That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”
“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Like the other rabbis of his time, Jesus used stories with pictures and images, metaphors and characters, to help people understand who God is and what God’s realm is like. It was his way of teaching. The stories of Jesus spoke to the young and old, rich and poor, learned and unlearned alike. Not only that, but those stories have reached generation after generation…they speak to us as powerfully today as they spoke to the very first listeners who gathered on mountainsides, on dusty roadsides and around tables to hear Jesus tell them.
Deceptively simple, these stories, or “parables,” often present comparisons and the possibility of more than one meaning…the literal and something deeper. In other words, they invite us to think, and think again, staying open new interpretations, finding deeper meaning as we grow spiritually. Jesus’ parables use ordinary everyday images…things as common and simple as a farmer planting his crop, seeds being sown in a field, on a footpath or on rocky ground.
I say common and simple things, but the truth is, many of us contemporary suburb and city dwellers may not actually find these agrarian images all that familiar. I was a city apartment dweller for much of my adult life until my family and I moved into the parsonage in Lunenburg, MA. There, every summer, my daughters and I began the tradition of planting a big vegetable garden in our back yard. Mostly, we had no idea what we were doing, but we had very helpful neighbors and members of the congregation with great expectations of us!), so we learned. Oh, yes, indeed, we got dirt under our fingernails!
As I told the group gathered for the Ash Wednesday mid-day service, we started in the early spring by burning brush with the biggest bond fire ever over the garden (very exciting)! Then we asked a local farmer friend to till all the ash into the soil.
In early June we would hoe long beds and covered them with plastic. We used a pie plate as a guide to cut round holes and planted our seeds, different vegetables each summer but always pumpkins, and swan gourds We carefully planted a long row of two kinds of sun flower seeds along the farthest edge of the garden, the one that gets sun all day long. We also popped in marigolds in the edges of the garden, to help discourage the deer. And then we mulched all the in-between places with leaves from last fall. We call that “tucking” the garden in, to help control the weeds.
We were always very proud of ourselves!. But, if you’re a seasoned gardener, you will know that there are things you just can’t control. The rain, the sun, the weather. Sometimes your carefully planted garden was a tremendous success. Sometimes…not so much. Over time you learn that planting and tending a garden is an art as much as it is a science. It’s an act of faith, really. And you’re not alone in this…God is involved. With your hands in the dirt and the sun on your face, when you’re in the garden, sometimes it feels like you’re working, hand- in-hand in creation with God.
In the Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben writes about “the life of the soil,” and what trees must have in order to flourish and grow. Soil in ancient forests was made up of decomposed life, teeming with thousands of species of tiny life forms. Today, we use chemical fertilizer, which is a short-term solution that is a temporary fix to the pollution, toxins and overuse that we have neglected in soil and depletes it from its life-giving ability.
Think about what’s happening below the ground where at least half the bio-mass of a forest is hidden. I was listening on NPR to an economist on a TED talk yesterday who said, “There is no waste in nature. Everything decomposes and comes back as something else.” That’s what happens in nutrient rich, life-giving soil. Which feels very theological to me… the many years and nutrient cycles of birth and death.
So back to the Parable of the Sower, or the Parable of the Four Soils, as it is sometimes called. This is the brilliant story that Jesus told about possible ways that seed, when it’s scattered on the earth, take root…or not. Sometimes all the farmer’s work seems in vain. The seed eaten by birds before it can take root; or it falls on rocky ground and is scorched by the sun because it has no roots; and sometimes it’s sown among thorny weeds and is choked. And sometimes…. the seeds fall on good soil, take root, grow and are able to produce.
Now, digging into the meaning of this story, let’s look at the metaphors. Who is the sower, the farmer who sows the seeds? It could be Jesus, and the seeds are his teachings. It could be God and Jesus’ words and deeds are the seeds. It could be us. Maybe we’re meant to share Jesus’ teachings extravagantly and indiscriminately, not judging which people and places are worthy of them and which are not.
Or maybe we’re meant to be the seeds. If a bird eats you, you’re done for. If the ground you’re on is rocky, you wither. If the field you’re in is thorny, you’re choked. Only if conditions are good can you produce a harvest.
But what control does a seed have over the soil in which it lands? Remember… in the garden there are things you just can’t control. The rain, the sun, the weather. As I’ve discovered, we’re not alone in this…God is involved. Planting and tending a garden an act of faith, really, and when your hands in the dirt with the sun on your face, you’re deep in the soil and working hand- in-hand in creation with God.
Wendell Berry once wrote, “The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for (the soil) we can have no community, because without proper care for (the soil) we can have no life.”
This year, when I read this parable, I’m thinking that it’s all about the soil. We are the soil.
And Jesus tells us all we need to know about how to be the soil that will give the seeds of God’s word what they need to grow. God’s word is always the same, but we don’t always hear it or receive it or take it in in such a way that it can produce something life-giving. If the seed of God’s word of love is to take root, the soil of our hearts, and the ground of our communities of faith need to be tilled with mercy and compassion, fertilized with tolerance and empathy, hoed into rows of generosity and acts of justice, watered and tended with grace.
If our hearts are hardened and closed, like the garden path. The word never gets in, and something like a bird comes and snatches it way.
If the community is too shallow, we hear and believe, but it doesn’t sink in deeply, like the seed that falls on rocks. Challenges, troubles, doubts overcome our belief and the seed, the message of God’s love, blows away like the wind.
And sometimes the community does hear it, but the weeds within it choke it off from being able to take root and grow fully. Those weeds are the other priorities in our lives, the distractions…it could be material things, or our fears, our conflicts, or other preoccupations.
Pastor Rochelle Stackhouse tells this story…“My grandfather was a farmer most of his life, and he had a tremendous love of soil. As children, my brothers and I would laugh as he looked out a car window at a field and would say, “That’s beautiful dirt!” As suburban kids, for whom dirt was something that got us in trouble with our mother, we didn’t really get it. But what Grandpa saw in the dirt was the promise of seeds sprouting and crops producing a hundred-fold. It was just dirt to us, but to him it was gold.
“It’s all how you define treasure, I guess. Our churches (our congregations) are like that soil my grandfather loved. They are places where seeds get planted and nurtured. If the soil is strong, if we see it as treasure, then what grows in our churches are strong disciples, equipped to go into the world and live Christ. The treasure where our hearts are could refer to our individual bank accounts, or it could refer to the treasure that is Christian community that needs our work of tilling and planting and fertilizing and weeding and praying for a good crop.”
God calls us to have dirt under our fingernails, here at Edwards Church. If we are the soil, how are we creating that source of purpose and meaning that is deep and meaningful, rich and life-giving? What sort of soil are we? How do we get distracted? How well do we listen and dialogue through our differences? How adaptive are we? Is the soil of this community healthy enough to hold us strong and not buffeted as the sun beats down, the rain washes over, heat or cold, wind rages and snow blow? We are a soil made of the generations that have come before us, mixed with care and concerns of all of us gathered here today, that holds the promise for the future and all those who will follow us.
And who knows what’s to come? There are things you just can’t control like the rain, the sun, the weather. But we’re not alone in this…God is involved. Planting and tending a congregation is an act of faith, really, and when your hands in the dirt with the sun on your face, you’re deep in the soil and working hand- in-hand in creation with God.
May it be so for all of us. Amen.