Isaiah 55:10-13; Psalm 65:9-14; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
Mr. Chris Paul, Seminarian
When I read the readings for today, I was immediately taken back to growing up as a child on the great plains of Western Nebraska in a very small country town of around 1200 people.
The livelihood of this town was of course, farming. Everyone was somehow associated with farming, either directly owning a family farm or working with family or friends on their farms. I vividly remember always seeing the large farm equipment out in the fields, day or night, working them. And every field was different. Sometimes it may have wheat, and other times it may have corn or alfalfa.
The farmers were either plowing the ground, fertilizing, setting up the irrigation, or harvesting the crops.
And it didn’t matter what time of year it was; there was always something that needed to be done in the fields for that year’s harvest.
Another fond memory I have growing up as a child in a farming town was that I loved being able to ride in those massive farm trucks, combines, and plows working the field with my dad or my cousins, who all had large farms. Farming never stops. The farmers are always up before sunrise and out well past sunset, working their fields. It is not an easy job, and several different things can go wrong and damage the harvest for that year. The weather on the plains could be very harsh at times, and the farmers are at its mercy. You can go from the scorching heat with no rain to severe storms that would come rolling down the Rockies, and when these storms would hit the plains, they would unleash torrents of hail and tornadoes. I remember several times we would be driving and see large storms blow up, sometimes with tornadoes in the fields next to us. These storms could easily demolish entire crops and ruin a farmer’s entire year of work, but the farmers could not give up; they had to keep taking chances in the hope of receiving the rewards of a bountiful harvest.
For this to happen, the farmers would have to constantly tend to their land, fertilize it, check the pH levels, irrigate and plow them, and fight against pests and other things of the world that wish to destroy the harvest. It is not a job for the weak-hearted. Farming takes a lot of time, energy, and money. Farmers know that is the reality of farming. They know it is unpredictable and comes with disappointments, but they keep sowing seeds anyway. Farming is like discipleship. It is a mix of orderly planning on top of things that we cannot control, and farming, like discipleship, is no stranger to risk and failure. They are both open to loss and adventure. Farmers cannot control the world around them. Birds have a mind of their own, storms can blow up at any time, and heat waves can scorch the ground and dry up life-giving water. But when the harvest was plenty, the wheat fields would remind me of the familiar song America, the Beautiful; There is nothing better than seeing amber waves of grain as those large wheat fields would wave back and forth in the wind.
Of course, In Jesus’ time though, they did not have all of the farm equipment we have today, so the Sower would have to throw the seeds and then plow the land, hoping for the best growth.
In our Gospel reading today, we hear the parable of the Sower. But it is so much more than that alone. It is a parable of four soils and a parable of miraculous yields. The Sower in the parable today is what some may call a “high-risk” Sower. They aren’t so cautious and strategic about throwing seeds only in the good soil where they will grow. No, they instead walk around, relentlessly and indiscriminately throwing seed on all soil as if it were all good. They throw it on the rocks, amid the thorns, on the well-worn paths because, at the heart of it, all have the possibility to bear fruit. Of course, you can look at this Sower and immediately think of Jesus. We know Jesus goes around spreading seeds. Seeds are like the word of God being spread to the disciples, which depending on where they are in their own life, could be any one of the different types of soils in the parable. There are several ways to look at this parable, and then we have to decide which part of the parable we are. Are we the Sower, the seed, or the soil, or are we all of them at times? Some might view themselves as the Sowers in the parable. As Disciples of God, we are called to spread the good news just as Jesus did. As Believers, we are responsible for farming God’s words. Like farmers, we, as disciples, have to take risks and invest in growth through the word of God. We know that spreading the word of God as Sowers, some of the seeds will not produce, but some will take root and produce an abundant harvest, so we have to keep sowing and spreading that word, no matter how dry, rocky or weed-infested the ground may be.
Speaking of ground, let’s look at the four soils in today’s parable. Soil is shaped by its environment. It can become beaten down over time as it is walked on and becomes hard-packed. This happens to people in our society today, and depending on what we are going through in life, we may be able to relate to any one of these soils. The first seeds from the Sower fall along a rocky path, and the birds eat it. This can represent people who hear the word of God but fail to understand the message. Thus, the seed of the Word gets lost and taken away by the birds. The second seed falls on rocky ground where there is little dirt. The seed will sprout but quickly dies because it was not able to be nourished and sustained on the rocky ground. Rocky soil describes those who retreat when the going gets tough. And being a Christian can be tough because we are called to love everyone as God loves us and stand firm against evils and injustice in the world. The roots of the seed in rocky soil lack a firm foundation. Again this is like people who are receptive to the Word of God and even rejoice in hearing it, but when times get tough, and they are faced with adversity, their enthusiasm for the Word dies. The third seed gets thrown into a patch of thorns, which typically stops any possibility of growth into a mature plant. The thorns represent the life experiences that we allow to hinder our growth and faith. It can be our anxiety, concerns, need for worldly possessions, and greed. Finally, the fourth seed is thrown in favorable soil, where it bears fruit and yields a large harvest, expanding and growing to a great yield. This yields an abundant harvest because the soil was tended to and taken care of. This fourth type of soil can be seen to represent people who hear the word of God spiritually. It’s not simply enough to say we hear the word of God; we have to hear spiritually to understand what we are being told.
