Jesus says, “Listen! If you have ears to hear (and you do) then listen!” Jesus tells a parable. It is a story that tells us something about God and the new world that God is beginning. Jesus talks about a farmer sowing seed. The seed is scattered by hand and goes everywhere. Some goes in poor soil: a pathway, a rocky place, and a place of thorns and weeds, Finally, some seed lands on the prepared soil where if produces a bountiful harvest. Jesus explains the parable and talks about different people who hear the word of God. Those who are ready and prepared rejoice in the good news. The rest aren’t quite ready to have the seed grow into something bountiful.
I am very much helped by Sarah Dylan Breuer who wrote a sermon on this text about six years ago. She points out two little odd things about this parable. The farmer is a little careless. He or she scatters seed indiscriminately. What farmer throws seed on rocks or in the road? This week I had some workman repair a portion of my lawn. I didn’t see any grass seed on my driveway. When I planted my vegetable garden, I practically counted every seed and put them in the soil one-by-one with my fingers. Secondly, Jesus describes an outrageous harvest. In the time of Jesus there were no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers. If the seed multiplied twofold it would be expected. A fivefold harvest would have been extraordinary. Jesus describes a harvest of one hundredfold and sixtyfold and thirtyfold.
This is a parable about how we hear the gospel. It is also about God’s outrageous generosity. We often hear this parable as a call to be well prepared. We ought to be good soil. Of course we should continue to seek God and try and improve our relationship with God. We often stop at the personal level of receiving and becoming fruitful. This isn’t about how we become more efficient or gifted Christians. This parable is about how we join with God in the miraculous outpouring of blessing to the whole world.
A common farmer would be careful with the seed. God scatters it everywhere. Maybe we can reconsider what we think about God’s blessings. We are tempted to think about the special blessings we receive (even right here!) and we feel the need to protect them and save them. Instead, God the farmer is tossing seed here there and everywhere. We build a beautiful space and wall it in and work hard to preserve what little we think we have. Maybe we have been given more than we think. Maybe God wants us to spread it around a little instead of keeping it to ourselves.
We are afraid. The common farmer (especially in the ancient world) had to be very careful about the seed. It had to be measured out and every new growth had to be preserved because there might not be enough. Jesus talks of unimaginable growth – 100 times more! More than his audience could have ever dreamed. We hope that stewardship increases ten percent and we have enough money to fix the organ. How much more God expects!
We have to correct our problems. We also need a bigger vision. We need to work as if we were about to collect a larger harvest, a generous harvest. God gives us more than barely enough – more than a little bit more so we can rest a little easier. Jesus expects a harvest that is world changing. The parable of the sower is about hearing good news. It’s also about the bounty of the good news.
As you know we have many issues about the building and the budget. I hope you will all continue to be generous as we work to put things back together. God wants us to remember an even greater generosity. Every good thing we have here is given so we can give it away again. Every good change in us is meant to make us generous.
To be generous is to give to another person just what that person needs. We will not grow as a community if we expect people to enter our doors and provide resources to preserve only the things that are important to us. People will enter our community through their own calling. They will have received their own blessings or seed from God. Our generosity is to help the stranger find God’s fullness in this place – even if it looks very different from what we have grown used to.
We will also grow in bounty as we recognize what God is doing in this place. It takes more than passive receptivity. We need to use our ears to listen and our eyes to see. (Did you know that we are going to reach the Millennium Development goal of halving extreme poverty worldwide? Did you hear about the Arab Spring where young people aren’t becoming terrorists but lovers of freedom? Did you know that our diocese raised $86,000 to rebuild the cathedral in Haiti – and we gave $1,700?) The television screams bad news 24/7. The good news of God is more powerful – more true. People are healed. People find forgiveness. People are being restored to God and to one another. We are always being called into deeper participation in God’s work of restoring the world.
