Text:  Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23                                                                                8 Pentecost

Soil Conditions

            In the name of him who has caused his Word to take root and grow in our hearts, dear friends in Christ:

            “A sower went out to sow”:  thus begins what is one of the best-known parables of our Lord. Certainly it’s one that’s very near the heart of a lot of people in an agricultural community like our own:  we can easily relate to the idea of spreading and planting seed.  And it’s fairly unique among the parables of Jesus because in it he describes exactly what he’s doing in the very moment he is speaking.  That’s because the word “parable” literally means “to throw beside, or cast along side”.  The idea is to throw two things together for comparison in order to describe something unknown in terms how it is similar to something that is well understood; and in the case of the parables, to reveal heavenly truths in terms of earthly stories. And that’s what Jesus is doing by comparing the teaching of his divine message to a man out planting a field. But you see, as Jesus sits in the boat and teaches in a parable about a sower, he is the Sower of whom he speaks, casting the seed – the seed of his teaching – out upon the shore where the crowd has gathered to listen to him.

            So what you’ve got here is sort of a picture within a picture; and you may be surprised to find it’s not the only one.  We’re specifically told that Jesus taught the people while sitting in a boat on the water.  Now, sometimes it’s explained that Jesus did this on occasion simply to avoid the press of the crowd and put some distance between himself and his hearers; but let me suggest that there’s another reason, and that it’s part of the message itself.  By placing himself “above the waters” and talking to those who were spiritually in chaos and darkness, he was calling to mind the first day of creation when God hovered above the waters, and spoke, and brought light, and order, and life to what had been dark, chaotic, and lifeless.  You see, Jesus’ very actions are another sort of parable.  And hopefully too, you see that there is a picture of Baptism here as well, as Jesus, water, and Word come together in bringing spiritual light and life to people standing on the earth.

            But let’s return to the parable of the sower itself. It will sometimes happen in a Bible study that I’ll ask the question, “In this parable, where are you?  What part or element of the story represents people like you and me?”  Just about every time the answer will come back, “We are the seed, of course; and the thrust of the parable is how well each one of us grows where we are planted.” That seems to make sense at first; but I have to tell people that it’s not right.  Jesus explains that the seed is the Word of God.  And then you can watch as that sinks in, and people begin to think, “Okay, I’m not the seed then, and I can’t be the Sower because that’s Jesus … Hmm.”  … When the truth hits finally home, people are often a little disappointed to discover where Jesus places us in the story:  “You mean we’re just the dirt?”  That’s right:  according to the Lord you are just cold, lifeless dirt – or “soil” if you prefer; but it amounts to the same thing.  And though it may seem less than complimentary, it really shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus uses this imagery, because it’s the truth.  Remember back in the early chapters of Genesis where Moses describes the creation of the first man.  There we find out that’s all we are anyway:  just some dirt that God has prepared with his hands, and into which he breathed the breath of life.  Planted it like a seed, as it were, to see what kind of fruit would come of it.

            And placing us in the role of the soil conveys a few ideas that need to be kept in mind.  First, that soil is incapable of being productive on its own.  Without someone or something preparing it and bringing seed to it, the soil will not grow anything.  If left in a sterile condition, it would eventually just erode away from the action of wind and rain.  So it is with all people apart from God’s saving action.  Secondly, it suggests that it makes a big difference what kind of seed comes to the soil.  I don’t need to tell you what would happen if you tilled a field around here and then just let it set unattended.  It would soon be covered in pigweed, cockleburs, and all sorts of other useless plants.  So is any human life devoid of the teaching of Jesus.  Something is going to grow in the soil.  There are any number of ideas and philosophies always floating around in the air like the seeds of Canadian thistles.  They are falling on the human soil and taking root.  From a distance such a field may look as alive and green as one that has been properly planted.  But closer examination will reveal that it’s worthless stuff fit only to be removed and burned.  Only what God has planted can produce the kind of fruit that God is looking for.

