Planting the Kingdom

The Gospel of Matthew organizes the story of Jesus’s life and ministry around 5 sections of Jesus’s teaching. This morning’s passage is from the third of these discourses, and here we find the first parable that Matthew recounts Jesus telling. Earlier in the day Pharisees came to the house where Jesus was to investigate a healing. Jesus had healed a man who was blind and could not talk, he was thought to be demon-possessed. The Pharisees didn’t doubt that Jesus had done the healing. They questioned the source of his power. Was his authority from good or from evil? From God or from the prince of demons, Beelzebul, the name literally means “lord of filth”? Jesus responds that you can tell the difference between a good tree and a bad tree by its fruit and warns them that they will be vindicated or condemned by their words on judgment day. And they asked him for a sign- evidently the healing wasn’t enough for them. He tells them that they will receive the sign of Jonah – like Jonah in the belly of the whale, the son of man will be in the heart of the earth, he tells them, for three days and three nights. And he reminds them that the people of Nineveh repented when they heard Jonah’s warnings.

Then he leaves the house, goes and sits down by the Sea of Galilee and begins to teach. The crowd becomes so large that he has to get in a boat and push off from shore so that everyone can hear him. The hills around the Sea of Galilee function as a natural amphitheater, so sound travels well off the water and up the hillside.

“Listen!” he begins and tells them a story of a Sower, some seeds, and 4 kinds of soil. It seems so simple. New Testament scholar Stanley Saunders says “The simplest reading of the parable…is that it describes a mixed harvest, including reasons for the failure of some seeds to produce fruit.” In the Mediterranean culture of the day, these were stock characters for storytelling. The Sower was the teacher, the seeds were the lesson, and the soil was the students. Jesus used a common story-form and turned it into a parable, literally para- “alongside” and “bole” throwing , throwing alongside. It’s different than comparison or even metaphor. It is designed to be easily remembered and to never be fully grasped. Several years ago, I preached a series of parables and I compared understanding them to trying to focus and see a 3-D image. You get it so that you see the image, and you feel like you can look around in the world of the picture and just as quickly as you think you have it, it snaps back to a jumble of colors on the page.

So, the disciples question his method. Why would you speak in parables instead of just being forthright? And Jesus explains the meaning to them and tells them that those who have ears to hear will understand.

The Sower and the Seeds are the Word of God, Jesus. Jesus who took flesh sows indiscriminately – broadcasts seeds everywhere without calculating their possible ROI- return on investment. Jesus the Word settles across the whole earth. No place is left unplanted. No person is deemed unsuitable for the seed to settle upon them.

Some seeds land on hard soil. They never are received. They blow away or are picked off. There are people with hardened hearts who won’t be softened. There are ministries that won’t be successful. There are efforts to spread the Gospel that will not flourish. There will be love that is shared that won’t be reciprocated or have a story of great transformation to tell.

Some seeds land among rocks with just a thin layer of soil covering them. In the heat of the day, the rocks warm and so the seed germinates quickly and soon you have a little seedling with two leaves upturned to the sun. It seems so hopeful, but the plant can’t take root. The sun’s rays scorch it, the lack of root starves it of water and nourishment, and it shrivels up and dies. There are people who seem to be on fire for God! They want to make all the difference. They have great ideas and energy and are full of joy. They seem to be growing and to hold such hope. But, below the surface, they aren’t growing roots. They aren’t building a network of community who will hold them up when life gets hard. They aren’t learning and practicing spiritual disciplines like prayer and Scripture study and devotions. Some aren’t attending worship or participating in a faith community. And without that water and nourishment, when life heats up and trouble comes, the faithful seedling shrivels and dies. We see it in churches, too. A new church development or a new ministry gets planted and grows fast; it is exciting and joyful and hopeful with leaves budding out…faster than the network to support it…and when the day gets long, the lack of roots will leave the new congregation or ministry shriveling and struggling without strong enough relationships or administrative structure, not enough ownership among the people to carry the weight of the work together, not enough commitment to supporting the ministry…and many don’t develop the roots they need and die.

Some seeds fall among thorns. Jesus told the disciples, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” There are people who live as though they have control. They try to protect themselves from the struggles of life. They worry about the future. They are afraid of the “what if’s” of life. And they hold onto what they think will keep them safe – wealth. Thorn plants in your field in Palestine in the 1st Century were a threat to your crop because they competed for resources, slowly choking the life out of your crop before the harvest. Churches struggle with risk assessment, too. They calculate how much they need to have in rainy day funds based on how much they have and focus on keeping church comfortable rather than on growing and serving and bearing fruit. They get so focused on themselves and on survival that they neglect their purpose, to produce seeds to be planted. And they slowly are choked by their worries and what if’s and belief that the endowment will protect them, and they die.

It’s a hard word to hear. There has been in special committee working on writing a new Confession of Faith for our time, and they brought a draft to General Assembly this summer. As I read it the first time, I thought, oh people aren’t going to like this! The section on “Turning Away from God’s Image” starts: Although we are created in God’s image and likeness, to reflect God’s love for neighbors, strangers, and selves, we have given our hearts to wealth and property as if they were our refuge and strength. This is idolatry.” It was true for the people standing by the water that day listening to Jesus, and it is true for us.

There is one more type of soil, though. Jesus said, “The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” I looked up what a normal harvest would have been for those farmers listening to Jesus. They would have known that a normal harvest would be 7.5 bushels from 1 bushel of seed…a really good harvest would have been 10 to 1. Jesus is promising a bumper crop – unbelievable! 100, 60, or 30 times what was sown, when the soil conditions are right.

Those who have ears, listen and then start preparing the soil, because we have control over the soil. We don’t have control over the sower – who is going to extravagantly broadcast seeds everywhere without regard for whether the soil has been prepared or not. We don’t have control over the birds that would come and eat the seed, the grace and love that is shared but not received. We don’t have control over the sun, the struggles of life that beat down on us and leave us shriveling and wilted. We can’t change that when we allow thorns to grow in our lives, they will take over and suck the life out of us. What we can change is our plot of land. We can till our hearts through acts of service, doing loving things makes us more loving. We can remove the rocks in our lives that are keeping us from growing and intentionally grow deeper roots. We need community – relationships to support us, relationships with God and with other people of faith. Being present for worship and for fellowship events, participating in a committee or volunteering to help with a project – over time – roots us. We can remove the thorny plants of worry and the lie that wealth will conquer our worries, but it takes work and intentionality. Inventorying what is influencing our thoughts is a good way to start. You might try putting a pad of paper close to your bed or by the coffee pot and writing down each day the things you are concerned about…and turn them into a prayer. Dear God, I am worried about…..please guide me in how to respond and give me peace about the things I can’t control. Amen.

We want to be good soil. God wants us to be good soil. But any farmer, then or now, will tell you that it takes work to have and keep good soil. And any farmer, then or now, will tell you that good soil is judged by its productivity. Good soil produces more seeds to be scattered, more grace and love to be shared extravagantly. The Sower is planting the kingdom, may it fall on good soil in us. Amen.