We also need to see and hear how God is doing new things in our midst. God the careless sower is creating new life if we open our eyes to see. Maybe the bountiful harvest is around the corner and not in the carefully prepared seedbed. If we give up the demand that God preserve only the things we want, we may be able to see how God is creating bounty in unexpected ways.
Maybe its time to stop worrying if the harvest will be enough. Maybe its time to become the harvest of bounty, to a world that is hungry to hear it.
I am very much helped by Sarah Dylan Breuer who wrote a sermon on this text about six years ago. She points out two little odd things about this parable. The farmer is a little careless. He or she scatters seed indiscriminately. What farmer throws seed on rocks or in the road? This week I had some workman repair a portion of my lawn. I didn’t see any grass seed on my driveway. When I planted my vegetable garden, I practically counted every seed and put them in the soil one-by-one with my fingers. Secondly, Jesus describes an outrageous harvest. In the time of Jesus there were no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers. If the seed multiplied twofold it would be expected. A fivefold harvest would have been extraordinary. Jesus describes a harvest of one hundredfold and sixtyfold and thirtyfold.
This is a parable about how we hear the gospel. It is also about God’s outrageous generosity. We often hear this parable as a call to be well prepared. We ought to be good soil. Of course we should continue to seek God and try and improve our relationship with God. We often stop at the personal level of receiving and becoming fruitful. This isn’t about how we become more efficient or gifted Christians. This parable is about how we join with God in the miraculous outpouring of blessing to the whole world.
A common farmer would be careful with the seed. God scatters it everywhere. Maybe we can reconsider what we think about God’s blessings. We are tempted to think about the special blessings we receive (even right here!) and we feel the need to protect them and save them. Instead, God the farmer is tossing seed here there and everywhere. We build a beautiful space and wall it in and work hard to preserve what little we think we have. Maybe we have been given more than we think. Maybe God wants us to spread it around a little instead of keeping it to ourselves.
We are afraid. The common farmer (especially in the ancient world) had to be very careful about the seed. It had to be measured out and every new growth had to be preserved because there might not be enough. Jesus talks of unimaginable growth – 100 times more! More than his audience could have ever dreamed. We hope that stewardship increases ten percent and we have enough money to fix the organ. How much more God expects!
We have to correct our problems. We also need a bigger vision. We need to work as if we were about to collect a larger harvest, a generous harvest. God gives us more than barely enough – more than a little bit more so we can rest a little easier. Jesus expects a harvest that is world changing. The parable of the sower is about hearing good news. It’s also about the bounty of the good news.
As you know we have many issues about the building and the budget. I hope you will all continue to be generous as we work to put things back together. God wants us to remember an even greater generosity. Every good thing we have here is given so we can give it away again. Every good change in us is meant to make us generous.
To be generous is to give to another person just what that person needs. We will not grow as a community if we expect people to enter our doors and provide resources to preserve only the things that are important to us. People will enter our community through their own calling. They will have received their own blessings or seed from God. Our generosity is to help the stranger find God’s fullness in this place – even if it looks very different from what we have grown used to.
We will also grow in bounty as we recognize what God is doing in this place. It takes more than passive receptivity. We need to use our ears to listen and our eyes to see. (Did you know that we are going to reach the Millennium Development goal of halving extreme poverty worldwide? Did you hear about the Arab Spring where young people aren’t becoming terrorists but lovers of freedom? Did you know that our diocese raised $86,000 to rebuild the cathedral in Haiti – and we gave $1,700?) The television screams bad news 24/7. The good news of God is more powerful – more true. People are healed. People find forgiveness. People are being restored to God and to one another. We are always being called into deeper participation in God’s work of restoring the world.
We also need to see and hear how God is doing new things in our midst. God the careless sower is creating new life if we open our eyes to see. Maybe the bountiful harvest is around the corner and not in the carefully prepared seedbed. If we give up the demand that God preserve only the things we want, we may be able to see how God is creating bounty in unexpected ways.
Maybe its time to stop worrying if the harvest will be enough. Maybe its time to become the harvest of bounty, to a world that is hungry to hear it.
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