Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
July 10, 2011

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

There isn’t very much about Jesus that is annoying, but there is one thing. It’s his habit of putting almost everything he had to say in the form of a parable. He said some things quite directly—love your enemies, love your neighbor as yourself, and so on. But mostly when he was talking about the Kingdom of God, which is mostly what he talked about, he did it in parables. A parable is a little story that is designed and intended to make a point of some kind. Some of his parables have become really well known—the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and so on. Mostly in the Gospels we just get the parable, and we’re left to our own devices to figure out what it means. But in a few places the Gospels give us interpretations of one of Jesus’ parables, and we have one of those places this morning.

It’s the parable of the sower and the seeds. We just heard it. It tells of someone who went out to sow seed. Apparently whoever this was wasn’t very careful or precise about where he threw the seed, for it landed in all sorts of different places. You’d think he’d want his valuable seed to fall only on arable soil, but that’s now how this parable goes. Some of the seed fell on the path and got eaten up by the birds. Some fell on rocky ground and got toasted by the sun. Some fell among thorns and got choked as it tried to grow. Only some of the seed fell where the sower presumable intended it to fall, on good soil, where it could flourish.

Then, a few verses later, the Gospel of Matthew gives us an interpretation of this parable. We don’t know if the interpretation comes from Jesus himself or only from the author of the Gospel of Matthew, but either way we get an explanation. And we wonder: Why? Why does the Gospel think it has to explain this one to us? I’m not sure, but I think it’s probably because the parable without the explanation leaves us going Huh? What in heaven’s name is Jesus talking about? We know it’s a parable, but what is the seed supposed to represent? What are the different types of soil supposed to represent? I’m pretty sure that without the explanation I would have no idea how to answer those questions, so obscure does this parable seem when standing alone without explanation.

So the explanation tells us that the seed is the word about the Kingdom of God and the different types of soil are different types of people who hear the word about the Kingdom of God. OK. That makes a certain amount of sense. After all, a lot of people have heard Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God, but certainly not everyone who has heard it has reacted to it the same way. To some it has meant nothing. Some have played with it for a while then given it up. Some have tried but have found themselves overwhelmed by worldly things so that there is never much evidence of the Kingdom in their lives, and some, a few, have taken the message about the Kingdom of God to heart and had it bear much fruit in lives of service in the causes of peace and justice. Understood that way, Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed makes a lot of sense.

And like all good Bible stories, Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed invites us in and asks us questions. This parable with its metaphor of seed and ground is about different ways in which people have received Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God, so the primary questions that it asks us are: What kind of soil are you? How are you receiving Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God? What kind of harvest is it producing in your life? These are tough questions, and they’re really, really important ones for those of us who call ourselves Christians, who call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ.

And there may be a temptation for us to say O yes. We’re really good soil for the seeds of the Kingdom. Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God is growing strong and healthy in us and producing an abundant harvest of good works. And maybe that’s true for you. It’s not really for me to say that it isn’t. I do know, however, that as much as I’d like to be able to say that about myself, I can’t. Not if I’m being honest. And since I admit that I can’t say that about myself I think I can ask you: Can you really say that about yourselves? Really? Truly? Maybe, but I suspect that the honest answer for most of us is no, we can’t say that.

So if the part of the parable about seed falling on good soil and producing an abundant harvest doesn’t apply to us, what part of it does? For the sake of brevity let me jump straight to what I think the honest answer to that question is. I think the part of the parable that applies to me and most of us is the part about the seed sown among thorns, the thorns being the cares of the world and the lure of wealth. I mean, let’s face it. Most of us spend a lot more time dealing with the cares of the world than we do trying to further the Kingdom of God. We worry about health. We worry about personal safety. We worry about our children and, if we still have them, our parents. We worry about work and about not having work. We worry about having enough to retire on if we’re still working and enough to live on if we’re retired.

And let’s face it. The lure of money is never far from our hearts. We’d all like to have more money than we have—regardless of how much money we actually do have, whether a little or la lot. We live in a society that is all about money. Money is how we measure success. Wealthy people are for us successful people. Poor people, regardless of why they are poor, are for American culture unsuccessful people regardless of what else may be true of them beyond the fact that they do not have money. Money is what motivates most of us to work. Our society is all about money, and we are all products of our society.

And all that concern for the cares of the world and for money does indeed choke out Jesus’ word about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God isn’t about money, after all. It is about justice and about peace. The Kingdom of God isn’t about the cares of the world, it is about leaving the cares of the world behind in lives fully devoted to and trusting in God. When we care a great deal about money we strangle the word of the Kingdom. When we worry about all the worldly things we worry about we strangle the word of the Kingdom. We really do.

So I suppose I could stand up here and rail at you and rail at myself to undertake a sudden and radical transformation of our lives, of our priorities. I could say we need to change everything about our lives, and we need to do it now. But that wouldn’t do much good, would it. None of us, myself included, is going to walk out of here today and immediately think and act in radically different ways than we did when we came in here this morning. So I’m not going to rail at you or at myself suddenly and fundamentally to change everything about our lives.

I am however going to ask you, and myself, a question. We aren’t going to do extreme and radical things to change how we live, but what can we do perhaps to clear the thorns away from a little patch of soil so that a seed of the Kingdom may sprout and come to life? What little things can we do? For you see, I am convinced that we can all do little things to clear away the thorns and that if all of us just would do some little things the seeds of the Kingdom would have a much better shot at bearing fruit. So what can we do?

I’ll just make a few suggestions. Pray more. Set aside some time for prayer ever day. As we come into more regular contact with God in prayer a space will open up amidst the cares of our lives in which a shoot of the Kingdom can appear. Volunteer somewhere. Volunteer at the food bank. Volunteer at Take the Next Step. Not a lot. Not every day. Start with once a month and see how it feels. A space will appear amidst the thorns where a shoot of the Kingdom can appear. Give more. Yes, I mean money. Give more money to a cause you believe in. When we give our money we give part of ourselves. When we give money we commitment ourselves to the cause to which we give. It doesn’t have to be a lot of money. Give even a little money regularly to a worthy cause, and a space will appear amidst the thorns where a shoot of the Kingdom can appear.

If we will do little things like this a clear space of good soil will appear. And then instead of thorns we may get roses. We may get something beautiful, something fragrant, something inspiring, something of the Kingdom of God. And as we see the good fruits of our little actions maybe we will be moved to do more, and as we do more roses will appear. So let’s make room for the roses. Let’s make room amid the cares of the world and the lure of money for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Amen.