16/7/23
Isaiah 55:10-13
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23
We have some extraordinarily rich readings this morning! The images provoked are beautiful, full of joy and yet have a shadow in them. A warning for us. The easier option would be to ignore the shadow warning and carry on with joy. Really who could not use a little more joy at this time? The fabulous images of growth and freedom, the work of rain and snow, the earth being watered, joy, peace, the mountains, and hills singing, fields clapping their hands. Lovely!
Paul starts probably the most difficult chapter in his letter to the Romans with the bold and joyful declaration that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. It is in the Spirit where true life and peace are found! Jesus told the vast crowd before him about the sower who flung seeds all over the place with joyful abandon. There is not much we do these days with reckless abandon.
Everything we do seems to require advanced planning and preparation. Risk assessments, I am sure we can remember the days of taking along gloves, masks, and hand gel. We had to be vigilant of everything we touch and who is around us. The freedom of the sower to go wherever they like is shocking! His freedom makes me envious of the freedoms that we had, that seem a distant memory. I need the boost of joy that the sower gives!
There is also something about the extravagance of God shown in Isaiah and Matthew. Again, we are not living in extravagant times. Many are in financial hardship if not ruin, people will be losing jobs and then living with the consequences that follow. Prices are rising as incomes fall ; hardly a time to be thinking of extravagant or wasteful spending.
In Isaiah, God is generous with the rain (maybe a bit too much this week) and the snow to water the earth, bring forth the sprouts to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. God has an endless supply of these things and he is generous with them! I think sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that God is somehow stingy or a minimalist.
We can trust God is good, he is the sower. The seed is also good. It represents the word of God. The good sower is scattering good seed and it is not growing. Why not? The seed has the conditions that it needs – there is water, there is a purpose for the seed. All the seed has to do is grow but its growth depends on the conditions around it.
The soil needs to be considered. In this parable, Jesus was referring to the crowd and us as the soil. We, our hearts and minds, are the soil in which the seed falls on. I would also suggest that we can carry many types of soil within us. Sometimes we can be rocky on some things and thorny on others. Sometimes we are just hard. I also strongly believe that we all have good soil within us too.
We all need time to consider the condition of our hearts and what is growing in them. Of course we do. There is nothing wrong with some honest and humble self-assessment. There are also times when we need to consider the love and lavishness of the sower who we often overlook in the quest to be better, less rocky, or thorny or hard. We tend to forget there is good soil too! This is a place that hears and understands the Word and ultimately bears fruit. We all have places in our hearts that bear good fruit. And we can overlook these parts as we get overly wrapped up in where we need improvement.
American essayist Debie Thomas writes: ‘…maybe like me — you’ve read this parable and walked away, feeling bad about your own faith life. Feeling judged. Feeling inadequate. Feeling anxious. You’ve wondered how to make your spiritual soil less hard, less rocky, less thorny. You’ve designed all sorts of self-improvement projects to fix what’s “wrong” with you. More prayer. Less Twitter. More Bible study. Less cynicism. More church. Less television. You’ve read the parable as an indictment of your relationship with a Sower who just can’t seem to find an appropriately hospitable environment in your messed-up heart.’
Consider again the sower as they sow the seed everywhere. Everywhere. In all types of places and circumstances – hospitals, prisons, grocery stores, schools, flat blocks, fields, meadows, car parks and playgrounds. They do so with an open hand and endless supply of seed. There is no way to sort it or save it, it will scatter everywhere. And you know what?
The sower does not seem to mind in the least! The sower in Jesus’ parable is wholly unconcerned about where the seed falls or lands or settles — all he chooses to do is keep sowing. Keep flinging. Keep opening his hands. Why? Because there’s enough seed to go around. There’s enough seed to accomplish the sower’s purposes. There’s enough seed to “waste”.
I think that as Christians and as a Church we need to reflect on our view of God as the sower in these times. How do we view God in the wake of Covid, the financial crisis and all the other issues at the moment?
God has not changed; he is still in charge of the storehouses of snow and hail. He is still watering the earth. True life and peace are found when we set our minds on the Spirit. There is still no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He is still the most generous and lavish sower and giver we can ever imagine. Our hearts, our mental health, our sense of security, our finances may have taken a pummelling in these last few years, but God is still good.
The sower, I hope, reminds me and us that despite our own stinginess of Spirit or belief, God is still generous. I hope, that despite a lack of confidence that is His word will go out and achieve his purposes, no matter where it lands – that it really will. I hope that God’s ability to clear or soften whatever ground there is of rocks and thorns – outstrips the doubt I have (Debie Thomas).
I will finish with Isaiah: ‘As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving the 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.’
God’s word will not return empty to him and shall accomplish its purpose and it will succeed. Let us receive the seed that He is sowing, the lavish gifts of love, joy, peace, grace. God is at work in the world, through Jesus and through us and this work continues. Sometimes it takes some time and thought to work out what exactly this means for each one of us. Trust the sower and his seed!
We have been freed from sin and death to live in the Spirit – to have life and peace. To have hearts that are soft and not hard, hearts that are free from rocks and thorns – but full of good soil with seed to share.