josephholubsermons
March 10, 2010
Mid Week Lenten Service
Matthew 13:1-9
SOWING THE SEEDS OF GRACE
A vivid childhood memory of mine is the huge cherry tree that sat in the
corner of our back yard. It
produced wonderful cherries that my mother and grandmother would
transform into scrumptious made-from-scratch cherry pies.
One day, I was sitting on the back porch during a spring thunderstorm,
and out of the blackness of the threatening skies came a crooked silver
bolt of lightning that struck the tree, split it down the middle and
knocked me off my chair.
I remember how we grieved when the old tree was cut up and hauled away.
Even the stump was dug up and sod put down leaving no trace. It was
like the death of an old friend. The back yard seemed naked and
defoliated without it.
Later that summer I was playing, and my ball went into the lilac bushes
behind where the cherry tree had once proudly stood. While
retrieving my ball I noticed a little tree about three feet tall growing
among the lilacs. I excitedly ran and told my mom that the old
cherry tree “had a baby!” A few days later my dad
transplanted the little sapling on the very same spot as the old cherry
tree, and the next generation was established.
Fast-forwarding several years, one spring it exploded in blossoms.
How excited we were even though we knew that it wouldn’t yield very much
fruit that year. We waited expectantly, and it did yield some
fruit. Later that summer we got a whole pail full of juicy red
Jonathan Apples!
Not knowing the difference, in appearance, between a cherry and apple
sapling only contributed to our astonishment and surprise.
Evidently someone had thrown an apple core in the lilacs from the alley
that ran behind our back yard. It fell into the receptive soil
that was moist and protected by the lilacs. It rooted and grew and
brought something totally new
and unexpected into our lives!
Over the next three decades the apple tree grew and it yielded its
fruit, and the cherry pies were replaced by apple pies, and my parents
enjoyed that tree as much as they had enjoyed the old cherry tree. The
apple tree was, in a very real way, a gift from an anonymous giver who
“sowed” a seed in the lilacs that resulted in a scrumptious and
bountiful yield.
Today we hear Jesus tell a story about a “sower” of seeds. The seeds
landed on a diversity of soil conditions: hardened path, rocky
ground, briar patch and good soil – each soil creating specific results.
I think we miss the point when, in our attempt to find meaning in this
parable, we usually jump too quickly to the
kinds of soil that
were a growing medium for the seeds and speculate as to which kind of
soil we are – or - if
we use the parable as a kind of
blunt weapon or evaluation
tool to judge which kind of soil
others might be.
But let’s not jump to the soil
conditions too quickly and
miss the image of the generous “sower” of seeds.
We always want to make
everything about us. But, I am not going there first with this
parable. I think, before
anything else, this is a parable about God and the sowing of the seeds
of God’s grace.
The "sower" (God figure)
in
Jesus' parable is something of an irresponsible, if not incompetent,
farmer. Disregarding the soil conditions, the sower tosses seed
generously and lavishly
all over the place as if the seed were in plentiful supply.
That
fact alone
would not have been lost on or ignored by an agrarian
society. Seed was expensive
then and still is now! Seed
was a valuable commodity that was not wasted but utilized prudently.
But not this sower!
This sower is broadcasting seed as if the supply was infinite and
is doing it without restriction, limitation or discernment of the soil.
Seed was flying all over the place as the sower recklessly
broadcast it.
The imprudent generosity of the sower reveals a
God who gives without regard to the worthiness of the recipient, which
exposes and uproots many of
our deepest assumptions about what is prudent and who is
deserving. God's
generous giving of the seeds of grace exposes the
relative stinginess of
our giving and sharing
of grace as far too often we
look for ways to justify the rationing of grace. But God is
lavish and even wasteful with grace as we see in the life and ministry
of Jesus.
The generous broadcasting of the seeds of grace
only increases the
possibility of growth.
One never knows where a seed might take
root and ultimately bear fruit.
Marcia and I love to hike in the forest in
the summer.
Marcia has taught me to pay attention to
the details of nature.
One of the things that never ceases to
amaze me is where seeds will
take root.
On almost every hike we take
I see trees and flowers that have taken
root in the cracks of rocks and on the sides of cliffs and rocky
outcroppings and other unlikely places that I never would have expected
a seed to grow and sprout.
Carried by one of nature’s indiscriminate
“sowers”
like
the wind, a bird or ground squirrel, a seed finds a place and takes
hold, grows and adds unique and distinct beauty to the landscape.
Every fall I go through a ritual around our home
in Buena Vista.
I harvest wildflower seeds from the dried
flowers and scatter them around our property.
I must confess I have not been too
successful and my efforts have occasionally been scoffed at.
I admit the results have been limited, but
every spring and summer I look with anticipation to see if any of my
generous sowings of seed are yielding growth and blossom.
Regardless of the results, as sure as the
aspen turn gold and yellow, it is a labor of love that I faithfully
repeat in the fall of every year.
Now let us turn for a moment to the soil
conditions mentioned in the parable.
If I am honest,
I must admit that at any given moment in
time my life can resemble all
four kinds of soil simultaneously.
I have my hardened paths
of indifference or stubborn self-reliance which serve to establish
formidable barriers to the growth of God’s grace.
Not far away is my rocky ground of disappointment, grief, and
disillusionment that can scorch any new tender shoots of God’s grace
that may have taken root in my life.
Close by are my briar patches of self-indulgence when my passions
take over and strangle God’s grace to the point its growth is at best
stunted and underdeveloped.
But, there is also the
receptive soil of recognizing my longing for something more: a
deeper love, a profound joy, a passionate purpose and a lasting peace.
The parable ends on what would have astonished Jesus’ listeners.
In those days a crop of five-fold would have been remarkable and
ten-fold would have been a miracle. But in God’s grace is
the power to bring harvests beyond our wildest expectations:
thirty-fold; sixty-fold, a hundred-fold!
My family was surprised beyond our imagining by a little “cherry”
sapling that grew to be mighty apple tree, and the fruit it yielded
enriched our lives – all a gift of an anonymous giver who sowed a seed
in the unlikely medium of lilac
bushes.
Our giver is not anonymous, but God is indiscriminate and lavish in spreading the seeds of grace as testified to in the life of Jesus. As his disciples and recipients of that grace, may it take root in our lives and may we never withhold the generous sowing of the seeds of grace. May we be as indiscriminate, lavish and even wasteful with grace as the sower of the seeds.