Jesus sat beside the sea and he told them many things in parables
“Listen! A sower went out to sow…the reign of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in the field; but while everyone was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds…the reign of heaven is like a mustard seed…like yeast…a treasure hidden in a field…a merchant in search of fine pearls…a net thrown into the sea…”
Between now and the end of the month as we move through the 13th chapter of Matthew we will be as inundated with parables about the reign of God as we were with advertisements for 4th of July sales a week ago.
And, while each of these metaphors or similes has a slightly different flavor they all contain the same underlying truth stated first for us this morning in our reading from the prophet, Isaiah:
“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
The reign of God…justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, welcome for the stranger, comfort for the lost…the reign of God will be realized.
In today’s gospel reading, we are presented with the parable of the sower…one of the most familiar of all of the stories Jesus told…and one that taken by itself can easily be misunderstood.
A sower goes out flinging seed…everywhere. On the path, in the rocks, among the weeds
And in some places the seed does not produce the intended harvest. The seed itself is devoured, seedlings are scorched, plants choked…
Endless war. Another senseless killing in our senseless war on the undocumented. The erosion of the rule of law and the unchecked flow of official corruption. An utter disregard for the welfare of the poor, the sick and those without homes. Contempt for even the smallest efforts to preserve the health of the planet which sustains us. An utter disregard for truth.
It is easy in times of struggle to feel that the reign of God is impossibly far off, that there are just too many obstacles.
The first communities of believers who heard this parable must have felt much the same. Persecuted by the authorities, estranged from family and friends, how can this be God’s reign?
Let anyone with ears listen.
“Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain-some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen.”
Remember, this is the “Parable of the Sower,” not the “Parable of the Crappy Soil.” The sower is extravagant in casting seed. And it only takes a little falling upon the right soil to produce an abundance.
The parable of the sower is a message of hope. It is authentic in that it does not gloss over the persistence of evil or the difficulty of the environment in which we seek to nurture the sprouting and growth of justice and compassion. But it reminds us that God is faithful throughout all time and in all circumstances.
We are reminded of this in a special way today, as we celebrate the feast days of Benedict and Scholastica. For more than 1500 years and across the Rule they established has inspired monastic communities and the communities they support including all of us attached to Holy Wisdom in whatever way. One-hundred fold hardly begins to describe what this good soil has brought forth.
I want to close today with a couple of thoughts on this passage from someone who has become something of an online spiritual mentor of mine in recent years, Nadia Bolz Weber:
Maybe the point of this parable isn’t judgement at all, maybe it’s joy. Since again and again in the midst of this thorny and rocky and good world, God still is sowing a life-giving Word. Just wantonly and indiscriminately scattering it everywhere like God doesn’t understand our rules.
And God’s Word is scattered all around us… joyfully scrawled on protest signs and heard in newborns’ cries, and seen in city streets and county fairs and shopping malls. The Word of the Lord is written on the broken tablets of our hearts, it is falling like rain in the tears of the forgiven, it is harnessed in the laughter of our children.
So perhaps to focus on the lush and ludicrous image of how God extravagantly sows the Word of the Kingdom, is to read the parable in joy instead of judgement.