4 February 2018
Text: Luke 8:4-15
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
You
are dirt!
Well,
Jesus says so anyway. The nicer way to
put it is “soil.” This parable of Jesus
is called “The Parable of the Sower,” but some of the church fathers called it:
“The Parable of the Soils.”
Like
all of our Lord’s parables, this is a story of analogies. Each person and thing in the story stands for
something else: something in the kingdom of God. And in this parable, our Lord actually helps us
to understand it by explaining it to the disciples. By the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, we are
allowed to listen in.
The
story is a familiar one, and begins with a scene that dates back to the days of
Adam. “A sower went out to sow his
seed.” A farmer is planting. Every human being on the planet eats because
of this simple, and yet powerful action: a person putting a seed into the dirt,
whether manually or with a machine, whether haphazardly – as in this parable –
or with great scientific precision. This
is a story that pretty much everyone can relate to: even people who live in the
city. For we all eat food grown in the
soil.
In
our Lord’s story, there are four classes of soil: the path, the rock, the
thorns, and the “good soil.”
Our
sower casts his first seed onto the path.
This is ground that has been hardened through people walking on it. The seeds can’t break through the tough
exterior. And since the seed just sits
there, birds come and take it away. The
second seed is sown in the shallow rocky soil, where it grows quickly, but the
dryness and the shallowness of the soil cause the death of the little
plant. The third seed lands among
thorns, where it grows, but cannot compete for what it needs to remain alive,
and the plant dies. But the fourth seed
lands on “good soil,” where it does what seeds are naturally programmed to do:
to grow, mature, bear fruit, and reproduce – even yielding a hundred new seeds.
Of
course, the first three soils represent various degrees of failure, but the
fourth represents success: the seed doing just what it was designed to do. And it will do just that if not interfered
with by bad soil.
And
that’s it. That’s the end of the
story. It is remarkable for its
unremarkableness. Some of Jesus’ listeners were probably puzzled. Some were probably bored. Some probably didn’t get it at all, wondering
why they are getting a lecture on farming from a carpenter and rabbi. For without the key, without knowing the
analogy, this story is a mystery.
We
know this because St. Luke revealed a post-parable conversation with the
disciples, who had asked their professor “what this parable meant.” Their rabbi, our Lord, replied, “To you it
has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they
are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not
understand.’”
Our
Lord then breaks down the symbolism of the parable, beginning with, “The seed
is the Word of God.” The sower of the
seed is the preacher of the Word. The
soils that receive the seed are the hearers of the preacher. And, just as different types of soil receive
the seeds with varying degrees of success, it’s the same with us, dear
friends. Sometimes the Word of God sinks
into us, and sometimes it doesn’t.
If
we harden our hearts and don’t care about the Word, it will not imbed itself
into us. It will lie there, vulnerable,
to be snatched away by Satan. If we
resist the Word and only allow it to come to us in a shallow way, we may see some
growth, but we will quickly see decline, as our faith is not rooted. We can especially lose our faith in times of
“testing.” Additionally, we may not actively
resist the Word, but our lives may be so busy with “the cares and riches and
pleasures of life,” that our faith is crippled, choked out by other things that
take priority, whether work or pleasure.
The result is the same: death.
And in that kind of death, there is no “maturity,” no bearing of fruit,
and no passing along the faith to others.
Jesus
is warning us about all the ways we can push away His life-saving Word. For the Word of God is the power of the
Gospel. It is forgiveness, life, and
salvation. It is the defeat of sin,
death, and the devil. It is the fruit of
the cross. To be the good soil is to
enjoy our eternal destiny in the kingdom of God, bearing fruit just as we were
created to do, meant to do, and will naturally do – unless we ourselves get in
the way.
And
that, dear friends, is really the lesson of the Parable of the Sower: don’t get
in the way of the Word of God – not by indifference, not by shallowness, not by
putting priority on things of lesser importance. This is how we squander our baptisms; this is
how we throw away the riches that God gives us by His free grace and mercy;
this is how we freely choose to condemn ourselves instead of getting out of the
way and letting God be God, letting the Word do its work, letting Jesus save us
and make or lives complete.
For
ultimately, dear friends, we are dirt.
And
dirt can do nothing good. Dirt just sits
there. Dirt doesn’t make the seed
grow. But dirt can crush the natural
work of God to nurture His beloved creation the way a farmer tends his
field. So as dirt, our job is to receive
the Word, to get out of the way, to let the “seed” make things happen according
to its nature. And make no mistake, dear
brothers and sisters, the Word of God does make things happen. You may find it hard to believe, but it is as
natural as a little seed being put into the dirt where it grows. You don’t have to know how it works, but it
does. You don’t have to have a degree in
biology for the complex imbedded DNA to multiply cells and turn the tiny speck
into a massive plant – bearing fruits to feed creation, and bearing more seeds
to sustain creation. The seed is the
work of God; the soil does nothing but get out of the way.
The
lesson of the Parable of the Sower is to be where the seed is cast. Don’t resist the work of the seed, or
foolishly become shallow or too busy for the Word of God to work in your life. The Word of God is a free gift. It will change you, save you, and sustain you
throughout your life. It will likewise
change, save, and sustain your children and your children’s children, your
coworkers, your friends, your relatives, and anyone else God puts in your
path. That is how you received the Word,
and it is how others will receive the Word in the future. After all these centuries, and with all of
our tools and technology – it still boils down to this: a sower, a seed, and
soil. That is where life comes
from! That is how we are fed! That is how life is multiplied on our planet
and in the kingdom of heaven.
Yes,
indeed, dear friends, we are dirt.
Jesus
has said so. For we are where the Sower,
that is, God Himself, has chosen to sow the seed of His Word: into us. His Word changes us from sinners to saints,
saves us from death and hell, and sustains us even unto eternal life. Let us get out of the way, receive the Word,
and rejoice in wonder at the growth and life that are ours by virtue of the
power of the Word and the loving work of the Sower.
Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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