"I want to start a garden, but my yard's a little problematic," a customer told the

Transcription

1 The Parable of the Soil Matthew 13:1-9, NUCC Traditional 13 July 2014 "I want to start a garden, but my yard's a little problematic," a customer told the salesperson at the yard and garden center. "I get blazing afternoon sunshine for about two hours, but otherwise it's all shade." "What kind of soil," asked the salesperson. "Hard clay, lot of rocks," said the customer, "What do you recommend I plant." "Hmmm," mused the salesperson. "Why don't you look down Aisle B. We've got a big new supply of birdbaths and flagpoles. Today s scripture lesson is a story of planting and growing. But the reality is that some of us here are better at birdbaths and flagpoles than we are at seeds and soil. I want to invite you to use your imagination this morning. Let me take you back in history 2000 years, to the country of Palestine, present-day Israel. You are sitting around a campfire near the Sea of Galilee with Jesus and his disciples. They have lived together, traveled together, preached and healed together, for over two years. On this particular evening they have had a simple meal of perch and bread. There is a lull in the conversation and then I can imagine the disciple Thomas speaking: "Master, you and the boys know that I tend to be a tad pessimistic, but I'm afraid that all of us must face some facts. Increasingly, we are being locked out of the synagogues. The most powerful religious leaders in the country are against you. Recently we heard rumors that King Herod was going to have you killed. Judas tells me that we have seen a decline in contributions that may be related to all the controversy about you. While it is true that lots of people still come to hear you, most of them are either seeking a miraculous cure [1]

2 or are simply curious. They don't show any commitment. After more than two years of hard work all over this country, what do we have to show for it? This meager band of folks I don't want to be an alarmist we aren't exactly a booming success." Often when the followers of Jesus were down or discouraged, Jesus would tell them a parable, a story, to teach them or to cheer them up. The13th chapter has three well-known parables: the parable of the sower, the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven. Today, we focus on the parable of the sower, but I believe that we have been calling this parable by the wrong name for far too long and so this morning, I want to re-name it. Why has it been called the Parable of the Sower? The sower has no presence in this parable whatsoever. The sower does their job and moves on. When you get right down to it, the parable of the sower is really all about the soil; it s really about dirt. And the soil is us; you and me. Any wonder that we would rather name this parable after the blameless sower? Any wonder we would rather focus our attention on the various yields of the successful seeds? Nobody likes to get down and dirty, to dig down into the dirt of this story. But we are the dirt. It is how we reject, embrace, nurture, and nourish the seed the saving message of God s realm that determines the viability of ourselves and our communities. Are we hard-packed and well-established? Do we absolutely have our path laid out and our final destination in mind? No detours? No meanderings? Are we on a pathway to a certain purpose? Then we are in danger of being that hard-scrabble place where the sower s seed fell and could find no nurturing soil. Is a new word, a new way, [2]

3 a new thought, only able to lay on the surface of our lives, never able to break through the hard-packed predictability of our well-established path? Are the possibilities of that new seed, that new way, able to permeate the surface of certitude that directs our firmly chosen way? More common than out-right hard-packed, hard-driven, hard-heartedness is the short-lived sweetness of shallowness. Momentary enthusiasm is not what the realm of Jesus is selling. Spur-of-the-moment exuberance is not what the realm of Jesus is about. There will be genuine hardship in following Jesus. The possibility of true suffering is real in a deep-rooted life. Shallow soil, no roots, showy flowers, doesn t cut it. Christians, in fact, could stand to be a little weedy. The most annoying weeds put down a deep tap root, which snakes down and cracks through the underground barriers that would keep it captive in shallow soil. Tap roots reach down below the rock and pull in nutrients and sustain life even when the life above ground is sufferingly severe. Sometimes life is good. The soil you find yourself in is rich and hearty and life enhancing. You grow well and strong. But that same environment is open to all sorts of other factions. NBC Newscaster Tom Brokaw dubbed the generation which grew up during the Great Depression, came of age during World War II, and lived in their prime during the Cold War and the tumult of the Sixties, the greatest Generation. Why were they so great? Yes, the soil they grew and lived in was rich with possibility. But it was also ripe with deadly thorns. Yet so many of this generation managed not to be choked out but stayed true to the life of faith. [3]

4 Resisting the temptations that come with extreme poverty, the temptations that come with great triumphs, the temptations that come with extreme comfort escaping all those temptations is the goal of the seed of God s realm that seeks to produce fruit for the future. Here is the most basic, and least acknowledged, truth in the parable of the soil : We are people of sacred soil and there is no greater calling. The question that meets us this morning is, what will we do with this great calling? In closing, let me share something that I recently read. It was originally published in the Johnson County News of Greenwood, Indiana: In 1923, a group of the world's most successful financiers met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. At this meeting were the following: 1. The president of the country's largest steel company. 2. The president of the country's largest utility company. 3. The greatest wheat speculator in the U.S. 4. The president of the New York Stock Exchange. 5. A member of the United States President's Cabinet. 6. The one known as the greatest "bear" on Wall Street. 7. The president of the Bank of International Settlements. 8. The head of one of the world's greatest monopolies. It has been estimated that all these men together had more money than was in the United States Treasury at that time. For years newspapers and magazines had been printing their success stories and urging the youth of our country to follow in their examples. Here is what happened later to these men. [4]

5 The president of the steel company, Charles Schwab, lived on borrowed money for the last five years of his life and died broke. The wheat speculator, Arthur Cutten, died abroad, insolvent. The president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, spent time at Sing Sing prison. The member of the President's Cabinet, Albert Fall, went to prison, then was pardoned so that he could die peacefully at home. The greatest "bear" of Wall Street, Jesse Livermore, committed suicide. The president of the Bank of International Settlements, Leon Fraser, committed suicide. The head of the world's greatest monopoly, Ivar Dreuger, committed suicide. All of these men had learned how to live well, as far as money goes, but I have to wonder how many had learned to live a life of meaning and to be comfortable as people of sacred soil? You know, mid-july offers the high holy days of gardening: lots of weeding, watering, snipping, pinching, pulling and fertilizing. It is mid-july maintenance that leads to an August harvest. We cannot just go through the motions of gardening in July and expect to reap anything later in the year. Being sacred soil is the greatest investment we can make in our future. [5]