“Give Seeds a Chance”

(Matthew 13:1-9)

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.  Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.  And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen!  A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  Let anyone with ears listen!”

I plan to talk about some of Jesus’ parables in Matthew over the next few weeks.  Being an experienced preacher who feels like I still got it, I expected this would be pretty straightforward.  Imagine my surprise on Friday afternoon when I found myself feeling uncertain about the sermon I had written for today.  Parables are more complicated than they used to be! 

The power of parables is that they draw us in by talking about stuff we’re familiar with, subjects that are seemingly ordinary.  But, when heard with ears that are open, when we really listen, as Jesus directed us, they will move us in a direction that can be rather mystifying.  What we DO know is that when Jesus spoke through parables he was probably challenging his disciples and pushing them to a new level of thinking about God, themselves and life.  And so, of course, that’s how parables are still operating for us—challenging us to open our minds about God, Christ, ourselves and life. 

We readers and listeners do have to beware because there is something about parables that makes us want to get in there and lay our heavy hands upon them.  They make us want to explain!.  Dealing with parables is kind of like raising children or gardening or preaching or teaching.  Sometimes, in those situations, we are tempted to do too much managing.  A better way to read a parable is to just trust God and the universe with how we think about them. 

Though I would love to be the one with all the answers here, I am trying to trust the universe with this as well.  Let’s just stay with our simple story, the parable of the sower. 

My goal for all of us today is to allow this parable to speak its truth to our own time and place.  This requires patience and a light hand so that Jesus’ words can settle in and, maybe, suggest some wisdom for living to us. 

I know that many of us have been indoctrinated with the interpretation that Matthew and preachers throughout the ages have “gifted” us with.  The temptation with this parable is to immediately start looking for who’s good and who’s evil.  It IS tempting to say something like, “Well, the sower is God, the seed is God’s Word, and we are the soil, or lack thereof.” 

Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves from figuring out who’s evil and, then, setting ourselves up as the righteous ones.  It’s never good for us when we start thinking, “Now, I will just be the fertile, moist soil and avoid being the rocks or the thistles or the hard impenetrable ground.  I will not be the one who messes up and misses the word of God like all those others who aren’t going to get to heaven or who are in business with the devil.”    

Instead of this storytelling that sets us up as the heroes and others as the culprits, I want us to start anew with the pure message. I have chosen to refrain from reading the interpretation that follows the pure form of the parable that you heard. 

Hence today’s title, “Give Seeds a Chance.”

“A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell on the hard, beaten down path.”

  Picture that.  I know you can.  Imagine you’re at Naturealm and you’re throwing seeds onto the path, and the birds are just waiting to take them away and eat them even though you had hoped that the seeds would produce plants.  Can you see most of your seeds disappear?  Are you disappointed or are you trusting that it’ll be fine?

And then, other seeds that are being thrown are blowing over into the rocky ground where they don’t seem to be able to find soil in which their roots can flourish, try as they might.  Can you picture times when you have seen plants that have somehow found a little bit of soil in which to grow roots?  Somehow, though, they have resisted the sun, but their roots are vulnerable and often they end up dead.

And then there are seeds that have fallen among thorns.  These thorns are inescapable.  They are everywhere, and you can’t manage a garden among them because they are so strong.  But if they do blossom they might provide food for the birds and the bees.  Still, your seed may not be able to endure.

And then, gardener, some of your seeds fall into the good soil that you have prepared and enriched and maybe even watered, and they produce something lovely or something mouthwatering or something that will feed and nourish you or delight your very soul. 

The hope is that this story may lead you to think differently about gardening or planting or parenting or working or living or interacting with others or the way you spend your time or the way you pray or what is most important in your life or what makes your life meaningful or what gives you joy or how you deal with your sadness?  It may…

…So, take a moment.  Don’t immediately jump to what you need to do to change or fix anything.  Just let the parable of the sower speak to you.  And don’t let yourself worry about what others think or expect, don’t let yourself go to the shoulds or the have to’s for just a little while.  Stay with the story of the sower.  Maybe stay with the good intention of the sower, the hope and the dream. 

Don’t go to the place of thinking of yourself as a bad seed or choosing badly about where the seed lands.  Think about how this story can allow us to make a witness for Christ’s love in our world, not as judgement but as potential for good, for growth, for moist, fertile ground in which we can grow and flourish….

