July 10, 2010   Proper 10 Year A Romans 8:1-11, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

The Rev. John A. Baldwin

The Parable of the Sower, from this morning's Gospel, is one of only three parables that appear in all of the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. The others are the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard. The Gospel of John does not have any of Jesus' parables recorded.

This parable of the sower going forth to scatter seeds is rich in imagery and meaning. It's truly one of Jesus' masterpieces. Simple, yet profound. Even though we are 2000 years removed from the story and citizens in a society where seeds are more commonly scattered by huge farm machinery, we can still picture the solitary work of a sower scattering seeds...especially if we've planted gardens in our back yards.

Since this parable reappears every 3 years in our Sunday scripture readings, I've preached on it many times before during my ministry, often finding new wisdom and insight. Like all good stories, there are many entry points for drawing meaning from this simple tale. We can walk around it, examining each part of it.

We can, for example, reflect upon the parable with reference to our own spiritual life. What kind of soil am I?...rich and fertile, stony and hard, choked with worries and anxieties? We can broaden the question to refer to our faith community, our work environment, our families, our society. How receptive are we to God's grace and love? We can look at the parable not only in terms of the broad sweep of our life, but also in how it applies right now. What seed is God sowing in my life today, July 10th, 2011? When you entered Emmanuel this morning were you open to being receptive soil for the Word of God coming to you through scripture, to the grace of God coming to you through receiving the bread and wine of Holy Eucharist, to the love of God coming to you through your brothers and sisters in Christ? OR have you allowed the concerns, worries and anxieties that face us every week to distract, bother or hinder you, so that this morning you are rocky ground, and may walk back out into the world unaffected at the end of our time together? I pray every week that we are faithful in this place in nurturing, watering, weeding and tending each and every one of you, so that you may grow and yield good fruit in the world.

If we look at the sower as a description of God's action in the world, we can also pose the question: What does this reveal about God? We might even envision ourselves as the sower. What seeds are we sowing as disciples of Christ? as a parent or grandparent? as a worker in the vineyard? There's yet one more curious and vexing question which comes to mind on hearing the parable. Why is it that even in good soil the harvest varies, sometimes producing a hundred fold, but at other times only 60 or 30?

One of my favorite collections of short stories is called Story Power by James Feehan, and one of its entries reminds me very much of the Parable of the Sower. Here it is:

In 1910, a young explorer was traveling in the French Alps when he came upon a barren stretch of land, desolate and abandoned. He had traveled about 5 miles into this God-forsaken territory when he saw in the distance the stooped figure of an old man with a sack of acorns on his back and an iron staff in his hand. With the staff he made a hole in the ground, dropped in an acorn, and then brushed dirt on top. He told the explorer that he had planted 100,000 acorns over the past 3 years. "If I get one in ten to sprout I'll be happy", he said, adding that his wife and only son had died, and that as long as the Lord spared him he would carry on planting trees to bring back life to a land that was dying.

Fifty years later the explorer, now an old man himself, returned to a sight wondrous to behold. The acorns of 1910 had become an oak forest 11 kilometers longs by 3 kilometers wide. There were oak trees along the slopes as far as the eye could see. Birds were singing in the trees, wild-life frolicked in the shade, and streams flowed with water in groves that had been bone dry. At the entrance to the forest was a linden tree, the symbol of re-birth. As he gazed in wonder, he thought back to the old peasant who had worked alone to turn a desert into a forest, and had completed a task worthy of God. (Story Power, James A. Feehan, Resource Publications, 1994, p. 34)

The unflagging commitment and optimism of the old man, "If I get one in ten to sprout, I'll be happy" seems to be the key to his success. A sower, knowing all of the factors that can intervene before the harvest, has to let go of control over the seeds, scatter them widely and generously, and then move on to plant others. He or she cannot afford to plant them carefully one by one, and then worry over each one, whether or not it will grow and flourish. Sometimes the harvest is so far into the future that we can never be sure that an oak forest or fields of waving grain will be the end result.

We cannot know with certainty that the love and energy we invest in our children will result in well-grounded, whole and mature adults; OR whether the time we put into our work and projects will be beneficial to others; OR whether initiating a new friendship will blossom and flourish. But it's vitally important as the Parable suggests to keep on sowing those seeds, trusting that if we are faithful and constant, God's miracles of growth will occur.

I'd like to share one more story from Freehan's book, Story Power. In the days before electricity the streets were lit at night by gas lamps. The city lamplighter went from lamp to lamp lighting them with a burning torch. One evening, English writer, John Ruskin, was sitting in his house looking out his window across the valley where he could see the torch of a lamplighter, but because of the darkness he couldn't see the person. Ruskin commented to a friend, "That's a good illustration of a Christian. People may never have known him, they may never have met him, they may never even have seen him. But they know he passed through their world by the trail of light he left behind him." One might add, by the number of seeds of love and grace he or she has sown.

This marvelous parable is a gift to us from Jesus. As we walk around it, reflect upon it, and play with it....we cannot help but notice its deep down optimism, an optimism also reflected in the reflections of the prophet Isaiah (55:10-11): "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and return not thither but water 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 forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
Amen