The Intersection of Seed and Soil

Jesu Juva

St. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23                                                 

 July 16, 2023

Proper 10A                              

 Dear saints of our Savior~

          It’s been a quiet week in Whitefish Bay.  On Wednesday afternoon we got a good, soaking rain.  Nothing severe, just hours and hours of showers.  It was the kind of rain you really appreciate in mid-July.  You could almost hear the gardens growing.  Even the farmers down at the Chatterbox Café (typically a pessimistic bunch) even they were almost giddy over this gift of precipitation. 

          What perfect timing today for the Prophet Isaiah to remind us of rain’s religious significance.  It turns out that the rain that comes down from heaven—the rain that waters the earth and causes gardens to grow and crops to sprout and flourish—that rain is a lot like the Word of God.  God’s Word goes forth like rain and gets results.  The Word accomplishes what the Lord desires and achieves the purposes for which the Lord sends it.  So says Isaiah.

          But if that’s true, then why don’t we see the Word of God getting big results?  Why isn’t the church growing by leaps and bounds?  Why do baptized children grow up only fall away from the church?  Why is Christianity sharply declining in our country?  Why don’t we see the Word causing more fruitfulness in our lives and in the lives of other Christians?  Why does the Word seem so weak?

          To answer these questions, Jesus takes us to the garden—to the intersection of seed and soil.  This is the very first parable Jesus tells in Matthew’s gospel; and our Lord changes up the imagery just a bit.  In Isaiah the Word of God is compared to rain.  In the Parable of the Sower, the Word of God is compared to seeds.  Those seeds, Jesus says, are the “word of the kingdom.”  Those seeds are the good news about what God is doing for sinners through Jesus of Nazareth.  The seed of the Word gets sown in human hearts.

          But this parable immediately makes clear what an epic failure this whole seed-sowing endeavor is.  The intersection of seed and soil is sadly unsuccessful.  Some of this good seed get snatched away by the Evil One.  Other seeds sprout up joyfully for a while, only to wither later on because of tribulation and persecution.  Worry and greed also strangle a fair share of those sprouting seeds.  Only a tiny fraction of God’s great seeds—only the very slender portion that falls on good soil—actually grows and thrives and produces an abundant harvest. 

          This explains why the Word doesn’t always perform in the ways we expect.  Although the Word is powerful and filled with potential; the Word is also frail and fragile—like a little seed.  Tragedy struck the seeds in my own little garden this year.  For the first time ever, I planted sunflower seeds—the Kansas state flower.  I had visions of those big, round flowers greeting me every day this summer.  But a squirrel came along and dug up every single sunflower seed I planted.  I tried re-planting with the same result.  My seeds were sabotaged by squirrels!  

          There are no sunflowers on the bulletin cover this morning.  But you might recognize the cover art on today’s bulletin as “The Sower” by Vincent van Gogh.  I’m no expert on such things, but I believe this is an example of an

impressionist painting.  There’s no attention paid to detail.  But through the use of color, light, and shadow, you get the “impression” of a given scene.  You can almost feel the warmth of the morning sun as you view this painting.  A quirky television character I enjoy once surmised that van Gogh and Monet and Manet—they must all have been very near-sighted to produce such fuzzy, unfocused images.

          But couldn’t we also say the same thing about the sower in Jesus’ parable?  That sower went out to sow.  But his sowing would seem to indicate that he’s not seeing very well.  He sows those seeds like someone who’s blind as a bat.  Look at the guy—recklessly, randomly, haphazardly slinging seed from here to kingdom come.  On cement and sidewalk, between weeds and thorns, where soil is thick or thin, rich or poor—it matters not.  He’s prodigal in his planting—liberally letting fly fistfuls of His holy seed.  Why such sloppy sowing?

          This is our generous God, who wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.  This is our God who has reconciled the whole world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them.  This is our God who forgives wickedness and who remembers sins no more.  He sows the seed of His Word everywhere—on the homosexuals of Sodom, where only a few seeds take root while the rest fall on rocky hearts destined for fire and brimstone.  He sows the seed of His Word on the murderous people of Nineveh, preached by a reluctant prophet named Jonah, and the whole city of 120,000 repent in sackcloth and ashes.  Sometimes the seed sprouts and sometimes it doesn’t.  Our God sows here, there, and everywhere, sending preachers to preach the Word in season and out of season, To men who like or like it not.

          But my dear hearers of the Word, heed this warning:  It would be a big mistake to conclude that the seed of God’s Word has sprung to life in you because you’re the right kind of person—a good person—a noble and generous person—the kind of person that God can’t help but bring into His kingdom.  That’s a lie we love to believe.  So, repent and believe the truth:  When God first sowed His seed in your heart it fell on rock-hard soil—soil already choked by weeds and thorns and thistles. 

          Sinners cannot make themselves into good soil.  Sinners cannot make themselves receptive to the saving Word of Jesus.  No, we first need to be plowed under by the rototiller of God’s Law.  We need to be broken up and crushed—our hearts lacerated like furrows in a field by God’s holy Law.  This is why you ought to rejoice when someone confronts you with your sin, when you feel the pangs of guilt and shame, when you get caught red-handed, when you get a taste of your own death in the form of sickness and weakness.  When the mirror of God’s Law reflects the ugly truth of what you are in yourself, apart from Jesus—when you find yourself afflicted, persecuted, suffering, and broken to bits—rejoice!  Rejoice in those sufferings, for by them you are being transformed into rich, productive soil where the word and promises of God can be most potent and powerful.

          The Lord will not allow the plowed field of your heart to lie fallow.  The Divine Sower sows the seed right there—recklessly, all over the place.  The Sower sows and His Word has its way with you.  He waters it with water from the baptismal font.  He gives the growth in you.  And by His Word of grace and forgiveness, He makes your life fertile and fruitful, filled with good works.  God’s Word doesn’t go looking for good soil to fall into; it creates good soil for itself, no matter how inhospitable your heart may be.

          It would be as if I walked just a few blocks west of here and emptied all my seeds on the hot, dry, dusty hellscape of that no-man’s-land we call interstate 43 . . . and, by sunrise tomorrow that serpentine cement jungle would be transformed into a green and growing garden of delight—a construction zone blooming and brimming with greens and grains, ready for the harvest.  This is what our Lord does for you:  He transforms the hard pavement of your heart into a parking place for the seed of His Holy Word, for His Holy Spirit, for His holy body and blood, for His life that lasts forever.

          All this is because God’s holy Word—His seed—is packed with power.  It’s packed with the life of Jesus who died for your sins and who suffered hell in your place.  In the stripes and the deep furrows of His flesh your sin was planted.  He suffered, died and was buried in the earth, like a seed, so that He might have you and keep you as His own.  The nail-scarred hands of Jesus tell the whole story as to why God’s Word is producing so much fruit and so many good works in you:  God sowed; you received.  God transformed your rocky heart into good soil; you received.  God gave growth to His seed; you received.  God keeps you in the one truth faith, grants you daily forgiveness, and opens the kingdom of heaven to you and all believers; and you—you receive that salvation as a gift from God.

          The sower went out to sow His seed.  He has sowed it in you.  And when the final harvest comes, He will find in you an abundant crop of faith, hope, and love.  He who has ears, let him hear. 

          In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.