Year A

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Generous Sower

For those who like to garden, they know that the sowing of the seeds can be very important. Most gardeners, before sowing the seeds like to prepare the soil for planting, because they want to ensure that the crop grows healthy. In a successful agribusiness today, a sower usually has well-tilled fields, on lands that have been prepared for planting. These fields have regular boundaries, of optimum size for the crop. A seed drill is used to put in one seed every so often, in ruler-straight rows. There is irrigation and fertilizer, and an automated tiller to deal with the weeds between rows. The crop is thinned when needed so the best specimens can grow to full maturity. Usually, a careful record is kept of the yield, so he or she will know what to do differently next year for better results. This way of sowing the seed is smart, sensible, cost-effective, and efficient. 

But when God sows seed the picture seems to be very different. The way God sows is like the old-fashioned broadcast sowing, seed flung in the air by the handful. It lands where it will and there is seed everywhere. There are no boundaries, no carefully prepared ground. The whole world is the field and the seed is sown on all kinds of ground-rocks, thin soil, the main road, and the weed patch. Some even make it to good ground. Back in the 1970’s, I remember seeing a version of God’s way of sowing acted out in the musical “Godspell,” a good-humored play based on several of the parables from the gospel of Matthew, including today’s. Four rambunctious actors dressed like clowns played the seeds, each of them meeting a different fate.

The seed that was cast on the path no sooner hit the ground than other actors making crow noises flapped down and pecked him to death. The seed that was cast on rocky ground came to life with a bang, waving her arms around and dancing in place, but then an actor carrying a big yellow cardboard sun stood over her until she grew limp and crumpled to the stage. The seed that was cast among thorns barely had time to get to his knees before he was surrounded by prickly looking characters who got their hands around his neck and chocked him. He really hammed it up though by making a lot of noise and taking a long time to bite the dust, but finally he too was dead.

Then there was the seed that was cast on good soil. This seed came to life gracefully and stayed alive, bowing as both the audience and her fellow actors gave her a round of applause. And after watching the parable unfold, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of soil I was on with God. I heard the parable as a challenge to evaluate my own spiritual life and in doing so I could see a need for improvement. And many believe that this is the point of the parable. But what if this story is not just about us or about what kind of soil we are on or what kind of soil we are. What if it was also about the sower? What if this parable was also about Jesus, about God’s generosity, about why God’s kingdom is not yet fully realized and does not always bear fruit! 

The parables of Jesus were designed to turn upside down any preconceived notions of what the kingdom of God looks like. The parable of the sower is one of seven such parables or stories in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. They are all different and they are all about the kingdom of God. Barbara Brown Taylor author and priest, says in her book The Seeds of Heaven, “If this is really the parable of the Sower and not the parable of the different kinds of soil, if it was the parable of the soils, than it should be called the parable of the different kinds of ground.

She says, what if this parable is not about our own successes and failures and birds and rocks and thorns but about the extravagance of a sower who does not seem to be fazed by such concerns, who flings seed everywhere, wastes it with holy abandon, who feeds the birds, whistles at the rocks, picks his way through the thorns, shouts hallelujah at the good soil  and just keeps on sowing, confident that there is enough seed to go around, that there is plenty, and that when the harvest comes at last it will fill every barn in the neighborhood to the rafters?” “Then the focus is not on us and our shortfalls but on the generosity of our maker who is not stingy with the seed and casts the seed everywhere, covering the whole creation with the fertile seed of his truth.”

And some seed does take root and yield fruit and the parable reports that there was a rich harvest that God the sower brings about. And God’s approach makes much better sense ecologically and spiritually. Ecologically, wild generosity with the seed, abundant rain and sun, and tolerance for a great diversity of habitat and plant life tends to produce a flourishing, resilient landscape where abundance and beauty flourish in all sorts of unlikely places. And because we are not dealing with a God who is at all concerned about rules, boundaries, and right answers, but a God whose nature is abundance and self-emptying love for God’s creation, creation can flourish spiritually and produce a good crop.

For Paul says today, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.” “For, we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit of God that dwells within those who are in Christ.” “To be “in Christ” is to be swept up in the power of the Spirit and this is not a result of something we do; it is something God does for us. The generous seed throwing God gives life to our mortal bodies through God’s spirit that lives within us and sets us free. We are no longer constrained by our limitations, boundaries, shortcomings, failings; we are not condemned by our hurtful ways or hateful actions. This freedom from God frees us to live fully in this world. So no matter what soil we are on or what kind of soil we are, we have the Spirit of God ruling our hearts.

The Spirit of God given to us as a gift does not keep us from sin; instead it enriches our spiritual life, empowers us to face life’s challenges, guides us for right living and enables us to be those fruit yielding seeds that give witness to the presence of God in all of life. We’re invited to be generous, not to judge on the basis of the “harvest” others produce but to give and to serve freely, to treat everyone as deserving because we are all created in God’s image and loved by God who sorts out the weeds. We are all made by a generous, loving and compassionate God, and therefore we have a purpose for living-to reflect God’s love and care to all.

As Isaiah proclaimed so long ago, the word that goes out from the mouth of the Lord will not return empty, but shall accomplish its purpose and succeed in just the thing for which it was sent. The more God sows, the more there seems to be and in spite of what seems to be overwhelming setbacks like rocks, thin soil, and weeds, when the harvest of God’s kingdom comes at last, it will fill every barn to the rafters and more. May we have faith in and celebrate the abundant harvest that is produced.