We Are the Terrain—All of It!

“And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”” From Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

We are into the long stretch of ordinary time that will have us firmly back in the Gospel of Matthew. It is not an infrequent occurrence to have a parable presented and in later verses an interpretation offered. These insights are usually just given to the disciples and not the larger crowds. Many biblical scholars assume these are later textual additions.

It is tempting to imagine that the disciples, or we as followers of Jesus, have an inside track to understanding just what these parables mean. But the reality is the very nature of the form is meant to "throw together" things that don't easily make sense. So while this Sunday's lectionary contains one of these interpretations, I'd like to invite you to just stay with the first part.

We hear this well-known parable of the sower and if you're a gardener one is not immediately impressed with this sower's abilities. The sower appears to just be emptying his bag right and left, not paying any real attention to where they land. There seems to be no concern for using the seed to its best yield at all. It is hardly shocking given the careless actions of the sower that many of the seeds don't take hold—let alone bear real fruit. If we are hoping for a straightforward interpretation, we will spend a lot of time setting ourselves up to be the good soil—eagerly waiting for the seeds to come into our cultivated field so we can bring forth the harvest. We need not worry about a distracted or careless sower; we will make it all work to the good.

But if parables are meant to challenge us there isn't much challenge here. It's all about preparing myself to receive the seeds. It's all up to me and the sower doesn't seem very reliable. If I look a bit more closely across my life, though, there are few periods of any length where I'm postured for such easy receptivity.

I can imagine times I was a rocky path with others snatching the seeds from in front of me. I can easily conjure times of distraction that were rocky and appeared to have only fleeting bursts of insight or growth. And the thorny times of my life are far too easily conjured as I imagine difficult relationships or simply tasks that had to be attended to beyond my control that seemed to have little growth or intentional preparing of the ground.

The real gift of this parable is realizing, whatever season or terrain my life is in, God is abundantly and even scandalously tossing me seeds. Maybe they only last for a day—but perhaps that short burst is enough to get me to the field. God is the sower who is far more concerned about making sure wherever we are, there is a seed nearby. Over the course of a lifetime, I suspect the harvest will be more than adequate. And the real lesson is knowing God is willing to show up in all places.

Peace, Beth +