Be Generous

Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Many times in the parables of Jesus there are multiple ways to look at the story that Jesus tells. And at various times we may find ourselves identifying with different roles within these stories. I’ve said this many times, but I’ll say it again, when we hear Jesus tell a parable we need to identify who the players are. Where is God in the story? Where are we? And in certain parables that’s simple to do. But in others, the character we connect with may change depending on when in our life we hear the story. Or even from day to day as the circumstances of our own lives change. Some days you might feel like the Prodigal Son and other days you realize that you’re the older brother. At times you invest the talents God gives you and return to him abundant return. At other times you bury them in the ground. As a younger, perhaps more foolish man, I generally identified with the sheep who stayed in the fold. Now, maybe a little bit wiser, I realize that on most days I’m a lot more like the lost sheep the shepherd has to chase after.

Today’s parable gives us the opportunity to see ourselves in a couple different places. Actually, quite a few places, but really just two distinct categories. We could think about ourselves as the soil, in all its various forms. The path, rocky soil, among thorns, or good soil. If we wanted to see ourselves in the parable in this way then we’re obviously seeing the Sower as God, and our task is to make our soil as fertile as possible so it’s ready to cultivate the seed that’s thrown onto it. Ok, sure. At times I think it’s good to examine our openness to the Word of God, which is the seed, and determine how we might be more fertile ground for hearing and acting upon that Word in our lives. “Do not harden your hearts” lest the birds come and snatch the seed away. Carefully pluck the rocks from the field of your life so they don’t hinder the growth of the seed and cause it to be scorched as soon as it comes up. Do a little weeding in your life so that the seed of the Word has room to stretch out and grow and doesn’t get choked out by the seed sown by the evil one. We’ll hear a little more about that next week. Be the good soil so that God’s Word can take root in you and grow strong and bear much fruit. It’s not a bad message. It’s not the wrong message. As long as we don’t begin to think that we actually have the ability to accomplish this on our own, as opposed to just allowing God’s will to be done in us. But maybe it’s not the only message.

If we’re not focused on what type of soil we are, and we’re not the seed itself, then that leaves us only one other option. To look at this parable differently we have to understand that there are times, maybe even much of the time, that what Jesus is saying to us is that we are to be the sower. And

JESUS WANTS US TO SOW SEED AS HE DOES – GENEROUSLY.

          I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to pay for seeds I don’t want to buy more than I have to in order to produce whatever I want to grow. Apparently, this is a thing for real farmers too. A simple online search uncovered that there are seed rate calculators, plant population calculators and even a corn seed per acre calculator. I’m guessing that our real farmers aren’t going to johnniesselectedseeds.com to figure out how much seed to buy, but I’d also guess that they’ve got it figured out and are doing it in a way to produce the least waste possible.

And then, once I’ve got those seeds, I plant them like a gardener does – one by one. Lay out the row and put a seed in however far apart they’re supposed to be. No sense in wasting multiple seeds in a place where only one of them could grow anyway. But that’s not how the sower in Jesus’ parable does it. He’s got a whole lot of ground to cover. So, he’s got a whole bag full of seed, and he’s throwing it everywhere. This is how I imagine Johnny Appleseed. Heading west with bags full of apple seeds, just throwing them all over the place.

And of course, when that’s how you’re sowing seed, some of it winds up in the wrong place! It ends up on a hard beaten pathway, or on weedy, rocky soil at the edges of the field. And he sower is alright with that. Throwing his seed far and wide is the only way he can make sure that every single bit of good ground gets the seed. He sows the seed recklessly (without concern for the cost), and generously, knowing this is the only way to cover all the ground.

Which is the way that God acts too, isn’t it? When Jesus sends out His Gospel message into the world, He does it recklessly and generously—throwing it far and wide. During His short ministry on earth, He preached to crowds wherever He went. He talked to individuals—rich men, beggars, women, foreigners—anyone who would listen for a moment. He even sowed some seed with Pontius Pilate as He was on trial, heading to His death!

Jesus never withholds the Good News. He makes sure that everyone hears His invitation. And that invitation is to come to Him. Trust in Him for forgiveness. And to become treasured, blessed children of God. That generous offer is open to anyone who will receive it. Jesus makes the offer, but He’s also the One who assures that this offer is a reality for those who wish to receive it. He does that through His own sacrifice on the cross to make that forgiveness and eternal blessing real for everyone who hears His Word and does not reject His grace.

Jesus came to lay down His life, like a seed going into the earth—knowing that the harvest that would come from His life, death, and resurrection would be great. And now that Jesus has risen from the dead, He has the joy of seeing us, His harvest. And what He calls on us to do is to become the sowers who, like Himself, sow the seed of the Gospel recklessly and generously.

Jesus doesn’t ask us to examine the soil before sowing the message of salvation. We don’t need to be asking questions like: Is that person’s heart too hardened by the things they’ve seen or the stuff they’ve done. Or to make observations like; That person really needs to pick the stones out of their garden before this seed will ever take root. Or, they need to do some serious weeding before I’m going to waste this seed on them. Don’t do that. There’s plenty of Good News to go around. And plenty of people who need to hear it. Let God worry about the soil. It’s just what Paul says in 1 Corinthians. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Just recklessly and generously sow the seed He’s given you. Because you never know what God is going to do with it, regardless of what type of soil it may fall on.

I mentioned Johnny Appleseed before. He’s actually buried in Fort Wayne, IN and having lived there for a bit I got interested in his story and read up on it one time. His apple seed sowing wasn’t at all like I thought it was. In fact, he was much more like a modern day farmer than a reckless sower of seed. In fact, he would prepare the land, build fences to protect the growing trees from wildlife, plant the seeds in nurseries and then leave them in the care of neighbors while he would go on to the next place and repeat the process. You know what that sounds like to me? It sounds like the church. God prepares the soil and makes it ready for the seed, not us. He then protects His crop from the dangers of the world that are all around us, providing that hedge of protection against the evil one. He places us in a fruitful environment among other people of faith to learn and grow together. And then He leaves us in the care of His undershepherds to ensure that His gifts are distributed in Word and in Sacrament and that the crop (that’s you) would continue to grow and flourish until whatever time He decides to return and take us home to Himself.

This is what the church does because that’s how God designed it. It’s the place not only for the seed to be sown recklessly, but also for that seed, regardless of what type of soil it may have fallen on, to be nourished and cultivated and grow into the fruit that it’s meant to be. We know that, even within the church, there are all types of soil. And God is cultivating each one to allow the seed planted in it to flourish. And He’s also preparing the next group of sowers to go out and recklessly and generously sow that seed so that many more might hear the Gospel message. The church, as it receives the seed and then spreads it, is the very embodiment of the phrase “to know Him and to make Him known.”

So, however you view yourself in this parable on any given day, remember that God directs how and where the seed is sown, whether we’re on the receiving end or the spreading end. Be generous in sowing the seed of God’s Word and His love, even as Jesus Himself is generous in both sowing that seed far and wide and also cultivating the soil of your hearts to receive it with joy. And may that joy then cause you to turn around and recklessly and generously sow that same seed as far and as wide as He gives you means to do. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.