by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 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. 23 But 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.”
(Read Matthew 13:1-9, 19-23)
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.” (vv.1-2). For the past months farmers were on the news with the different serious concerns of questionable prices of onions, sugar, rice and other agricultural products and the apparent incompetence or lack of focus of the government in handling them. Topping them all is the looming El Nino that will put agricultural production of the whole country in critical and uncertain condition.
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I am a farmer’s son. I helped in the farm as a boy until I was deployed after graduation from the seminary. I know how uncertain the crop planted would fare. Will there be much harvest for the market or just enough to eat? Good harvest or bad we remained a farmer and my parents were able to send five children to school with a decent house and food in the table three times a day.
Farmers work with the earth in a unique kind of partnership. They tend the earth, break it up, kill the weeds, water the soil. Whatever the crop, they all do the same thing. They take part in a great mystery placing a seed in the ground, covering it up, and watching it grow. The information they work with has multiplied over the decades (scientific farming, gadgets, etc.), but they still take part in a great mystery. Sometimes the seed grows, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the harvest is bountiful, and some years there is just enough to survive. Next planting season is always a test of farmer’s endurance, and persistence, and financial concern. The desire is always there to try it again and see that it works.
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We are to understand, of course, that the sower is God, the seed is the Kingdom, and the various types of soil represent us—you and me. On the surface of it, of course, it doesn’t sound as though God is a very frugal farmer. After all, most of the seed that is strewn about never takes root. But this is not really a story about the sower or the seed. It is a story about different types of soil, or to put it another way, the responses of different types of people to the Kingdom.
Chapter 13 of the gospel of Matthew contains seven (7) parables of the kingdom of heaven: The parable of the Sower; parable of the weeds; parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast; Parables of the Treasure and the Pearl; and Parable of the Net. We will be reading and hearing them preached for the next two Sundays. These parables of the Kingdom decribe both the results of preaching the gospel and the spiritual conditions that will prevail on earth within the visible manifestations of the kingdom of heaven (i.e.the churches) until the end of the earth.
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The Parable of the Sower is about the Kingdom of Heaven. Parables are stories from everyday life that relate and illustrate certain spiritual truths. Their uniqueness is found in revealing truth to those who are spiritual while at the same time concealing it from the unbeliever. Parables may at times DEMANDS A DECISION. In most of these parables, Christ teaches that there will be good and evil in his visble kingdom throughout the entire age. Among those who profess his name, there will be compromise and worldliness that lead to apostasy, as well as faithfulness and godliness that lead to eternal life. At the end of the age the wicked will be destroyed . “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (v.43).”
Christ speaks these parables in order to alert the true disciples to expect evil within the kingdom and to teach them how to overcome the influence and opposition of Satan and his followers. The only way to do so is through wholehearted devotion to Christ and lives committed to righteousness.
“Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:34-35).
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How does the Parable of the Sower relate to us today? Basically, when we know God’s Word, but we get distracted by the news, riches, or noise that the enemy tempts us with, that it replaces the goodness of the Gospel. This distraction sucks us in and we forget that all we need to do is turn our eyes upon Jesus. Those who “understand” the Word appropriate it to experience. Misunderstood truth can neither do good nor make a difference in one’s life. The good soil is the genuine believer who truly embraces the message of the kingdom. who indeed [in reality] bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Why is it that the reading and preaching of God’s Word produces such a variety of responses in the congregation, from boredom to great excitement? Often, a congregation assesses the preacher and lays any blame at his feet. But in this parable, the preacher assessed the congregation. This well-known parable of the sower may be better titles, “The Four Soils” because it is really about the four kinds of responses to the Word of God. Jesus made it clear that the seed represents the Word of God (Mark 4:14). The farmer is the preacher (Jesus in this case). The four soils represent four kinds of people.
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Some people are like the path; the seed that falls on it is taken away quickly by Satan. Such people hear but fail to listen. They do not reflect on what is said or read, and, as they say, the message goes in one ear and comes out the other. Whenever the word of Word is sown, Satan will attempt to distract and divert people. A distracted, preoccupied, or skeptical person will not readily receive God’s Word. Some people are like the rocky soil. There is an initial response to the Word, but it does not take root due to shallowness of heart. When trouble or persecution comes, such people will leave quickly. Their idea of discipleship has no place of suffering. They are fair weather Christians.
Others are like the thorny ground. They respond to the gospel but are overcome by worries, greed, and worldly desires that choke their spiritual life and prevent them from bearing spiritual fruit. They are not willing to give up the world to gain Christ. It is the good soil that represents true disciples. They accept God’s Word and produce a rich harvest. Unlike the others, they are willing to really listen, to suffer, and to give up everything for Christ.
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If we are honest with ourselves, we can probably find evidence of several kinds of soil in our lives and in our congregations on any given day. It is noteworthy that Jesus does not use the parable to exhort hearers to “be good soil,” as though we could make that happen. If there is any hope for the unproductive soil, it is that the sower keeps sowing generously, extravagantly, even in the least promising places. Jesus’ investment in his disciples shows that he simply will not give up on them, in spite of their many failings. We trust that he will not give up on us either, but will keep working on whatever is hardened, rocky, or thorny within and among us. We trust in his promise to be with us to the end of the age.
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As those entrusted with Jesus’ mission today, we might consider the implications of this parable for how we engage in mission. Too often we play it safe, sowing the word only where we are confident it will be well received, and only where those who receive it are likely to become contributing members of our congregations. In the name of stewardship, we hold tightly to our resources, wanting to make sure that nothing is wasted. We stifle creativity and energy for mission, resisting new ideas for fear they might not work — as though mistakes or failure were to be avoided at all costs.
Jesus’ approach to mission is quite at odds with our play-it-safe instincts. He gives us freedom to take risks for the sake of the gospel. He endorses extravagant generosity in sowing the word, even in perilous places. Though we may wonder about the wisdom or efficiency of his methods, Jesus promises that the end result will be a bumper crop. (workingpreacher.com)
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What is the state of our hearts when the seeds are sown with us? The great sower is God. The seeds, His Word. The soils, us. Seeds sown in the good soil of our hearts blossom into the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
If the seeds of God’s love flower into these fruits, then what do those new seeds look like? There is pollination, cross-pollination, and new growth all over the place! The cycle of sowing begins again. God’s abundant love sees to that. We go about our daily business, living in faithfulness in God’s abundance and being sowers among those we encounter. We don’t often get to see where the seeds fall, but the point is that we continue to sow. The Church’s mission and our mission is to spread the Good News to every end of the Earth. Archbishop William Temple said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” This still holds true for us today. There are infinite ways for us to be the Church he describes: by giving a smile to someone who is feeling lonely, visiting the sick, donating money to an organization that helps those who are marginalized, speaking up for a neighbor when you witness an injustice occurring, praying for those you dislike – the list can go on and on. (Ministers’ Annual Manual 2001-2002)
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Our becoming God’s children by our baptism, we have become the sower, the carrier and planter of the seed, God’s word, to all. We are both the sowers and the soil. Without the one, the other would not make sense. When we go forth everyday, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit, may we sow abundantly, and may the seed that is sown in us and to others bear the plentiful fruit of God’s love.
Let us pray.
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 10 Collect, ECP-BCP)
