Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 - Listen Up! God's Sow'n Here

Last week, we began a new worship series that asks the question, What Makes Christians Different?  Last week’s answer, fittingly so as we celebrated 250 years as a country, was that we lived within two different kingdoms.  This week’s answer gets down into the thing that is foundational to Christianity.  We Are Planted by the Word.  And it just so happens, that Jesus then presents a well-known parable in our Gospel Lesson for today that of the Sower and the Seed. 

However, those words are more than mere coincidence.  They remind us that there by the lake, people gathered around, Jesus has opportunity to touch hearts and minds with the Word of truth.  With so many listening, that He finds reason to use the water like some giant megaphone, what will He say?  What will He teach?  It shouldn’t be overly surprising that He focuses on the importance of the Word. And so, brothers and sisters, with a longer lesson to contemplate, may we heed Jesus’ advice and Listen Up! Because God’s Sow’n Here.

That’s usually the part of this parable that gets dismissed while reading.  It’s almost like it’s a throwaway phrase, but listening or hearing is mentioned nine times in verses 1-23.  That alone should tell us it’s one of the major differences between God’s people and others.  But what we listen to is of great importance and satan knows it.  “Listen, a sower went out to sow. 4As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it. … 18“So listen carefully to the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the Evil One comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the seed that was sown along the path.  You’ve seen it a hundred times under the bird feeder.  Any seed that does not sink into the earth doesn’t stand a chance. Exposed to the elements and its enemies, it is devoured quickly and completely.

The meaning is far more frightening.    When the Word is rejected, when it is not contemplated or understood well, when it is not listened to, it sits out in the open air and satan will not miss the opportunity.  With talons more fierce than the mightiest of eagles, the Word is snatched, leaving nothing where such promise once laid.  Perhaps, you’ve run into such soil.  Agnostic or worse a true Atheist provides soil hardened by demons more frightening than anything a Christian could contemplate, and there the Word stands little chance as satan plucks it like a bird watching for the farmer to toss seed onto the path.  Like seed on the sidewalk, there is nothing into which it grows.

5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. Immediately, the seed sprang up because the soil was not deep. 6But when the sun rose, the seed was scorched. Because it had no root, it withered away. … 20The seed that was sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21yet he is not deeply rooted and does not endure. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.

Shallow soil is warm in the sun.  The rock underneath gives a false since of perfect growing conditions for the seed which has landed upon.  As a result, it springs to life growing quickly, impressively but something is not right.  The root is not as quick and even if it wants to keep up it meets the rock hard surface beneath it robbing it of the depth it needs to face the hot summer sun. It was doomed before it ever began to grow.

You’ve met them, a Christian so on fire for the Word it seemed as if they would blaze a trail to heaven itself.  But it was amazing how quickly they were halted, extinguished.  The world is good at putting obstacles in the way of the Christian.  Just open your eyes and ears and pay attention for just a moment to the assault that is going on against the Word on a daily basis.   A show supposedly lets us into the height of science as it explains the foundations of the universe, foundations suspiciously devoid of any mention of God or his power.  Anyone who believes it’s not true is dismissed as a idiot neanderthal from the (note the name now) dark ages (unenlightened by the glorious guesses of modernity).  Or consider for just a moment the way you begin to squirm as the conversation moves to church fellowship, closed communion, the roles of men and women, living together or sex before marriage, homosexuality.  Without roots, the heat of persecution is all it takes to destroy the shallow faith, which once looked so promising.

7Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked it. … 22The seed that was sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worry of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it produces no fruit. Still other seed, falls on what a first looks like amazing soil.  The plow however, did not cut deep enough and now just beneath the surface a terrible danger lurks.  The thorns grow up and choke the plant, stealing its nutrients, and eventually its very life.

Having survived the Devil and the world, an enemy of equal strength lies beneath the surface.  The sinful flesh has cravings of its own.  I want a life free of complication and I believe that Christianity should give that to me regardless of the fact that every Christian is scripture has some problems they have to deal with.  I want a life free from disease and God certainly has shown power to rid his people of everything from cancer to colds, in spite of Paul’s thorn in the flesh which plagued him throughout his life.  I want to be rich and since everything is God’s all should be mine, forget that part about sharing and caring and those portions of the Word where Christians are clearly dealing with conditions of poverty.  And when we don’t get our way, well the thorns prove painful and faith begins to choke. What good is Christianity anyway?

Oh dear, Christian, there are plenty of distractions to steal our focus from the Word of our God.   There are plenty of tricks, temptations, and snares which seek to trap us and starve us of the life giving grace of God.  And while we all like to quickly move past these words of the parable and claim the fertile soil as our own.  We all know we would be lying to say that at various times, and in different places within our lives, this soil doesn’t look to foreign to our eyes. The complaints even may resonate currently in our souls. But there is a solution to this problem.  It is not one brought about by our effort or our strength however.  No, only the word brings forth fruit. So brothers and sisters, Listen up!

8But some seed fell on good ground and produced grain: some one hundred times, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown. 9Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.” … 23But the seed that was sown on the good ground is the one who continues to hear and understand the word. Indeed, he continues to produce fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times more than was sown.”

Good soil, we have it all over Wisconsin.  Go for a drive this afternoon and look at the fields.  Many are green, although farmers would always like them greener and more robust.  One seed produces a plant which produces many more, and each according to the gifts given it, some 100-fold, some 60, some 30, all blessings from our God.

Oh, I suppose it would be tempting to look at this soil and puff up our chests as Christians.   “Look, I’m saved because I’m so great, so smart, so whatever …”  Of course we’ve already covered the fact that we often look more like rock-hard paths, stony soil and weed-infested ground, not to mention that the rest of Scripture clearly tells us differently.  

I’ve always loved the words of Ephesians 2:8-10, “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Paul carefully constructs the sentences to remind us that faith is in the sphere of grace as well, a gift, given by God not by works and aside from any boasting of our own. So the fruit, it’s not my doing, but God’s doing.  

He took useless sinful soil, and fertilized it with His Word.  He decided to walk among the sinful and live a perfect life in our place.  He journeyed not just throughout Israel, but all the way to the cross, where He endured more than nails and mockery, suffering the hell that we deserved.  He allowed Himself, perfect and sinless as He was to bow his head in death and be placed in a tomb, only to destroy death as he burst forth in victory.

Yes, this is the message that softens the hardened heart, which picks out the stones and roots out the weeds of sin, demolishing all our enemies and leaving soil made perfect, watered by His holy precious blood.  In these conditions, even with the heat of satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh beating down upon us, the plants grow and flourish.  Oh, I know it doesn’t always seem that way, but step back every now and again to take a look.  This all used to be farmland, where Jesus’ picture played out so regularly,  but now a church.  It used to be a mission funded by the generosity of others as a few gathered to worship their God, but now, I know we would always like the numbers to be greater but now a self-supporting congregation which in turn sends dollars back to help the spread of the Gospel in places we cannot go which even funds the spread of that Word in areas around us in the Madison area.  And still, as we talk, as we work, there are those who by God’s grace listen and gather in with us to hear the voice of their God as He plants and grows and harvests.    

What Makes Christians Different?  Jesus pushes out to sea as He sits in a boat to amplify the earthly vocal cords as He sets aside the full use of His divinity for a time and He describes you and me. In love, he bids us listen to Him.  Which soil are you today, were you yesterday, will you be tomorrow?  Do you know where the good soil comes from?  The answers are all found in our God Who works in His Word.  By God’s Grace, may we always Listen Up! Because God’s Sow’n Here.  Amen.