July 13, 2014
Sowing Seeds of Peace
- Matthew 13:1-9
- Dr. Teri Thomas
When I was a kid one of my favorite places to go was the farm.
Uncle Smitty and Aunt Ilo had a farm outside of Findlay, Ohio.
We were often shipped off for a visit when our parents needed to get rid of us.
I loved it.
I gathered the eggs and helped Ilo in her garden.
Smitty would take us on the tractor or we rode on the trailer while he baled hay.
We picked corn, slopped the hogs, and probably got in the way more than we helped
but it was always an adventure.
Ilo and Smitty would would be very critical of the sower in this parable this morning.
Who would throw valuable seed so willy nilly?
Who would waste expensive seed by throwing it on rocks, or on the path, or into the weeds.
It doesn’t make sense to any hard working farmer.
It doesn’t even make sense to a city kid with pots on the deck.
It makes me wonder if maybe we look at this parable the wrong way.
We tend to look at the soil and wonder if we are the good soil.
We judge others who we know must be the bad soil.
But what if we take Paul’s advice in Romans when he says that in Christ there is no condemnation and look at this differently.
Let’s forget the soil quality for a moment and focus on the sower.
We might say he is careless or reckless.
We might call him foolhardy or wasteful.
But what if we think of the sower as generous and hopeful,
perhaps even a relentless optimist for believing that life can take root
even in unlikely places, even rocky and thorny soil?
Maybe the sower wasn't being wasteful or careless at all.
Maybe the sower knew exactly what he was doing.
It's not hard to infer in Jesus' parable that God is the sower.
It is God who casts the Word all about, without regard for where it lands,
loving every type of soil, and showering it with the Word, with love, grace and mercy.
And God not only sows the seeds and tends the soil;
God waters with rain and snow and brings forth good fruit in us by the power of the Word.
While we're sitting here wondering what kind of soil we are,
God is showering us with all manner of seed and blessing.
If we read the parable from the perspective of the sower we see something else.
Good soil is broken soil.
The good soil is soil that is tilled and turned,
soil that has cracks and ridges where seeds can drop down and take root.
And we are, each of us, in our own ways, broken soil—
every person has been turned over and over in all kinds of ways throughout life.
And this brokenness, which we often so desperately try to hide,
this brokenness that we think disqualifies us from God's love—
this brokenness where we believe nothing good can grow
this brokenness is the very thing that allows the seed,
the Word, God's love to take root.
You know, Jesus spent most of his time with people and in places
that would have been considered bad soil in his day.
He consorted with despised tax collectors,
the ritually unclean, the sick, Samaritans, women,
and rough fishermen turned disciples.
These were not the spiritual elite.
They were not good soil by most any measure.
But Jesus walked with them, taught, and healed them.
Jesus showered them with mercy and love, and they did indeed bear much fruit.
Just as we can be quick to judge ourselves through the lens of this parable,
we can also be quick to judge others—
to place them in certain categories
because they are young or old,
because of their skin color,
or their economic level,
whether they are in church every Sunday, or not at all.
It is part of our human instinct,
a symptom of our brokenness,
to label and to categorize where God does not.
But we are called to follow Jesus and his example of loving all kinds of people,
all kinds of ground, trusting in the power of God's Word to transform even what appears to be barren or broken soil.
This understanding of the parable has been haunting me this week.
I am heartbroken, sick and sad about the violence that has become so prevalent in our society.
I confess that I feel powerless by the evil that is not just in the news—
but a part of the communities we all live in.
A teenager in Fishers is killed with a knife.
Children playing with guns are shot at the kitchen table.
Police officers die in the street.
Seven people are shot in Broad Ripple.
You know the stories.
It is sad and it is senseless.
I am full of grief and gloom and a sense of helplessness.
Then I see seeds taking root where they shouldn’t.
Through cracks in my driveway.
On top of boulders in the woods.
In a dried up patch of dirt buried in mulch.
It is a reminder of how persistent life is,
how sometimes it only takes a little break,
a little crack, a few inches of dirt, for life to take root.
God's love is more potent and more powerful than we think.
God brings life in the midst of our brokenness.
God brings life out of death—
life in the most unlikely of places--a cross and a tomb.
There is no one simple solution to the violence that surrounds us.
You have heard all the suggestions-
ban assault weapons and demand universal background checks
better mental health treatment
arm employees in schools
increase a war on drugs
improve our educational system
pray the devil out
establish more jails and stiffer sentences for crime
build stronger families
return prayer to public school
provide more jobs
place restrictions of violent movies and video games and TV shows
The problem is so big and so vast
there is no agreement of where to start or what will work
so I wring my hands and wish someone would fix it.
Then I see another story on the news.
And I realize that I have not done enough.
I am touched by the incredible sadness of families who lost their children
children who have lost parents,
and criminals who have lost their futures.
I’m troubled by the news but I haven’t really changed my life.
I still watch violent movies and TV shows because they are mindless entertainment.
I have not written to my government officials to express my views on gun legislation.
I keep thinking about becoming a mentor or big sister for a child at School 55
but I have been busy.
I pray frequently for the victims of violence
but I neglect others caught up in it
and systems that perpetuate it.
I don’t even preach much about economic justice
or the failures in our educational and mental health organizations
or gun safety because I know some people would feel personally offended.
I am confessing my sins today to you as your Pastor
because I think we all need to confess.
We all need to change our lives and live in new ways
if we expect anything to change.
I do not have answers today, only many questions
as I consider my part in what is happening all around me.
The Christian church in Colombia (a country more dangerous than ours)
has a motto: “In a culture of violence, we choose to live the resurrection.”
Let us be that church.
Let us be those people.
Let us tend the seeds God has so abundantly sown,
no matter what soil they end up in.
Let us have courage and do what we know is right
and restore hope.
-Saint Augustine wrote-
"Hope has two beautiful daughters.
Their names are anger and courage;
anger at the way things are,
and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are."
Thanks be to God for anger
for courage
for hope.
Amen.
Resources:
God, the Crazy Farmer, by The Rev. Keith Anderson, Upper Dublin Lutheran Church, Ambler, PA