            Thirdly, and this is most important, is that life itself belongs to the seed and not to the soil into which it is cast.  Jesus said, “My words are life.” He meant exactly what he said. We tend to think the other way around: that the teaching of the Christian church is just so much lifeless information.  We think what’s alive is me, and that the words we hear are essentially dead or inanimate.  In our minds, doctrines, commandments, creeds, Bible stories—they’re nothing more than facts to be believed or rejected. But Jesus says that’s not right at all. Instead, just as the breath of God conveyed life to the first man of soil, so the Word of God – a living force – conveys life to us who are dead in sin.  The power of God to create and sustain life is contained in the message, just as the life of a plant is contained in a seed.  The soil is merely the medium in which it grows.

            So the question asked by the parable of the sower is not “What kind of seed are you?” but rather, “What kind of soil are you?  Are you soil in which the seed can grow to fruitful maturity?”  And here we get the indication that we do have some control over that.  Unlike natural soil that is pretty much stuck being whatever it was to begin with, the parable of the sower presupposes that any one of us is at least potentially productive.  Indeed, it seems to require active opposition on our part to prevent it. We cannot bring ourselves to life, that’s for the seed to do; but like hard packed soil, we can stubbornly resist the penetration of God’s Word into our hearts.  We can choose to avoid it, to close our ears to it and pretend to ignore it, or we can occupy our thoughts elsewhere.  This is what those who openly reject the Christian message do.  But sadly, many people who profess to be Christians do it too.  They may claim that they don’t need to hear the Word of God on a regular basis to be a Christian – which makes as much sense as saying a field will grow corn every year even if you don’t keep planting it.  Or they may come to worship week after week and simply allow the Word to bounce off and be carried away.  They hear the message, but it’s never allowed to take root and begin to grow.

            Others are like shallow soil with lots of hard rocks hidden just beneath the surface.  That’s those who allow the Word to penetrate only “skin deep” as it were.  These are “fair weather” Christians who are happy enough to go along with God’s Word when things are going free and easy.  They tend to like the upbeat seasons such as Christmas and Easter.  They come for special events like Baptisms, Confirmations, and weddings.  They love to sing the happy, sentimental hymns, and hear entertaining or emotional stories with sweet or clever endings. But they don’t want to bother with anything theologically deep or thought provoking – and they certainly don’t want to have pointed out any of those buried hard rocks of sin in their lives. Instead, it’s often they who are attracted to the health and welfare gospel that always looks for evidence of God’s love only in prosperity and comfortable living.  But these folks don’t last in the long haul.  When there’s sickness or death, or when times are tough and lean, as they will become – just as sure as the sun rises – their shallow faith begins to falter.  Then it’s, “What happened?  Where’s God now?”  They have no concept that God who shows us his love in blessing, also sometimes shows his love by withholding blessings.  They really don’t trust that he always does what’s best for us even in those times when it’s not easily apparent.  And should there ever be some kind of persecution because of the faith, forget it: “Carry a cross?  You’ve got to be kidding.  This isn’t what I signed up for.”  And so what little faith there was shrivels up and dies.

            Then there’s the soil that is full of brambles and weeds.  These are the ones who get off to a good start in the Word; but they never get around to weed control. Instead, they allow the pleasures and concerns of day-to-day living to choke out their life of faith.  “Why there’s money to be made, crops to be harvested, and games and sporting events to go to.”  Here’s a good one:  “This is the only day we have for ‘quality time’ to spend with the family” (that’s one of my favorites:  I’d like to know what trumps joining God’s people in experiencing the presence of the living God for “quality time”.  It’s an excuse that’s beat out only by my all time favorite:  “It’s the only day I can sleep in”).  For such people, the Word of God is just one of a number of competing priorities.  Rarely, if ever, does it make it to the top of the list; and usually it gets crowded out completely.  The weeds of life’s concerns sap moisture and nutrients from the soil, and their broad leaves block out the sunlight, so that the seed the Lord planted has to struggle to survive. The result is that the plant of faith never reaches fruitful maturity, and in the end, it’s as useless as any weed.