Hearing spiritually is like deep listening. Listening with compassion. When we truly listen to God, we listen to understand, and we listen with intention. Basically, when we truly and intently listen, we not only open our ears, but we open our hearts to the message we are receiving. Any of these soils could represent any one of us at different times in our life. We all have had rocky paths in life, and I’m sure at some point we have also been distracted by the thorns of life. But even in those different types of soil, we are still worthy of receiving that word of God. Worthy of being seen as good enough for the Sower to throw the seeds where we are in life. As Sowers who spread the good news of God, we don’t know what type of soil is beneath the surface. Is it hard? Is it shallow? Is it where weeds will grow? We don’t always know that, but we still must be Sowers. We can’t truly predict where the seed will take hold and flourish. We also can’t predict why some people receive faith and become disciples while others don’t.We are called to be High-Risk Sowers and spread the word without care for where it lands. The last part of the parable turns to the miracle of the yield. The harvest we hear about in the parable is massive. In Jesus’ time, sevenfold meant a good year for a farmer. Tenfold meant true abundance for the farmer.Thirtyfold would feed a village for a year, and a hundredfold would let the farmer and his family retire in a fancy villa by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is trying to tell us that this is a massive harvest and would have seriously gotten the attention of any disciple who was not listening intently to what Jesus was saying. The miracle of the hundredfold is what we seek as disciples of Jesus. In the face of rejection, we are challenged to persevere in our faith that we will have an abundant harvest. We hold onto our Faith as we spread the word of God. God knows the world is hard and knows the ways of this world that work to try to distract us. But God also knows the abundant possibilities we can achieve when we grow in our faith and spread the word. Novelist Bebe Moore Campbell wrote about faith that “Some of us have empty-barrel faith. Walking around expecting things to run out. Expecting that there isn’t enough air, enough water. Expecting that someone is going to do you wrong. The God I serve told me to expect the best, that there is enough for everybody.”As disciples, we must have faith knowing that there is enough for everybody and the harvest will be bountiful. So, what does being high-risk Sowers with no care of what soil the seed lands on look like to us? One example that comes to my mind is a story a friend told me a while back. She has a deep love in her heart for caring for the homeless, and one way she helps is by putting together little goody bags with small foods, water, and simple toiletry items and keeps them in her car to hand out when she comes upon a homeless person. In this bag, she also includes a handwritten note, “God Loves You!” One day, she was stopped in traffic, and a homeless man came up to her car. She rolled down her window and handed the man one of her pre-made bags with the note in it. He graciously took the bag from her and said Thank You. She rolled up her window as the man walked away and waited for the light to turn green. She suddenly noticed the man stop while looking at the bag and turn around back towards her car. For a moment, she was kind of scared, worried, not sure what was happening as he approached her car again. She looked at him and noticed tears in his eyes as he was holding this bag from her. She rolled down her window and asked if he was okay. Sobbing through his tears, this man told her that no one had ever told him that before. No one had ever said to him that God loves him. That is how simple it is for us as Sowers to spread the word of God. We don’t have to go out and try to do miraculous things. We have to spread the one true word of God: Which is love.
Love for all, no matter what type of soil, we are loved and offered abundant harvest with God. Today’s parable in our gospel reading contains much more than just a Sower haphazardly throwing seeds around.This parable includes the extravagant evangelism of God; the importance of understanding the word of God. The importance of perseverance in times of trouble. And the attentiveness to the miracles that our faith will provide. Discipleship like farming is not for the faint of heart, but the rewards are great and plentiful. In life, Storms will come, soils will change, and we will have distractions in this world, but our seeds of faith, hope, and love are deeply rooted and help us to grow and flourish, living abundantly by the grace of God. Who knows what happened to the homeless man that received the note in the bag that day. He could have succumbed to life on the streets, or that message on that day could have changed his path and helped him find strength, knowing that he was loved as a child of God and changed the ground he was on. We may never know, but our faith tells us that she was able to spread the good word of God to someone in need. So be good, Sowers, and throw seeds everywhere. You never know where they might land and flourish. It may just be what changes someone’s life who is on rocky ground.