* Genesis 25: 19-34
* Psalm 119: 105-112
* Isaiah 55: 10-13
* Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23
This past week we were able to eat the first tomatoes from the planters
beside our home. And yes – we took a shortcut. We did not plant seeds
in the early Spring and wait for them to grow to mature plants. Instead,
we bought them from Holub’s when they were already about eight to twelve
inches tall.
They really took off after we put them into planters on the south side of our
home. There, they get a good balance of sun and shade – and we water
them faithfully.
We also get what serious gardeners call “volunteers.” Those sprout up after
ripe tomatoes fall off the vine and split open on the soil. But we can tell you
that we have never intentionally tossed tomato seeds onto the soil and left
them to fend for themselves. They do so much better when they get some
TLC.
People in Jesus’s day who farmed either for a living or to supplement their
families’ nutritional needs did not have the sturdy gardening tools and
motorized rototillers that we have today. There were more likely to toss a
whole bunch of seed onto the ground – even hard, rocky, or thorny ground –
and hope for the best.
Being thrifty Presbyterians – many of us with Scottish roots – we shiver at
the thought of wasting perfectly good seeds. And from a purely human
perspective, it does look like a waste – although the birds don’t see it that
way. They just chirp their thanks to God for providing food through us.
Which brings us to Isaiah’s prophecy that God’s Word is like the rain and the
snow that hydrate the earth – and cause those seeds to germinate, grow,
and produce crops that will feed countless other people.
As God says in verses 10 and 11: “As the rain and snow come down from
heaven, and do not return without watering the earth and making it bud and
flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my
word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will
accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
God does not speak just to hear Himself talk. Every word, every promise,
and every prompting of the Holy Spirit has an intentional mission.
Even when we feel as though our prayers or our efforts at ministry are
failing or producing lackluster results – God’s powerful Word is still at work.
Sometimes, beneath the surface.
And we can hear echoes of it in Jesus’s parable of the Sower. The farmer
or his employee scatters a bunch of seed willy-nilly – and gets mixed
results. This is Jesus’s way of telling His disciples then and now that
we have a mandate from Him to share His Gospel freely. Without hesitation
or reservation.
Some may even say recklessly – without worrying about or obsessing on
the response. We are to scatter the Good News – literally, just throw it out
there – and trust that God will cause some of it to take root and grow into
deep and abiding faith. Faith that can change the lives of individuals,
families, communities, and even nations.
In a culture that demands “quantitative results” – that is, results that can be
measured and compared – this sounds foolish. However, Jesus tells us that
it is God who gives the growth and will bring in the harvest at the end of
time. We, however, are to scatter as much seed as we can – and then
some of us are called to cultivate those seeds, to help them grow – so that
they will produce even more seeds. We do that, knowing that we may not
see those results until we meet some of those people in Eternity.
This is how a tiny movement within Judaism became a faith that stretches
around the world. And yet – we wonder why people are not beating down
the doors to get into church buildings all around this country.
We get discouraged when the dozens of kids who have such a great time at
Vacation Bible School are nowhere to be found the other 51 weeks of the
year.
Please forgive me for getting all Presbyterian on you – but God has very
different viewpoint than we do. God sees a guaranteed harvest – when
we all we seem to see is rocky soil and hungry birds and invasive weeds.
And the sad truth is that we may not live long enough to see the promised
harvest. We just have to trust that He will bring it about, bringing the fruit to
maturity. And we may even see results sprouting up – only to watch them
wilt in the hot sun.
As one of my former pastors told me when I was frustrated by so many
people’s resistance or indifference to the Gospel, “We are not called by
God to be successful; we are called to be faithful.”
In other words, we do what God commands – and then trust God with the
results. Even when we don’t like them.
We have God’s promise through the voice of Isaiah to bring the results.
And Jesus has promised that the results will surprise us: thirty, sixty, even
a hundred times what we sow. That’s an astronomical return for our work.
Or should I say, a miraculous return for our work.
Believing that has enabled Christians over the past two-thousand years to
face persecution, torture, and even death – without renouncing their trust in
our Lord Jesus Christ or silencing their witness to the world.
Please – don’t measure the success of God's Word by human standards –
like immediate, visible results. Just keep sowing the seed – and looking for
new places to sow it – all the while trusting that God will bring a miraculous
harvest from it. Amen.