            Fortunately there is also the good soil in which the seed is allowed to take root and grow to full maturity.  This is where the Gospel message, the good news that Jesus atoned for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead to give us new life, takes root and grows.  It springs up from the soil and defines and shapes every aspect of life.  It grows through continued feeding on the Word of God, and it bears the fruits of the Spirit that God desires:  fruits like faith, trust, mercy, goodness, kindness, forgiveness, love, patience, and self-control.  Surely these are things we all aspire to produce; but again, the question raised by Jesus in the parable of the sower is “what kind of soil are you?” 

And the answer, if we’re to be honest about it, is that we’re not one of any kind, but rather a combination of all of them.  We display characteristics of all the soil types.  There are hard spots where we don’t let the Word of God in: “I know what it says, I just don’t want to accept this part.”  There are rocky areas where we set off with good intentions, but we let certain hidden and buried sins that we don’t want to let go of cause it die out.  There are the thorns and thistles that we allow to compete for far too many of our precious resources of time and attention. And, by God’s grace, there are areas where we do allow the seed to grow.  The problem most of us face is that we’re very often satisfied with the miserably low yields produced by these fields of mixed soils.  If someone tried working a farm the same way most of us manage our own spiritual acres, he’d soon be out of business.  We need to recognize that. 

            Christ calls us by means of this parable to survey our own field with the critical eye of a farmer who’s out to achieve the best harvest possible.  He’s providing the seed.  It’s the best stuff on the market and it carries his unconditional guarantee: “It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish ... the purpose for which I sent it.”

            The task before us then is to be diligent about two things:  first, improving the soil conditions.  Where we’ve got a hard crust of resistance, we need to break it up.  This is done by searching out the hardness of our hearts that objects to God’s will for us, and repenting of it.  Other times it happens when the Lord breaks up the hardness by sending a tragedy of some kind that cuts through the pride or whatever it is that we’re using to resist him.  Either way, when that hard shell is broken in sorrow and contrition, the seed of the Gospel, that is the good news that God forgives sin for the sake of Christ, is allowed to penetrate so that formerly dry, useless areas can become green and fertile. 

            Where the soil is shallow and full of rocks, we need to clear it by identifying and casting away the sins we keep hidden beneath the surface.  We’ve all got them – and very often they’re not hidden nearly as well as we think they are.  It’s time to cast away those stones and deepen the soil by probing more deeply into the Word of God. We can enrich the soil with moisture and nutrients by regular worship, private study, attending Bible classes, and asking questions when we encounter something difficult or perplexing.  Then the roots of faith can grow deeper and still find water when the hot dry seasons of life come along.  

            We can also pull up the weeds and thorns that are constantly trying to crowd out our time spent in the Word.  We can reprioritize our hectic schedules placing an emphasis on the one thing that matters most; and trust God to keep the promise he made when he said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all [the rest of the things you need] will be provided.” 

            In all these ways we can improve the quality of the soil so that the Word of God can produce in our lives the 30, 60, and 100 fold increases that he is seeking.  And while we should always work toward improving the yield, another important part of what we do is soil conservation.  We want to make sure that the gains we make in some areas are not canceled out by erosion in others.  It requires constant care and maintenance to keep up the terraces that hold the soil in place, and to do what’s necessary to help it retain water so that the seed can find favorable growing conditions.  This is what life in the church with the community of God’s people is all about.  We help each other and look out for one another because we are not just little plots of soil in isolation, but we are each part of a greater field made up of all God’s people.  When one area has a problem, it affects the whole field; and so together we work to conserve the entire estate.

            That’s ultimately what it’s all about:  keeping the Master’s field in its best possible state of production until he comes to claim the final harvest.  May he then give us the grace to be good stewards of both seed and soil while we eagerly await his return.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!