Now, listen to a story that came to me in the middle of the night.  (I’m not kidding.…).  This parable, I think, brings into focus how we are tempted to make judgements about what’s good or bad on the basis of certain superficial things when there also is information that could make us think differently about a group or an individual. 

There once was a baseball team in Cleveland.  They have had loyal fans for a very long time even in the really rough stretches.  They have had amazing players off and on through the decades.  Many people, especially our age and older have watched and loved them because they were great—sometimes, but loved them in spite of their performance, in spite of how many games they have won or lost. 

Now the Guardians are part of the American League Central Division, and this year this division has the worst record in all of Major League Baseball.  The Guardians are presently leading this division.  The team has a record of 45 wins and 46 losses. 

Now, a person might immediately rush to making a quick interpretation of this story.  That’s a bad team.  They are not worth paying attention to.  They will always break our hearts.  They will never win the World Series.

…But let’s let the story grow in our imagination.  The manager of this team, Terry Francona, has shown himself to, not only to be a really good manager, but also a guy who cares about his players.  One of the Guardians, Jose Ramirez, has signed a long-term contract with the Guardians because he’s a loyal kind of guy.  He is known throughout baseball as someone who has this Spidey sense about the game.  He can look at a play unfolding and see what will happen before it even does and, then, he’ll know exactly what his role is.  He’s a baseball genius. 

And then there are some rookie pitchers who are doing miraculously well sometimes.  And there are players who should be doing a lot better, but who surprise us with a homerun occasionally.  There are players who almost always get on base.  There’s a pair of brothers who play for the team that everyone just loves. 

Now, if you only looked at their statistics you would not understand the intention of this team.  You would not understand that this is not just about winning and losing. Do you see why this can be thought of as a parable?  I have taken a topic that most people know a little bit about and found some meaning in the story.  I think the meaning is that there is always a positive in a story well-told. 

…Okay…here’s another parable that, I think, illustrates our discussion of parables.  A person went searching for a restroom, but when she entered the one with the universal sign for women, she was barred from using it because, though she is a woman and thinks of herself that way, she presents as rather masculine.  There she is, trying to use the restroom and either prevented from doing so or mistreated in the process.

There is potential in this story for us to make a judgement about what’s right or what’s wrong.  But once we allow the truth, the seed, to take root and grow, that right/wrong, good/bad thinking will become less important.   

So, here’s the problem with this story for us, I think: it’s easier in this time and place to think of gender as either/or, male or female, good or bad.  We don’t understand gender fluidity at all because most of us fall fairly easily into one of those categories (at least on the surface).  We have ways of interpreting this particular parable that make us want to lay our heavy hands upon it.  “Young woman,” we think, “don’t make waves; stay out of the women’s bathroom unless you are willing to conform.  Wear something feminine, put on some makeup, fix your hair, then we’ll let you in.” 

One of the functions of this parable as I’ve presented it, is to get us in touch with what we don’t know.  We don’t really understand gender beyond our own small amount of experiences.  And opening up to listening to people who identify as non-binary or use different pronouns is too darned much work for us.  So we jump to an interpretation that requires no work at all on our part.  We want something that is comfortable for us, that is easy and efficient. 

In this parable, if we don’t jump to our quick and easy interpretation, we might be able to find out that our character is a wonderful and creative mother, an attentive daughter, a good friend to all, a smart, conscientious human being.

If we allow ourselves to imagine a world in which people get to say who they really are and live that out, some of us will want to judge people in these situations to be good or bad, right or wrong.  But, if the parable of the sower has any lesson for us, it is that we are not to make judgements about people that condemn them or elevate ourselves.

…You see, parables give us this opportunity to be better people, by beginning with situations that are so familiar to us: planting seeds, watching baseball, using restrooms.  We are given the opportunity to imagine, to open ourselves to a seed of an idea and to give that idea a chance.

When we provide a one and only explanation for a parable, there’s a risk, a risk of misrepresenting Jesus, of limiting Jesus.  Parables are not meant to simply confirm the status quo.  They are meant to challenge us, to open our minds, to stir up a new way, to invite us into more conversation about what it means to be the Jesus House–to give seeds a chance.

…And, do bear in mind, that there are lots of other ways to make parables live and have meaning in our lives, so trust your own imagination.  Just refuse to take the easy way out.  See what the parables may say to you.

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