The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – July 10, 2005
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
It was Janet’s custom each spring we lived in Charlottesville to plant a garden. With the soil ready she would place seeds and plants so that we would later harvest tomatoes, squash, and other delights. It was Janet’s custom to do that until the summer where her well-cared for garden was attacked by an animal that with razor precision took all the fruit. Everything was gone. Nothing was left. So discouraged was Janet by this ‘thief-in-the-night” she did not plant another garden.
I tell that story to remind us that even in our sophisticated living there are things out there that keep us from having a great and bountiful harvest.
Perhaps our Lord Jesus was on to something when he used the parable of the four soils to speak about the coming of the kingdom of God. Perhaps the agricultural illustration is still valid today, still valid in the midst of growing that is muted and damaged by the world. So, let’s look at the parable and seek the truth God wants us to know this morning as we consider the sower, the seed, the soils and the harvest.
Let’s begin with a simple question: “What kind of soil am I?” This seems to be the question most folks ask when they encounter the parable of the sower and the explanation by Matthew that follows.
“What kind of soil am I?” Am I part of the path where the seed falls and the birds consume it? Am I soil that is full of rocks, and therefore shallow, so that the seed falls, the plants begin to sprout, but the sun scorches them? Am I soil where thorns are already plentiful and the seed is choked by them? Or, am I soil that is so good, so deep, and so rich with life that the seeds fall here and grow to a great harvest beyond all expectation?
As I reflect on which soil a person might be, it seems to be the wrong focus, the wrong question. I say this because the parable then becomes centered on us and what we are doing rather than on God and how God is at work for us. Asking, “What kind of soil am I” only leads us to think that the kingdom of God and its coming for all is dependent upon us. We know though such a focus on us is not the truth. God brings the kingdom to us in Jesus. Thus, we may have misled ourselves when we asked the question, “What kind of soil am I?”
There is, you see, another question in this text: “What is God doing here?” This is a more faithful question since it is God-centered rather than self-centered.
When you ask the question, “What is God doing here” then you begin by hearing that God in Christ is the sower of the seed, the bringer of the kingdom. It has begun in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The cross event is that defining moment when we receive the mercy and grace of God for our forgiveness and life forever.
So it is God, mercifully at work in the cross of Christ that is bringing the kingdom to its time of harvest. It is Christ who through his death and resurrection sows the seed of the kingdom. Christ sows the seed of the kingdom in all kinds of soils, even in me and you.
Once the seed is sown, God makes it grow. Once the kingdom is in our midst, God is mercifully and gracefully growing the kingdom in and among us. It is mysterious and a great miracle, just like the mystery and miracle of the harvest you gain from the tomato plant you place in your garden. You know you need the seed. You know the plant needs sun and water. Indeed, with good soil, water and sun your garden thrives. Yet the very process of going from seed to fruit is a mysterious and miraculous process.
So it is with the kingdom. God is at work in Jesus sowing the seeds of the kingdom and then nurtures it with all that is needed for the kingdom to grow and one day God will do the harvesting. God will one day look at all the soils and judge which has faithfully produced the fruit of the kingdom.
So, there is a final question today: “What kind of soil am I?” Yes, the final question is the first question. Only now we answer differently. We answer: “We are good soil; Soil that is good by the grace of God in the cross. For it is by God’s grace that the seed of the kingdom is planted in us. How blessed we are.
And as we bear God’s fruit in our lives we remember that indeed we are good fruit-bearing soil not because of what we do, but because of what God has done in Christ and continues to do in us each day. We live by grace. Amen.
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Pastor Robert F. Holley