One of the first things that might strike us in this parable of Jesus is the generosity of the sower.  In terms of farming practice, it might not be the best strategy.  Scatter the seeds everywhere with abandon, lavishly.  We are talking about life in the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, as Matthew most often describes it.  We might also say the reign of God, though living in a constitutional monarchy (of which we have been pointedly reminded in recent days), the concept of a kingdom and a reigning monarch is not far from our understanding. Brothers and sisters of Jesus, we are talking about our reigning monarch, God.  When it comes to God’s grace (the unmerited, undeserved favour of God), God gives grace with abandon, lavishly.  This is good news, and there will be more good news to come.

The more difficult news which this parable describes is the sense of failure and rejection, and disappointment.  I like to call this the Parable of the Soils.  There are four places the seeds land.  Three of them result in failure, in withering.  Jesus is setting up a line of delineation here between good and bad soil.  The good news is that in the reign of God, what may be produced in us and through us is abundance – 100 fold, 60 fold, 30 fold!  The reign of God manifests itself in our lives in ways we never thought possible.  The power of God at work in us is able to accomplish far more than we could ever ask or imagine!  Let’s ask for God’s help as we hear God’s word to us today.

Someone has said this about the parable of the soils: “God’s grace is no cheap grace: you must pay for it with all you are and all you have.”  At the same time, “It’s an exciting thing to be a Christian.  It always goes the limit.”  I agree it stretches us.  Growing in the love of God is a wonderfully exciting thing.  Growth can also be a painful thing, of course, and we don’t talk about growing pains for nothing.  So I put this thought before us as we begin – “The love of God/our love for God is no cheap love; I am called to pay for it with all I am and all I have.” Hold onto this as we go along here.

“And he told them many things in parables.”  Jesus has used parable-type language early in Matthew’s Gospel (think of the wise and the foolish man building their houses on rock and sand).  Here in chapter 13, we have, for the first time in Matthew, a group of parables.  In the first two parables – this one and the parables of the weeds among the wheat which follow, Jesus contrasts two things.  In this case, good or bad soil.  Jesus is describing the line between understanding and not understanding; the line (as he puts it) between knowing or having been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and not perceiving, hearing and not listening, nor understanding.  And so we pray to be given hearts to understand.

This is understanding.  It’s not simply mental comprehension.  “But as for what is sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit…”  This is what we want, yes?  “Bear fruits worthy of repentance!” was the cry of John the Baptist.  May this be the thing for which we long.  To be kingdom of God people.  To be sermon on the mount people.  We can do this, God helping us!  Understanding – receiving and perceiving God’s word in our hearts doesn’t come cheap.  Remember that seeds need to die to produce fruit.  Seeds need to die in order that something new might come about. Jesus told his followers very truly, “… unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and dies, it remains a single seed,” and I don’t believe Jesus was just talking about himself. Let us be challenged by Jesus’ words.  I have been challenged already in these weeks after Easter, I pray you have too.  We don’t just listen to Jesus' words and sit with them and pray with them simply so we can feel good about ourselves or simply learn a moral lesson for the day. 

May Jesus' words cut us to the heart.  May Jesus grant us understanding.  Understanding does not come easily.  This is a parable of separation or delineation, and we do well to acknowledge that line of separation between understanding /non-understanding runs through each of us.  But we’re listening, thanks be to God.  “Listen!” is how Jesus starts, and we say, “Yes, Lord.  Our desire is to come to an ever-increasing heart understanding of what you are teaching, and what your Spirit of Christ does in our hearts.”  Again, this goes beyond an intellectual understanding or presumptuously saying, “Oh yes, I already know what’s going on here.”  Someone has described parables like this: “Their significance points again and again to everyday life: they ask to be lived, not to be grasped by the intellect.”  Parables ask to be lived.

Today’s parable was told in a particular context, too.  We said before Easter that Matthew 11-12 is marked by a mixed reaction to Jesus.  Everything from wanting to kill him, to ignoring him, to following him.  How is Jesus’ invitation going to be received?  Why isn’t Jesus’ invitation more widely received, whether we ask this about others or ourselves?  This parable describes three ways the word of the Kingdom of Heaven is not successful, and one way in which it is successful.   The seed has a 25% success rate.  It makes us ask the question, “What does success mean in the Kingdom of Heaven?”  Is it crowds?  Is it a large number of people?  Look at the crowds!  The crowds are so great that Jesus has to get into a boat while the whole crowd stood on the beach.  Jesus doesn’t say, “Look at this!  Look at this great number of people – this Kingdom thing is really taking off!  Give yourselves a round of applause, disciples!  Such success!”

What is success in the Kingdom of Heaven?  Is it numbers?  This is conventional wisdom, no?  If something or someone is attracting large crowds, it must be good, right?  The more likes, the higher your click-through rate, the better, right?

Jesus looks at the crowd.  Jesus looks at us.  He begins to speak in parables.  We’ll never in this age come to an end of understanding these things.  Jesus wants to shake us up.  Jesus wants to shake and stir our imaginations as he did in the Sermon on the Mount. 

He began to speak in parables.  “Listen!  A sower went out to sow.” The seed is the word of the kingdom.  Seeds are going everywhere.   The sower sows recklessly and with abandon, regardless of how the seed is being received.

