeons, and then fly away just as quickly, spreading the seeds to unknown places.
Sometimes like the rocky soil: Quickly enthusiastic for something holy and good but not able to sustain it because we don’t have the depth of energy or time or passion for it. And the rocks seem too big to move out of the way. So we burn out as quickly as we started.
Sometimes we feel like we struggle against the weeds for the light and air we need to grow. Competing for resources, getting caught in cycles of judgment about other people or ourselves, jealousy, anger, fear, wanting more and more shiny things to perpetuate an image of ourselves that isn’t true. These temptations of the world suffocate our souls, choke out the humility and kindness and generosity that God has planted in each of us.
And sometimes, we feel like good soil. Ready and able to receive the life-giving gifts and challenges of God’s grace, forgiveness, and love. To cultivate humility and gentleness in our lives. To revel in our sense of individuality, letting our holy delight shine out, empowering us to join with one another and God in bringing life, peace, and justice to our neighbors, our city, and the world.
We change day by day, minute by minute, as does the world around us. It’s not surprising that the parable opens more questions than it answers.
Parables give us a way to think about a God who is so much bigger than we can capture with a single image or story. Parables ignite our imaginations to wonder how we can work with God.
Looking at this parable again...
I wonder, what if WE are the sower? Sowing seeds here and there and everywhere with our lives. Not stopping to wonder whether or how or when the seeds will grow, just throwing them out there with everything we do. With how we greet strangers on the street or interact with sales people and servers, with the way we use our voice and vote for justice, with the generosity that invites neighbors to join our table at Communion and Community Lunch. Every word. Every action. Every way we engage the world. All seeds. Changing the world, and changing us. No one sows without hope for a bountiful harvest - whether it is 30-fold, 60-fold, or an unbelievable return of 100-fold.
We sow the seeds of Good News. We don’t have any control over where they land, whether they get eaten by birds, sink down between the rocks or deep into fertile soil. We don’t know when or how or where they will sprout or thrive. In faith, we keep sowing seeds of God’s reign of justice and peace with humility, joy and enthusiasm. God does the rest.
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