Scripture:

In the Bible, stories of Jesus’ life are in what are referred to as the Gospels – which just means good news – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew Mark and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because, like three people telling the same story, they are very similar but with varying emphases or interpretations on different parts of the story.
The story today is almost the same in all three (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8) – I am going to read from the Luke version, using a combination of the NRSV, Message and IHB translations:
Soon afterwards [in Luke Jesus is always on his way from somewhere to somewhere else] he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of God’s Love for everyone…As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and travelled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop…
His disciples asked, “Why did you tell this story?”
He said, “You’ve been given insight into God’s perspective…
Now the parable is this: The seed is the promise of God’s Love. The ones on the path are those who have heard about it; but their hearts are so hurt, so that they may not believe it. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive it with joy, but take it no further, and as they get busy or distracted, their understanding falls away. As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their seedling does not mature. But as for that seed in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear of their beloved-ness, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and learn how to live it in their everyday life.”
He goes on to say something that may be familiar:
“Remember, No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that everyone around them may see the light.”

Sermon:

Let’s just take a minute here to break this down – Jesus is using this parable to teach about God and about people.

‘A farmer went out to sow his seed’, he starts. He doesn’t describe this farmer, but if he is sowing seeds we know he is likely referring to the way most of those who were listening would understand it – for most folks they would be working the land for a land owner, but would have a small pocket to grow what they needed for their family.

He goes on with the story, “Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop.’

Now wait a minute. Who is this farmer again? Turfing seeds all over the place: seeds over here, seeds over there.
This isn’t like today where we can pop over to Art Knapps and grab some packets or order on Amazon – the seed this farmer is sowing is what he carefully pulled out of last year’s harvest and preserved and stored over the summer. This is no small task – the closest I have ever come to doing this is scooping out my carving pumpkins and separating the pulp from the seeds, washing them, laying them out dry in preparation for roasting and snacking. There are four of us who carve pumpkins in October – usually by pumpkin three I am done with trying to separate goop from seed but the seeds I do save! Those seeds we will eat every darn one of them thank you very much!

The tossing of this seed in the story seems frivolous, wasteful, reckless even – and the people listening to this for the first time would have understood this immediately. 3⁄4 of the seeds he has sown bear no fruit! So this farmer is either an idiot and a terrible farmer or he has a ridiculous amount of seeds saved up, more than he could ever possibly use.

So what could Jesus have actually been getting at here with this story? Well lucky us, his friends, the disciples – the ones who were travelling everywhere with him and hearing everything don’t even get it, and they ask “Why did you tell this story?”

“The seed,” he says, “the seed is the promise of God’s Love.” Which is so perfect for right now as we harvest so many wonderful things and we can see the seeds to be saved for the next planting – or the snack time, depending on how your life is. I love this because within the seed the possibility of the fullness of it for generations is held. THink about it, you eat an apple (that came from a tree). Imagine the sensation of your teeth breaking through the skin, crunching through the flesh, maybe a spray of juice squeaks its way out. Your mouth, chewing, is filled with delicious, sweet, tart, wonderful sensation. As you make your way through the apple you reach the core and you come across – of course – the little pod of seeds. And in one of those tiny little apple seeds, is the promise of a sprout, the promise of a little seedling. The promise of a spindly little nearly tree, reaching up for the sun, reaching down for nutrients. In that tiny little seed is the promise of a great big big big apple tree, blossoming into apples upon apples for years and years to come. Which themselves hold little pods of promise and abundance.

The seed is the promise – the full potential held in one little nugget – the promise of God’s love.

So in the story Jesus tells, Is God the reckless sower? Showering little amazing parcels containing the fullness of a love beyond our imagining. Tossing them with reckless frivolity, abundant generosity, seeming carelessness on whether the love will take root or not. Maybe God is the sower. I wonder.

What else does Jesus say in his explanation of it?

“The ones on the path are those who have heard about it; but their hearts are so hurt, so that they may not believe it.”
Somewhere there is someone we may want so badly for them to understand their value, their worth. Someone on a destructive path who, no matter how many times you tell them that they are loved, they cannot receive it in their broken hearts. Not yet. Maybe this is where we find ourselves today.

He goes on: “The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive it with joy, but take it no further, and as they get busy or distracted, their understanding falls away.”
Maybe we hear that belonging and belovedness are ours to claim and it is with parched throats we drink of this beautiful liquid. But you know, after the dehydration passes, we probably don’t need any more water any way, at least not for a bit. We’ll be back when we are thirsty again. Then he says, “As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their seedline does not mature.”

This is the tough one – because we might hear about our value, embrace our belovedness and let it sink deeply into our core. But then we realise, we realise that living in love is costly – with this much love growing from seed to small tree to something more, we realise that the apples on this tree might bring us a bigger house and fancier things and more more more. So we lose sight of the tree while selling the apples. Finally he reflects: “But as for that seed in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear of their belovedness, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and learn how to live it in their everyday life.”

Now, there is a danger here – we can moralize this story and go ‘well, Jesus wants us to be good soil and receive God’s love and grow something good.’

Maybe. Maybe we can locate ourselves in the various kinds of soil or the way our crops are currently growing. And that maybe helpful for us to understand how we receive and process love. TO understand why the harvest in our lives is not what we were hoping for.

Maybe that is what it means, but I wonder what else this story could mean? What if we are the sower? What if we could be the sower? Being lavish with our generosity to the point that most others would think we were idiots.

What if we are the seeds themselves? The fullness of possibility held within us, thrown into circumstances beyond our control. What if we are seeds that hold the promise of God’s abundant love?