Sower, Seed, or Soil?

Lord may we trust your word of grace in love to accomplish all that is needed in us. Amen
As I mentioned last week, I spent last Monday evening through Thursday morning at the Rostered Ministers Gathering in Indianapolis. The theme for the gathering was Woven Together. There was an artist in residence who sat up front and off to the right when we were in one group. There she had a loom and was weaving while we were together. On Wednesday, she shared what she had produced and noted that the finished piece pulled together the threads that we had shared and that it held both beauty and some messiness. That is life, isn’t it? When we take different textures, different thicknesses, and different colors and weave them together, the finished piece is stronger than the individual threads, more complex, more interesting, more messy, and more delightful. God in creation weaves together heaven and earth, weaves together you and me, and invites us to join in the beauty of the handiwork. Best of all, when God speaks life into being, it is never wasted. Add to this that when you speak with God’s creative voice, whether in your words or in your actions toward creation or other people, you may not see the results, but it will become what God needs for it to be....

That is the beauty we encounter in the Isaiah text. That is why it is one of my very favorite passages. God announces, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” As we go through life, we scatter seeds. In terms of being God’s word, it is easiest for us to think of these seeds as the words we share that we learn from the Scriptures. God does not make what is meant by the word so limited. All creation gets involved. God says, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,” and also “For you shall go out in joy and be
led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap there hands.” All of creation gets involved. The rain and the snow water the earth. The trees burst out in green, the mountains and the hills burst out in song. How that happens I am not sure, and I do hope it is a little less extravagant than when Mt St. Helens exploded.
When it comes to people, in this same Isaiah passage God says, “Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them.” And a little further on, “Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and so what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance will be revealed.” That all sounds high and lofty, and I believe, it is only the beginning. There are all the little things, like rain and snow that simply watering the earth. People do simple things that carry the creative power of God’s word at work in the world. There is the woman sitting by the stage weaving a simple banner, the father making lunches for kids before leaving for work, the teacher saying the same thing to the same students for the fiftieth time this year and hoping that this time it will sink in, the firefighter cleaning the truck between calls, the quilters gathering on Tuesday morning to sew for others and to check in with each other, the elder volunteering at the food bank. These are all ways that God’s word goes out, and it will not return empty.
Actions small and great are like sowing seed of goodness in the world. Jesus tells the parable of the sower who went out to sow to the crowds, and then later he interprets it to the disciples as about the different types of soil. But what about the sower? And what about the seeds? We can find ourselves in many different places in this parable.
In the parable Jesus talks about what happens to the sower and the seed. We only know Jesus is also talking about people as soil because he interprets the parable later that day. He interprets it for the disciples, who are the ones who are going to be sent out to spread the word. Is he telling the disciples the same thing that God spoke through Isaiah? The word will be sent out, and you may not see the results. After all, we all know that plants do not grow fast enough for you to see as you sit there and stare at them, but they will grow fast enough to accomplish what God intends. Are you the sower and you need to hear that it is your job to scatter God’s love extravagantly, even wastefully, knowing that God’s grace and mercy will find the hearts where it needs to grow? Have you ever had someone come up to you and say something like “years ago you were kind to me, or you did this for me, and it made a big difference in my life.” And you are thinking, you were a complete jerk to me. I thought you couldn’t stand me. Then you realize that God is truly at work scattering seeds through you even when you do not see that grace at work.



Or are you the seed whose purpose for existence is to grow and be new life for creation. This is pretty good if you are the seed that lands on good soil. There conditions are great to thrive and become all that you were supposed to be. In part because other critter’s manure has become your compost. Or you can be the seed that the bird came and ate up. Then you may be added to the manure and dropped somewhere else, a new place to do your best to grow into the plant you are intended to be. Maybe you are the seed that lands in rocky ground, and you are not able to send roots deep, and you get scorched by the sun. But those seeds also become part of the ecosystem. That is how soil is made. Plants die and become compost and in God’s own time, new soil. Or you may be the seed among the thorns. The thorns win out for now, but like mosquitoes, God will find a use for them somehow.
Or are you the soil receiving the seed according to where you are in the ecosystem of life. God as the sower can look at the soil and know what is to become of it. The rest of us, not so much. We just need to trust that God knows what God is doing when tossing all that perfectly good seed all over creation. Are you able to look at someone and tell what kind of seed they are, or is that best left up to God’s own judgement? One of the speakers at the conference told us about her great Aunt Martha. Aunt Martha, who everyone knew as A Martha, was known for two things. One was her pound cake. A Martha was generous with her poundcake. It was rich, and dense and abundant. A Martha was often baking it and sharing it with everyone around her. The speaker knew about A Martha’s pound cake at an early age. It was only as she developed some maturity that she learned the second thing that A Martha was known for, and that was her apron. Her apron had two pockets. In one she kept a small bottle of gin, and in the other she kept a pistol. During temperance, A Martha had a still, and a home that she would rent out rooms… by the hour. That part of A Martha’s life was only shared with the next generation as they became old enough to understand how it was part of how their beloved relative was woven together.
One story that was shared about A Martha is that she was Catholic. Because she had a wheelchair, she was considered a shut in, and she came up on the young priest’s visitation schedule. He called and asked her if she would like him to bring her communion the next day. She said yes, but come early in the morning. The young priest showed up the next evening. A Martha looked at him and said, “I am too sloshed to receive communion.” And she sent him away. He did come back the next day, in the morning, and she received communion then. A Martha claimed her own dignity when that young priest showed up in the evening, and she determined she was not prepared to receive communion at that time. If you will, her soil was not ready then. But the priest came back when he was told was the right time, and bread was broken. What kind of soil was A Martha? Like all of us, I expect she was mixed, sometimes hard, sometimes rocky, sometimes thorny, sometimes deep, rich, nutrient filled good soil.
When you are the sower, sow joyfully. When you are the seed, trust God to provide the water and the soil that is needed for you to be who you are called to be. When you are the soil, grow abundantly. In all you are and do, God’s word will accomplish God’s purpose and succeed in the thing for which God sent it.