“God the sower: an extravagant lover”

It seems like summer is almost over. Yesterday I spoke with a grade-school student who returns to school already the week after next – year-round scheduling, you know – and a family that leaves for vacation soon only to return to the start of the year for teachers.

It seems a good time to talk about taking time. Take time to ponder. And wonder. To listen. To learn.

This week and the two weeks that follow we are blessed with stories from Jesus. God stories. Parables they are called, stories Jesus used to help the disciples and others who would listen to learn more about God and the God-centered life they were called to live. These are stories using every day images from the times two thousand years ago, and stories that live on in our context today.

Let’s take time to sit with the stories.

“A sower…” (Matthew 13:3-9)
the allegorical interpretation that follows can be helpful
but it’s also limiting: is it really just about the soil?

Remember what the apostle Paul talked about last week in the reading from Romans – the good I would do I do not do and the evil I wouldn’t I do anyway? It is echoed in the prayer of confession we shared at the beginning of worship today. We know something about that, if we are honest: we like to put ourselves first, interpret any problem or difficulty in terms of me, my and mine, even naming the weakness in others to make ourselves feel better. The allegory in Matthew’s gospel was likely added later by some well-meaning folk trying to help neophyte Christians understand just what Jesus is talking about. But maybe this one’s not just about us.

“A sower went out to sow …”
The parables that follow in the next two weeks begin “The kingdom of God is like…”

Let’s try that here: The reign of God is like a sower who went out to sow …

Like any good story, there’s a plot – the ‘what happens.’ And often the story intends to connect with us – you are in it, do you see yourself? But in these God stories there’s more. God’s in the story – can you see where?

The reign of God, the realm of life lived in the light of God – God’s love and forgiveness, God’s compassion and grace – life in this vast lane is like being surrounded by seeds of hope. Being surrounded by a love so extravagant that it avails even to the shallow and fallow and wasted, even to the hopeless and hating and rich. Yes, love sown even to the likes of us who can get so mired in what is missing that we can’t see how amazingly blessed we are.

If we would take time to sit with this story we would begin to see ourselves and where in our lives where we are rocky path or shallow sand or even fertile loam. But there’s more to hear here: sit with the story to see God in it, and to see God in your life.

I have been blessed since my return from Madagascar with folks willing to walk with me on this reentry journey. It is not easy. I left for Madagascar not really prepared – I did not do research on the country as I didn’t have time. I did get shots and meds to take with me, but I did not pack until the night before and I quickly discovered that another 24 hours would’ve helped me cull out the things I really didn’t need to take. [Of course, after three weeks in the country I knew how much I really didn’t need, but that’s another story.] And while it is true I returned home somewhat ill, I am physically fine now.

The part of the reentry journey that has been hard for me has to do with my heart and my soul: I was blessed with three weeks to simply show up, hands and heart open to receive the gifts my sisters and brothers in the Lutheran church half a world away wanted to give me, and by simply showing up discover the gift I gave them.

That, my friends, is overwhelming. Not just because I had -- we have no idea how abundant our lifestyle is; not just because we have no idea how expansive our freedom is; not just because we have no idea how obscene our consumption of natural resources is compared to the reality of life in that country. The disconnect for me is centered in the heart of Jesus’ story: the reign of God is like a sower who persistently and stubbornly and generously sows seeds of hope in the face of tremendous odds fully knowing and expecting that, as the prophet Isaiah put God’s words, “my word…shall not return to me empty; but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.” (55:11) The Christian people I met in Madagascar know and trust this Word, they know and trust the purposes of this God and see those seeds of hope all around them on a daily basis.

I don’t know what “sowing” means to you – perhaps you were raised on a farm, or garden, or somehow remain close to the soil. Perhaps like me sowing is an intellectual exercise. Wherever the image finds you this day, I invite you to “sit with it.” As one Bible study leader shared with the women gathered for the Triennial assembly of the Women of the ELCA in San Antonio this past week, sitting can be a very bold act (she referred her hearers to Deborah the Old Testament judge who sat under a palm tree awaiting God’s discernment, and Rosa Parks, and the imprisoned Nelson Mandela).

There is another member of St. Paul who participated in this summer’s companion synod trip. Terry Cole has been involved in all sorts of ministries in her nearly thirty years here at St. Paul, particularly with the youth. She recently stepped down as chair of the Worship and Music Committee in order to return to the Mutual Ministry Committee, yet continues as author of the “Worship Notes” that grace our bulletin insert. Today Terry has given you a wonderful albeit small glimpse of what it meant to “sit with the stories” of our sisters and brothers in Madagascar. Worship services at least three hours long – not an exaggeration! The music – amazing! And every time we gathered hymns and scripture and prayers focused the task for us. These center the Malagasy Christians’ life together. And they became an organizing center for us, a bit of predictability in the midst of a lifestyle and culture, a diet and ethos that was a challenge for us to assimilate.

The reign of God is like a sower who persistently and stubbornly and generously sows seeds of hope in the face of tremendous odds fully knowing and expecting that, as the prophet Isaiah put God’s words, “my word…shall not return to me empty; but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.” (55:11)

Take this parable into your Monday through Saturday life. Read it each day – “sit with” just the first nine verses of Matthew chapter 13 – and let your life each day provide the allegorical interpretation. Listen to your life each day as it intersects with the Word. Let your life inform your hearing of the Word; and let the power of the Spirit renew your heart’s understanding of who this God is and how this God longs to grace your life.

Of course, that’s only the first part. As was true for Deborah, and Rosa and Nelson, the rest is our response. How is it we together can be the good soil that enables the seed of God’s word to sprout and grow? As we hear the prophet Isaiah’s imagery, how is it that we together can be more faithful stewards of the natural resources at our disposal? How do the policies we approve and support, we practice and encourage with regard to energy and natural resources, give glory to God and acknowledge the lived reality of God’s children half a world away? the lived reality of God’s children next door? the future of God’s children not yet born?

The actions taken at the G-8 summit, the hurricanes threatening our southern shores, the bombings of London’s public transport systems – these are just a few potent reminders of the context in which God’s Word is sown today, a context of fear and hate, of anxiety and danger, a context easily transmuted into a focus on individual survival and idolatrous nationalism on every shore.

We can decry terrorist acts, but not without seeing our culpability in their anger. We can decry the demise of rain forests in Madagascar, but not without seeing the basic overpopulation and pollution, the hunger and desperation that connect their destruction to our choices here, half a world away.

The reign of God is like a sower who went out to sow …

“Let anyone with ears listen!” (13:9)