‘Then you will see God’

Over the last few generations there has been, as you all know, a revolution in farming practice. Agri-culture has become agri-business. In the past, large numbers of people worked on the land, but now things have changed. Our stomachs are still deeply connected to the land and its produce. But the distance is widening all the time between tilling the soil and consuming the food. Our interaction with the land now tends to take place in supermarkets; a place where food has already been processed into a package for us.

This morning we have heard one of the most famous parables of Jesus. It seems simple on the surface, yet there is rich wisdom below the surface. And like all the parables, it is not a closed story. It is an open story. It is always able to offer fresh meaning because when we ask, what does it mean?, there isn’t one right answer.

“Listen.” Once we’ve become familiar with the story, and heard it many times, it’s easy to lose touch with the invitation to listen. We move straight to explanations, rather than hearing that invitation and then allowing the parable to speak to us once more, as if for the first time …

An early example of people trying to pin a single explanation to the parable is found in the second part of the passage we have heard. Verses 18 to 23, which will probably be headed in your Bible “The parable of the Sower explained”, are words widely regarded to have been written by the author of the gospel, rather than to be words spoken by Jesus. If you carefully look at all the parables, Jesus doesn’t offer explanations. On those very few occasions when an explanation is given, there has been an issue in the early church’s life that led the writer of the gospel to resolve that a single interpretation should be given.

The explanation here is quite a meaningful one. It’s one possible interpretation. I don’t want to discount it. But I am saying that, when told by Jesus, the parable will have been an open story … Just like his other parables. No doubt there will have been questions and discussion, but no single explanation will have been delivered.

Producing single explanations for the meaning of parables is like going to the supermarket where the food has already been packaged for us. No work for us to do. Just collect the answer and take it to the check-out. But we know that Jesus didn’t teach like that. You often read in the gospels that the people said of Jesus: He is not like the teachers of the law … He teaches as one with an authority … He is different.

He asks people to listen. He uses simple stories; rather than law. And he says, don’t just buy what is being sold by the religious professionals. Get back to the land yourself. Work with it. Then you will see God.

Like all parables, this one might come alive if we imagine ourselves within it. I think it helps here to listen to the parable from two perspectives. What might the parable offer us if, firstly, we imagine that we are the Sower? And, secondly, what might the parable offer us if we imagine that we are the soil?

The most interesting ingredient of the story, of course, is the seed. It is the thing that the Sower sows, and which the soil receives. You may have noticed that Jesus says nothing about what the seed is. Does it represent a message that the Sower is casting? A word? Or is it love? Or does it represent people being sent out into the world? We can’t be sure. The explanation that comes a few verses later says that it’s “the word of the kingdom”. I’ll leave it with you. Whatever the seed is, it’s clearly important to Jesus.

I’d like to do a simple exercise this morning. Let’s listen to the parable twice – just the core – the first time thinking about the Sower and what they are doing. Imagine you are the Sower. And the second time thinking about the types of soil.

First, let’s think about the Sower …

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Great crowds gathered around him … and he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A Sower went out to sow. And as they sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 

Think about the Sower …

·       not frugal, or even careful, certainly not discriminating

·       the Sower is generous to the point of being wasteful with the seed

·       could be sharing the gospel, or sharing love, or sharing food?

·       Are we generous or frugal?

·       What sort of Sower are you?

Think this time about the soil …

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Great crowds gathered around him … and he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A Sower went out to sow. And as they sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 

What kind of soil are you?

·       Are you hardened like the path, with no way for [the seed] to take root within you?

·       Are you like the rocky soil, where the seed grows quickly at first but then get scorched?

·       Are there too many things that compete for time in your life, like thorns competing for nutrients in a garden – leaving no room for the seed of the kingdom to grow?

·       Or are you good soil, where [the seed] can take root, be cared for, and allowed room to grow within you?

I want to leave with you a few observations that some people in a very different world than this one made about the parable of the Sower.

A group of field workers in Nicaragua were thinking about the parable, with the aid of a painting. It showed Jesus in a broad sombrero and blue jeans, broadcasting seed in a field full of budding plants.

Natalia, who was also the midwife in this Nicaraguan community, said: “I believe we are all seeds; we are seeds who have the job of bearing more seeds.”

Oscar, who was a farmer, said ‘Christ rose from the dead because he was a healthy seed. In the harvest we see that not every seed is born. If we are going to rise with Christ, we must be the same kind of seed that he was.’

And a young field worker named Julio said, ‘I see one thing in this story. The seed without the land can’t do anything. So this message, without us, is of no use. We are the soil and, without the soil, there is no kingdom.” Amen.

The Rev. Dr Peter Walker BA (Hons) BTh PhD is Principal of United Theological College and Director of Education, Uniting Church NSW & ACT.