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Proper 10A 2008 Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
The Sea of Galilee looks like any other beautiful lake surrounded by rolling hills, some wooded and some farmland. Jesus
sat in a boat and taught the crowds many things. He used words, images, and metaphors in his parables and stories that the
people who heard them could understand. Agricultural stories were among his favorites.
His words in the story of the sower and the seed were down to earth. Maybe he was pointing to a hillside and a man planting
his crop. Walking on the firm earth, the farmer made broad sweeps with his arm and a quick flick of his wrist. He was planting
the crop. "See," said Jesus. "That's the kingdom. That's how God rules in peoples' lives. Watch the farmer. See the seeds."
Half a century ago many farmers in the Deep South were share croppers and hired hands in bib overalls who chewed tobacco.
They had dirt under their fingernails, manure and dirt on their boots and work shoes. They raised corn, cotton, and soybeans,
and truck crops for themselves and for the local grocery stores. They had a few cows, chickens, and pigs. Their nature was
to complain, but never whined or whimpered. And in the spring they were restless. Their fields waited for them. It was
their nature to plant the seed.
Good farmers are partners with the earth. They tend it, break it up, kill the weeds, water the soil. Whatever the crop,
they all do the same thing. They take part in a great mystery: they put seeds in the ground, cover them up, and watch them
grow. Sometimes the seed grows, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the harvest is bountiful, and some years nothing.
Some years too wet and some too dry. Every spring tests their endurance, and bank account.
God farms the universe. The very nature of God is holiness and love, forgiveness and compassion. Those good things are hurled
into the Creation with great power and an amazing grace, an explosiveness and grace so abundant and so amazing that it flies
all over the place. This living word of God falls in a variety of places. In some it grows, in some it dies. But God still
sends this seed. We are the soil where this seed falls. As the soil must be prepared for the seed to grow, so our eyes
and ears and hearts and souls must be prepared, ready to respond.
There is a story about a thirteen year old girl named Andrea. She hated English not the language just her
English class. She sat through her English class three days a week, but she never seemed to hear what's going on. She heard
music in her mind. She relived phone conversations with her friends. She saw mountains, and hillsides, and skiing. And
she never heard what the teacher said.
One week before the final exam she realized she was failing. She feared the wrath of her parents, and she was determined
not to fail. Now she sat in English class and listened to the teacher. She took notes and thought about what was said.
She asked questions. The teacher marveled at such effort but says, "Andrea, we have covered this material many times in the
past six weeks. Weren't you listening?"
Sometimes we are completely surprised and caught off guard by the power of what God’s love has sown. A friend’s
smile warms us; a hymn chokes us up; we hear a prayer aimed straight at our heart; bread and wine for some reason indeed is
Christ broken and shed for us; and we wonder why? It's such a mystery. But sometimes we hear. It makes sense. There is something
powerful, and we are glad.
But sometimes it doesn’t seem to work. After a lifetime of working, the new retiree decided return to college to
realize his dream of earning a college degree. He enrolled in a humanities course He did the readings, took notes, was
well prepared for every class.
He wrote a paper on the history of the English language. He worked long and hard on it, gave it all he had to give. But
when he got the paper back, it was covered with red ink and caustic comments from a graduate assistant, who had savaged the
poor man's paper.
The man showed the paper to his son, a humanities professor himself. The son pointed out good parts of the paper, and showed
his father parts that needed clarity. But it didn't matter. The man never took another course again.
We are all .the ground on which God's good seed falls. What kind of ground will we be and how will it grow within us?
It’s all always our choice.
AMEN
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