The Sower
The sower came to my house the other day with a hose and blew hydroseed all over the place. Sure enough, some fell on rocky ground, of which we have plenty; some fell on the path and the road and if the birds had a chance on it before the trucks ground it into the dust, I’m sure they had their fill. Some fell among weeds, where it became indistinguishable from them: a weed is a plant growing where you do not want it, but until it grows up to maturity how do you tell which is which? And some fell among good soil. We’ll see what happens there.
The parable of the sower that Jesus tells in the gospel of Matthew (13:1-9) touches on this common experience. Picture him sitting on the shore near a small fishing village, ready to teach, until so many people come to hear him that he gets into a small boat and from just offshore looks back at the crowd and speaks to them from there.
How many of those people decided to fit themselves, and others, into categories? That guy looks like rocky soil to me, says one to himself, while the other thinks the first has a weedy look.
That is hardly the point of the parable, in my mind. Like many of Jesus’ parables it turns our everyday expectations upside down. And that is a place to start. Why was the sower so indiscriminate? Why not pay attention to where you’re throwing, and focus on the good soil? Or better yet what is this sowing all about in the first place?
Jesus’ sower seems to work with joyous abandon, spreading far and wide a seed-message that in only a few can take hold and grow into something productive. He seems bent on starting something, and he does it in the most extravagant and outrageous - and democratic - way.
The seed, I would suggest, is the message that Jesus - and we - bring to the world, the coming of the ordering of everything under heaven into its right relationships. We call this the reign of God.
And why not spread it far and wide? Why deny anyone the chance to receive it? Sure they may seem rocky or weedy or road-weary to us, but let’s see what happens when the seed falls, and the sun shines, and the rain falls: will it grow? Will it become something wonderful? We will have to wait and see. And meanwhile we must cultivate our own garden, that it well receive what we seek to spread.
Almighty God, we thank you for planting in us the seed of your word. By your Holy Spirit help us to receive it with joy, live according to it, and grow in faith and hope and love, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. (Sundays and Seasons)
Let the rain begin!
JRL+
An edited version of this meditation appeared in the Arizona Daily Star, page E3, Keeping the Faith feature, Sunday July 23, 2023, under the title “The seed of God’s word.”
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