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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Sowing the Seed

Below is the sermon I gave Sunday, July 10, 2011 in the churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The text is Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.

Our gospel reading from Matthew today was Jesus’ parable of the sower.  Some of you have probably heard this story many times; others may be hearing it for the first time, I don’t know.  Today, though, I’d like to take a look at this story from what maybe is a little different perspective.
        The way we usually look at this story is to think of ourselves as the different types of soil.  Some of us are the path, some are rocky soil, some are thorny soil.  Sometimes we’re different types of soil at different times.  What we’re trying to be, of course, is the good soil, in which the word of the kingdom of God can take root and grow.
That’s a perfectly legitimate interpretation, of course, and there are a lot of good lessons that can be drawn from that.  Today, though, I’d like us to look at it a little differently. Jesus, at the end of the gospel of Matthew, calls us to spread his gospel to everyone, everywhere, throughout the whole earth.  So, if the seed is the word of God, and we are called to spread the word of God, that means that, in one sense, each one of us, and our parish as a whole, is the sower.  Each one of us individually, and the parish as a whole, is responsible for spreading the seed.                       
Now, I grew up on a farm, and while I don’t claim to be a farmer I did learn a few things about it.  One thing I know is that if you want to raise a crop, you cannot just go out into the field and start tossing seed around.  You’ve got to prepare the ground. You’ve got to plow, you’ve got to fertilize, you’ve got to do all kinds of things.  If you’ve got a bunch of rocks in the field, you’ve got to get rid of them.  If you’ve got a bunch of thorns and weeds in the ground, you have to get them out of there.  That was true in Jesus’ time, too.  Going out to the field and just throwing the seed out there the way Jesus describes it would’ve seemed totally ridiculous to his audience.
Jesus told this story to make a couple of points.  One was about who is supposed to hear the word of God:  everybody.  And another was about who is supposed spread that word to them:  we are.
Now, I think, on some level, most of us know that.  I’m sure some of us do it, too, sometimes.  Not all of us, though, and not all the time.  So the question is, why not?  If we know Jesus calls us to spread his message to everyone, why don’t more of us do it more often?
There are at least a couple of reasons.  One is that we worry too much about how people will react to God’s word.  We think, “Well, this person is probably like the path. The word of God is just going to bounce off them and make no impact.  That person? They’re probably the rocky soil, or maybe the thorny ground.  They may come around for a while, but they’ll never stick with God.”  We decide beforehand how people will respond to God’s word, and so never give them the chance to prove us wrong.
Jesus says that’s the wrong way to go about it.  We are not responsible for how people will react to God’s word.  We are not responsible for whether someone else comes to Christ.  You and I are simply called to share God’s word.  We’re called to do everything we can to bring people to Christ.  We’re called to never give up on anyone. We are not responsible for the ultimate outcome.  If we have done all we can do, that’s all God asks of us.  We’ve done our part.  The rest is in God’s hands.
There’s another reason why we don’t spread God’s word the way we should, though.  It goes beyond worrying about how people will react to the word of God.  Too often, what we’re really worried about is, how will people react to us?
I understand that.  I’m standing up here now, but I spent forty-seven years of my life sitting out there where you are.  It’s real easy, when you’re the pastor, to tell people they need to go out and spread God’s word.  After all, a pastor is supposed to talk about God.  Once people find out you’re a pastor, they expect it from you.  It’s a little different when you’re a member of the congregation.
What it comes down to, really, is that no one wants to be thought of as goofy. We want to fit in.  We want to be a part of things.  Nobody, including the pastor, wants to be thought of as odd or strange.  Everyone has a natural desire to be a part of the mainstream of society, whatever the mainstream of society happens to be.
The problem for us, as Christians, is that when we look at the mainstream of society, we see a lot of thorns.  We see a lot of rocky soil.  We see the path.  We don’t see a whole lot of good soil.  That means that, if we try to share the word of God with people, we’re taking a risk.  If we start talking about God when we’re at coffee with people, they may look at us funny.  If we start talking about God when we’re at work, people may wonder what’s going on with us.  All of a sudden, we may not fit in any more.  All of a sudden, we’re that religious nut, that guy or that woman who’s talking about God all the time.  That can make us feel pretty uncomfortable.
The desire to fit in, to be a part of the crowd, to go along and get along, is pretty powerful.  It affects all of us.  You know, we talk a lot about kids giving in to peer pressure, but peer pressure does not just affect kids.  It affects all of us.  We are all subject to giving in to it.
What we need to remember is that, as Christians, we’re not called to go along with the crowd.  We’re called to be different.  Jesus certainly was.  That’s what got him into so much trouble.  Jesus constantly went against the mainstream of society. He spent time with society’s outcasts—tax collectors, lepers, the lowest of the low.  He argued with society’s leaders—the Pharisees, the wealthy, the people at the top of the ladder. Jesus never was concerned about whether he fit into society.  His goal was to change society, not to fit into it.
That’s what our goal needs to be, too:  to change society by spreading God’s love and God’s word.  Jesus came to start the process of bringing about that change.  Then, Jesus gave us a message so we could continue bringing about that change.
So, if we spread Jesus’ message, what’s going to happen?  Are there going to be times when God’s word does not take root, when it seems like our efforts have been worthless?  Yes, probably; after all, even Jesus could not convince everybody.  Are there going to be times when we think we’ve been successful, only to see the people we’ve spread God’s word to fall away?  Yes, that’ll probably happen, too.  After all, people fell away from Jesus, too, when things got tough.  Will there be times when people look down us, or make fun of us, or when our beliefs get us in trouble in some other way? Yes, that could happen as well.
When we look at all these possible negatives, we forget one thing.  We forget about he good soil.  Look at what Jesus says about the good soil.  Jesus says that the one seed that lands in good soil, the one person to whom we share God’s word and it takes root, yields, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold!  In other words, that one person with whom the word of God does connect more than makes up for all the others.  What that one person who comes to Christ through us can do for God more than makes up for all those supposed failures.
What we need to do, really, is remember that it’s not about us.  It’s about God. We are called to serve God.  We’re not called to be popular.  We’re not even called to be successful, at least not as the world sees success.  What we’re supposed to do is follow God’s will.  We’re supposed to spread God’s word over the entire earth, so that everyone is covered with God’s glory.
But we’re just a little church.  How can we possibly spread God’s word over the whole earth?  Well, we can’t.  Not by ourselves.  The thing is, though, that we don’t do it by ourselves.  We work with Christians all over the world.  Most importantly, we work with God, and with God we can do anything. Nothing is impossible for God.
Jesus said that one seed, one person in whom God’s word takes root, can increase one hundred fold.  One little church, in which the word of God takes root, can be part of spreading that word throughout the whole world.
Let’s go out and sow some seed!

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