Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

I remember helping mom plant the garden. Dad would come in and plow it up and then it would be tilled to get the ground ready. It was a large garden with all sorts of wonderful things planted there, green beans, carrots, beets, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and probably some other things I don't remember. Sweet corn of course was planted next to the field corn, several rows for a good long stretch. There were many relatives and friends who would come and get sweet corn as well as that which we froze to use through the rest of the year. The soil was the rich black dirt which you find in the central part of the US. The rows were carefully laid out and depending on the plant which was going to grow you either placed the right number carefully or you scattered the seed along the row. Carrots and lettuce were scattered in the prepared row. The seeds are rather small and sand was sometimes used to help scatter the seed. If too many were in one spot they would be spread out by the hoe or by hand before the row was covered up. The beets were sprinkled, not as thickly as carrots or lettuce. The beans were placed. You measured out the pumpkin seeds for each hill. You put the piece of potato with an eye in the soil carefully. For none of what we were planting was there the out and out sowing which Jesus talks about as he tells the parable. 

What strikes you about the image? If you are a gardener, a planter of whatever which you hope to harvest some day, does this story bother you? What I really wonder is what were the agricultural practices of the 1st century world where Jesus lived? How many fields were planted by sowing? Were they really so liberal with the seed as the sower of the parable? Is this one of those parables which would have had people chuckling? Sowing was of course a way to plant, but on the path, on rocky soil? Somehow I think a skillful sower would have been a little more careful with the valuable seed. Maybe that is the issue at the heart of this parable. 

We are told that the seed is the word of God. It is a good analogy. Power, growth, life, bringing blessings, changing landscapes, changing lives, there is great power in the seed and there is great power in the word. We have all seen what happens when a seed gets a start somewhere. Sidewalks can get broken, driveways get cracked, rocks can be split when a seed finds just enough to stay alive, to grow, to use its power. 

Have you ever seen a life which has been reshaped by the word of God? Have you seen the growth of that which has been planted? Of course you have, you have probably experienced it yourself. How would you describe it, this growth, this work of the Spirit which brings the growth of the word in you? How would you describe what happens in a life when Jesus is a part of the life, when the word has rooted deeply and grown well? 

It is easy to think of this parable in terms of the four soils, the four places where the seed lands. When you start to focus on those soils and their differences, their different responses to the seed which lands there the parable can become about us. You have to be the good soil. You have to receive the word. Don't be distracted by the world. Don't let birds of whatever shape or size come and snatch the word from you. It begins to sound pretty legalistic doesn't it? This parable is about the seed. It is about this crazy sower who scatters seed everywhere and anywhere. It is about the seed. It is about the generosity of the sower. I expect he or she sings as they sow. So great is the joy at participating in this cycle of life, of sowing and harvesting. I expect the exuberance of the singing and the scattering is contagious and the joy which is expressed infects all who are blessed by seeing, by hearing this amazing sower who goes out to sow. 

A sower went out sow. When we get to the explanation which Jesus gives did you notice he doesn't give the sower an identity? So then, sow then. I'm thinking the identity of the sower is left open because it is a job for those who know and love the word. That scattering, that sharing, that telling of who Jesus is is the work of any who know and love our Jesus. Have you been doing any sowing lately? 

If we were to continue the analogy we find in this parable how would you describe these days? Stormy weather, miserable conditions for planting, drought, a dryness a barrenness which gives no hope for life of any kind, there are all sorts of ways to speak of the gloom and doom which seems to hover close about us. The numbers are rising so rapidly that each day brings a new high for the daily number of new cases. Arguments continue about what to do to prevent the spread. Some will take measures, some will not. There are reasons given by both sides and it seems there is always an expert who has the answer, the silver bullet for which so many are so desperate. I don't know if we will find one, if there is one to find. Until then I will do what I can to protect those around me. It is how I will serve my neighbor and my community. 

That quick fix does not appear to be coming soon and so we must be the church. A time of crisis is the best time to be the church. I remember an old story which talked about a follower of Jesus who left a Christian school to enroll in a state school. Friends wondered about the decision believing that it would be harder to be faithful in the state school. His reply was simple. It is always easiest to take often into a strong headwind. 

The crisis, crises we are going through have whipped up some pretty strong winds, headwinds if you will. It is a great time to be the church. Is it hard to be the church in a crisis? Is it hard to be who we are called to be, or do we start soaring when we continue to live the way of Jesus? Do we start soaring when we find ways to serve? Do we start soaring when we find ways to care for and bless our neighbor in ways big and small? Do we start soaring when we look out for the other and find ways grand and simple to let them know of the love of Jesus? 

A sower went out to sow. In some ways it looks like the conditions aren't too great for sowing right now. Then again, the word of God is for the dimly burning wick, the bruised reed. The word of God is the word for those who are scared. It is the word for those who are hurting. It is the word which lifts up the humble and humbles the proud. It is a word which desperately needs to be heard. It is time to sow. 

When you sow, have you ever wondered if it is the right place? Have you ever wondered about the soil where the seed might land? It is tempting isn't it? I just don't know about here. I just don't know about now. I'm not sure what sort of soil this seed is going to land in if I start sowing here? It is as though we somehow have to carefully parcel out the word of God. It is as though somehow we have to make sure we don't waste the word of God. 

Don't worry, it will not go to waste. Will it always grow like we would want? Hardly. Still, we are not the ones who are in charge of the growth. We are certainly not the ones who are to be preparing the ground. That is God's work. That is Spirit work. God promises the word does not return empty. I will hang on to that promise and scatter the word just as much as I can. Maybe I can be that sower and scatter with joy and hope and faith, sing with joy filled with faith as I scatter the amazing word of life, the amazing word of God which does bring peace. It is time to sow. Let us sow in faith with all the joy that is ours.