Sow generously
Readings: Matthew 13. 1-9, 18-23
This is the first of the parables recorded in Matthew, he’ll give us a few more over the coming weeks. And given it’s the first, Matthew also records Jesus’ explanation for why he teaches in this way (which sadly was cut out of our reading today), the point is that it’s not right there for the casual follower, the uncommitted listener to grasp, instead it takes some listening, some attention, some drive to understand, to take it seriously. And because the disciples are, because they’re committed, he explains the parable to them, so that they may better be able to understand other parables as he teaches.
Back to the opening of our passage. We find Jesus with such a large crowd pressing in to hear him speak that he gets into a boat so that they don’t end up pushing him and everyone else into the water. And as he begins to teach he uses an image that would be very familiar to the crowds, perhaps as he looks out from the boat he even sees a farmer doing just this and gestures to them, but that’s conjecture. There is a sower, scattering seed on the ground, and scattering it generously, seemingly with little care for where it lands.
First century farming was a little different to today, you didn’t have nicely fenced off fields, instead people would walk right through hardening the earth under their feet, like those shortcuts you see people have made when out on the coastal path where the grass isn’t growing anymore. Also the soil in the middle east is often shallow in places (as it is for those of us living nearer the cliff edges in our own area with bedrock right under the surface) and, in preparation for planting, the weeds would have been hacked down or burned rather than dug up.
The other difference with our day is that the seed would be scattered and then the ground ploughed, so that the seeds were ploughed into the ground, rather than in our day where it’s the opposite. And this custom of ploughing the ground after the seed had been scattered perhaps explains why the seed ends up everywhere, the soil all looks the same when sowing, it is only when the ground is stirred up by the plough that we discover where the ground has been packed down by walkers, where the soil is shallow, where the weeds have survived and are ploughed in together with the seeds.
And Jesus explains that this is why people’s response to him and his message of the kingdom is so varied. People’s hearts are different, people are different. You might expect that in our day, differing responses to the Gospel, and perhaps you’ve sometimes thought that if only Jesus were here it would be so much easier, and yet, here is Jesus telling this parable, precisely because the response to him is so mixed.
The Sower in this parable is us by the way, there are other parables where God is explicitly the Sower, but here it’s whoever is sharing the Gospel, sharing the wonderful news that God has come to save us.
So, as the Sower’s in our day, what should our response be to this mixed response? Is it to sow the seed more sparingly, to dig around a bit first, to perhaps place each seed by hand where we know it will thrive? No, Jesus says that, precisely because the response is so mixed, we’re to sow generously. We don’t have a window into people’s hearts, into their lives, there is no way to know how different people will respond to the Gospel, the ground of their hearts is undisturbed. So we’re to sow generously and see what happens. We’re to sow generously, indiscriminately, sharing the hope we have, the peace we have, the joy we have in Jesus. And we’re to do so in both our lives, in how we act and how we are, and in our words, in what we say.
Now there’s a move in more recent times to do so purely in action, there’s a quote attributed to St Francis that’s become popular ‘preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words’. Now I’ not a big fan of that quote, firstly because whilst it’s attributed to St Francis there’s no evidence in any of his writings that he ever said anything remotely like that, so it sounds like someone came up with a quote and needed a figure to attach it to so it would gain traction. And secondly I don’t like it because it doesn’t work.
Let me tell you a story that author and activist Krish Kandiah tells of his time at University:
“Our communal kitchen at university should have been condemned as a dangerous biohazard. Our cleaning lady on the other hand should have been offered the Queen’s Award for bravery. Each day she fought the mess and returned the kitchen to order. Occasionally she decided to teach us the error of our slovenly ways by locking us out. Looking back, it may have been for our own protection!
In such an environment, I was confident that could shine as a Christian. I walked around bubbling with positive energy and occasionally facing germ warfare for my flatmates by doing a whole pile of washing up by myself.
After 10 weeks, I felt success was at hand when Sofie knocked on my door to say the words I had been waiting for. ‘Krish, there’s something different about you.’ My heart skipped a beat. Finally, I thought, the smiles, scrubbing and sensitive pastoral care have paid off. Now I get to tell her about Jesus. What she actually said changed my life forever. ‘I’ve noticed something that you do – it seems to give you a buzz – and I’m thinking about giving it a go. Where can I get hold of those vitamin C tablets you have?’
Two things happened as a result of that conversation, Krish says. First he stopped overdosing on Vitamin C, and second he stopped trying to share Jesus without words”.
There’s a temptation in sharing our faith to try and do it all by actions, we’re worried people will make fun of us, go off us, or even get cross or upset. It feels a lot safer to let our actions do the talking and wait for them to ask. To try and scatter the Gospel seeds wordlessly. But, here’s the thing, people won’t guess the Gospel from our lives, we can be as good as we can be, live as obedient disciples of Jesus, but people aren’t going to guess that Christ died for them so that they can share eternity with him from the fact that we’re good people. They’ll put it down to a good upbringing, strong character, our vitamin habits.
Now, our actions need to line up with our words. Actions with no words may not work, but neither do words with no actions, if we’re talking about a Kingdom where there is perfect justice and yet we leave people go hungry people will ask questions. If we talk about a Kingdom where all are welcome from east and west, rich and poor, male and female, and yet we exclude anyone who isn’t like us, people will ask questions. No, words and actions, hand in hand, that’s how we’re to share Jesus.
As Paul writes a little later in his letter to the Romans, which we’ll hear in a few weeks time: ‘how can people believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”’
So let us sow the seeds of faith generously, doing so knowing that some will let it pass them by, that it’ll be snatched from others before they can respond, that some will be keen to start with but show no commitment once things get serious, that some will start well and then get drawn away by other things. Let that knowledge drive us to share more generously, not less, not trying to work out if the soil is right, how this person might respond, but sharing and then seeing.
A survey done by the group behind back to church Sunday found that the main reason people didn’t invite a friend to church was because they figured they’d say no. Does that ring true? But in not asking, we’ve already decided for them, in not sharing Jesus they don’t have a chance to respond. The response is down to them, we’re not responsible for that bit, all that we need do is share and ask and trust God to do the rest.
And if in your whole life, only one person joins you at church, only one person comes to faith through you sharing yours, look at what Jesus says comes from it. Fruit, sometimes thirty, sometimes sixty, sometimes a hundredfold increase on what was sown. If only one person comes to faith all those other scattered seed which came to nothing will have been worth it.
In sowing we’re not responsible for how the seed grows, we’re not responsible for how people respond, all we need do is scatter.
Amen.