Sermon on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
July 16, 2023: St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Pennsburg, PA
Last week while I was thinking about what to say this morning, a wise person advised me to keep it simple.
It has been a while since I preached, and it is a stormy Sunday morning in July, so keeping it simple sounds like a good idea…
And it helps that today’s Gospel message is simple: Jesus’ parable of the Sower.
In this parable Jesus tells us that the Sower scattered his seeds for planting, but some of those seeds hit the stones and failed to take root, some landed in poor soil, sprouted but then died quickly in the sun, other seeds hit the path and were eaten by birds, and still others were choked out by weeds…
But, there were some seeds that the fell onto good soil, and these took root and flourished!
On the surface of it, it does seem pretty simple: seeds planted in good soil tend to do better than those who that get tossed on the stones and eaten by birds, or burned up in the sun.
My father, who grew up on a farm in South Dakota, would agree, he knew the value of planting in good soil, especially as there was time when good soil could not be found.
The farm where he grew up is in the middle of nowhere today, so it was really isolated 100 years ago, when he was a child.
When my father he told me that he walked over a mile in the snow and/or mud to go to school every day, he was not exaggerating!
According to my father, he and his siblings often made that walk after waking up early and doing chores on the farm, like milking the cows and feeding the chickens…and even plowing the fields…
Which, he said, was often done with actual Horse-Power/before his father was able to buy a tractor!
Life on the farm was tough, and that was when times were good…before they knew how bad things were about to get.
The drought started around 1930 and then decided to stay for a while…
While they planted the seed, the crops that did grow suffered, with many of them withering in the sun.
Then, one day, when all seemed lost, my father said that he saw a dark cloud forming on the horizon…his first thought was “rain, finally!”
Excited, he went to tell his father the good news, but my grandfather took one look at the clouds coming across the horizon, and panicked!
It was not rain, but a swarm of locusts, coming to take away the crops that the drought had left behind, and there was nothing that they could do in the face of this onslaught…except batten down the hatches, and pray!
Then, once the locusts had taken all they could, the dust came, blowing the soil into the sky and across the plains and in some cases, all the way to the Atlantic!
The “Dust-Bowl” lasted for years…
And all the farms in the area struggled as the crops and livestock died and the soil itself blew away…
It got to the point where it must have seemed like there was no good soil left for planting, and like there was no relief in sight.
It would have been easy for the family to give up, many did, packing up their cars and trucks and moving on for greener pastures…often out west, and this would have been understandable.
However, my father told me that his parents saw this devastation as an opportunity!
He said that my grandfather took advantage of government programs and learned about things like crop rotation for soil enrichment, planting of different types of crops like soy beans, and getting creative with irrigation from their artesian well.
The good soil was there, it just needed to be cared for and nurtured, it needed time to heal.
And although it did take some time, the farm not only survived, but thrived as these new processes were put in place and the soil was restored and once again bore good crops.
After years of pandemic, inflation, and just general turmoil both personal and within society, many of us may feel as if we have experienced some tough seasons of drought or like we’ve been devastated by locust.
Maybe we feel like we have been betrayed and mistreated…and find ourselves identifying with Esau.
Perhaps our trust has been broken, and it can seem as if our fields have gone dry, with our best soil blown away.
But this is not necessarily a bad thing, as a cleared field is primed for preparation, for plowing and planting, for new growth.
Right now, at St. Mark’s we have an opportunity to prepare our soil for new growth.
In today’s Gospel Jesus compares the seeds that were sowed/ with the Word of God, the message of God’s great love for us…love which is shared as a free gift for all people.
This Word has the power of renewal and restoration!
And today, we could use renewal, right here where we are!
Fortunately, WE are the good soil, which enables THE Word of God to take root and grow new crops.
Crops that have the power to nourish the world.
We ARE the good soil when we gather for worship every Sunday morning, despite any challenges we may be facing.
We are the good soil when we welcome visitors to worship with us!
We are the good soil when we participate in Christian Education, from Sunday School and Cat Class, to the VBS program that is starting this evening.
We are good soil when we volunteer for the good of the community and the church, when we support our ministries both here at home and in the in the field, like when our members volunteer for the Heavenly Helpers, Project Live, the Open Link, the Lions, or any other group that serves our community and the world at large.
And we are good soil when we seek to act as Christ in the World, by living our faith out loud daily, by treated others the way Jesus called us to: with compassion, with love and with respect.
As the good soil, we can take these seeds of God’s Word and cause new growth and new life right here at St. Mark’s and in our community, as we renew our call to be a part of the Body of Christ, alive and active in the world…ensuring that the ministry of St. Mark’s/our ministry/will continue to reach beyond our walls for years to come, able to meet ALL the challenges of our world, as it is today: Addiction, financial uncertainty, inflation, war and the fact that many have simply forgotten how to just get along…that everyone does not have to be right.
That we can all work together for the greater good!
As Jesus told us, when we plant the Word of God in good soil, it has the potential to take root and grow strong enough to feed a hungry world.
The crops we grow will nourish our lives and the lives of all those around us, and…will produce more seed…more opportunities to share the good news that God loves us right where we, and just as we are!
Planting in good soil will ensure that our ministry will not only be shared in the world today, but also far into the future.
It really can be just that simple.
Amen
Ordinary Adventures 