What does this have to tell us about how we spread the word of the kingdom?  “What is the word of the kingdom?” you ask.  It begins with the invitation from Jesus.  “Follow me.”  “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In Jesus is life and love.  How else might we say it?  How might we live it out?  We said recently that if we’re ambassadors of Christ and living letters of Christ, and if Christ is the living Word of God, then we are in some way the word of God to the world, which is sown anywhere and everywhere, regardless of reception and regardless of risk.  Regardless of reception.  Be peace to everyone, regardless of how the message is received.  Speak peace to everyone, regardless of how the message is received. 

There are four results for the seeds, and I think we do well to get introspective on this.  I think we do well to consider our reception of the word, our understanding, our fruit-bearing.  This is not to make us feel guilty or ashamed.  It’s to help us realize our need for the one who is telling the parable.  The one.  The one who loves us the same way he sows - recklessly and with abandon.  The one who is holding on to us.  The one who has promised I am with you always, even to the end of the age.  

Some seeds fell on the path.  The birds came and ate them up.  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.  There’s nothing wrong with paths, per se.  There is nothing wrong with streets, highways, byways.  They help us get places.  The thing is, you need to get off them.  Life in the fast lane is no life.  Life in the fast lane.  Surely make you lose your mind. Everything all the time.  Frenetic activity.  Frantic activity even. It’s no way to live.  We heard last week about being reminded of the promises of God in nature.  Stopping to notice the birds and the flowers.  Even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like this.  I know we all have things to do. The call is to get off the busy, full-of-distractions/diversions path.  Stop.  Rest.  Come away to a deserted place and rest awhile.  The tasks will get done.  I will live in the open space, where water flows with love and grace. What sort of attention are we paying the word of God?  Do we rest with it, or do we take it in small bites on our way to our next activity, the way we eat fast food in the car?  Do we welcome God’s word into our days, or is it more like an unwelcome visitor for whom we pretend we’re not home? Paths can be beaten down, and it's a wearisome thing to be beaten down.  Paths can be covered with cement and hardened, just like hearts. 

As for what is sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arise on account of the world, that person immediately falls away.  The walk with Christ is a walk, a long one.  Eugene Peterson calls it “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.”  It’s a long-term thing.  A lifelong thing, and it never gets old.  I know we are so into instant results.  High speed.  No lag, no buffering, no waiting. Instant gratification.  “What’s in this for me?” we ask.  Too often, the message of Christ is presented by us primarily in terms of how it benefits you.  I heard a preacher say once, “Wouldn’t you like to get in on that deal?” as if we were selling something. We’re not selling anything.  This does not mean that life in Christ does not benefit us.  Life in Christ is life lived as we were created by God to live.  For now.  Forever.  It’s something to give our lives to.  Sometimes literally, as in “I would die for this,” at which point some say, “This is not what I signed up for,” and fall away.  We want to be deeply rooted, do we not?  The wondrous thing is that in giving ourselves to our King and his Kingdom, we know peace, we know joy, we know hope, we know grace. 

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.  It’s a hard thing to be rich in the kingdom of heaven.  It’s not impossible thanks be to God, but it’s not easy.  The difficulty is not just for individuals, but it can be difficult for entire societies. Stanley Hauerwas, US theologian and ethicist, has this to say about the church in the West:

“…it is hard to imagine any text more relevant to the situation of churches in the West. Why we are dying seems very simple. It is hard to be a disciple and be rich. Surely, we may think, it cannot be that simple, but Jesus certainly seems to think that it is that simple. The lure of wealth and the cares of the world produced by wealth quite simply darken and choke our imaginations... The gospel becomes a formula for “giving our lives meaning” without judgment.

Too often, those who propose strategies to recover the lost status and/or membership of the church do so hoping that people can be attracted to become members of the church without facing the demands of being a disciple of Jesus.”

We’ve heard about three degrees of failure, and we end with three degrees of success.  Three degrees of grace.  Three degrees of fruit.  “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  Let anyone with ears to hear listen.”  Listen and understand.  But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.  Again, not in a purely intellectual way but in such a way that the words of the Living Word are lived out in and through us.  “Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” said the Baptist, and we say, “Make us good soil, Lord.  I want to be good soil.”  Do you want this?  Let the fruit be our success. Let love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control be the measure of our success, whether it’s a hundredfold, sixty, or thirty.  This is a prayer for the most seasoned of disciples (which I’m increasingly feeling like myself, I have to say, age-wise, and God bless our elders and all those who know about the long obedience in the same direction).  It can also be a prayer for someone who hasn’t made that step.  Someone who hasn’t yet said, “I want to follow you and call you Lord and give my life to you and your kingdom’s cause.”  Someone who doesn’t even know yet what all that means.  Donald Miller, in his book Blue Like Jazz, writes of a young friend named Penny who tells him of her story of coming to follow Jesus.  One of the parts of her story was reading through the Gospel of Matthew with a friend.  This is what she tells him: “Yeah.  There is a part in Matthew where Jesus talks about soil, and He is going to throw some seed on the soil, and some of the seed is going to grow because the soil is good, and some of the seed isn’t because it fell on rock or the soil wasn’t as good.  And when I heard that, Don, everything in me leaped up, and I wanted so bad to be the good soil.  That is all I wanted, to be the good soil!  I was like, Jesus, please let me be the good soil!”  There’s more to Penny’s store,y and you can borrow the book from me anytime.  In the meantime, friends, may her prayer be on the hearts of each and every one with eyes to see and ears to hear.  May this be true for us all. Amen