Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

In our backyard, we have a large two-part flower bed that my wife, Paula, actually put together about 5 years ago. The bed lies dormant until early spring, when we check the drip sprinkler system and throw in some soil amendments. Then, eventually, flowers start to grow. We have a combination of annual and perennial plants. So some of the plants are seeded from those that dropped their seeds last year, and some are blooming again.

As you can see, the current state of the flower bed is mixed- some plants are growing, some are dropping their seeds, and some are not doing so well. The heat has made it difficult to keep the plants watered enough. There is one bright spot at the moment- one of the sunflowers we got a couple of months ago from the church during fellowship has just bloomed and produced a beautiful yellow sunflower.

Without a drip system and spot watering on hot days, occasional Miracle-Gro plant fertilizer and soil amendments, we wouldn’t have much growing in that bed other than weeds.

Modern agriculture is a sophisticated technology, certainly different from the description of the sower’s method in this parable. The sower seems to throw the seed anywhere and everywhere, no Miracle-Gro to spray upon the seeds, no fertilizer of any kind, no tender care and extra watering when the days get hot, based on the passage. Despite advances in technology, the principle of sowing and harvesting has remained the same over the years: you put the seed in the ground and hope for a big harvest.

In this parable, the sower is in a land where the soil is difficult. There isn’t much fertile soil for growing things. The sower sows his seed wherever he can and hopes it will sprout and yield a harvest.

If we were to play a numbers game with this parable, the sower wouldn’t appear to be a very good farmer. On average, only 1 in 4 seeds that he sows bears any fruit. The rest is burned up, eaten by the birds, or choked out by the thorns. According to the best estimates, a 1^st-century Palestinian farmer would have been extremely happy with a return of 10 bushels of fruit for every bushel of seed sown. He probably hoped for an average harvest of 7 ½ bushels of fruit.

The harvest yield in this parable is the surprise twist. Who would expect a harvest yield of a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or even thirtyfold, especially with his method of casting seed? Perhaps he also had some Miracle-Gro that didn’t make it into the text? No —this is a superabundant harvest that leaves only one explanation—the sower sows the seed, but God is the miracle grower here —God gives the growth.

To be clear on this parable- the sower is God, and the seed is the word of God, which we can read for ourselves during the week, and also hear and reflect upon in worship. By the way, our Little Free Pantry is becoming a seed sower. Since our new Montessori school will be using the small office space in our admin building, we had to clean it out. There were a number of Bibles in the office (which is where the ones available to take home today came from). Donna Wright has been bringing out 2-3 Bibles at a time and placing them in the pantry. When they are gone (and it does not take long for them to be gone), she brings out a few more. Donna is also the sower of seeds!

The soil- that is the life in which we are planted. The plants represent our faith and its growth potential. The birds, rocks, sun, and thorns are the things that distract us from the Word. As Jesus tells us, the birds represent the evil one, who clouds our minds with misplaced priorities- a sinful life in the wrong direction does not enable growth, for this person’s mind is distracted. A great modern example of such a kind of distraction is this little cellphone in my hand. Let me just check one quick thing before moving on…

So the Word, which was sown in their hearts from the beginning of life, is snatched away. Things distract those who hear the Word.

Rocks are also distractions in our modern lives- a person may view our service on YouTube and feel uplifted. But their soil is rocky- it hasn’t been tilled or cared for. There is no room for a faith plant to grow. Priorities like family time, retirement travel, or working on the Sabbath don’t allow the word to take root. When life gets hard, the questions about God get louder, and the plants end up withering in the garden of agnosticism.

Then there is the word of God that falls into soil with thorns or weeds. It is heard, but other voices, other priorities choke the message, and the plants of faith die. For many in the world, those voices speak louder than God’s wisdom, so the Word is choked out and bears no fruit.

If life is represented in this parable as soil, you could say we are planted in some really difficult soil these days, although there certainly does seem to be a lot of fertilizer available. The war in Iran goes on again and off again with no end in sight, no oversight by Congress, costing civilian lives, putting American soldiers in harm’s way, and costing our nation billions more dollars, soon to be reflected at the gas pump yet again. God calls us to seek peace and pursue it (Psalm 34:14), but instead we pursue continuous war.

Also continuing: ICE raids. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a man during an immigration enforcement operation in Houston on Tuesday morning. ICE says the shooting occurred after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo tried to flee. His family has given a much different version of what happened and is calling for an investigation. In the last year, according to Wikipedia and other sites online, there have been at least 33 shootings by ICE immigration agents, resulting in 9 deaths, with several victims being U.S. citizens. Jesus said, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35) We have gotten so far from Christ’s central teachings on hospitality and welcome.

The sin of Christian nationalism is front and center, as the current administration’s Faith and Freedom report suggests the First Amendment, which says in part, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” does not really say what it does, and is trying to champion the notion that America is a Christian nation, rather than a nation of many faiths and traditions. This theory suggests our nation has been set aside, blessed by God more than any other nation, and that God is on our side. In addition, our leaders are ordained by God in their positions and should not be questioned. Yikes. The sin of idolatry- “You shall have no other gods before me.”  (Exodus 20:3) is front and center here.

I am proud that our denomination voted to label Christian Nationalism as a “theological error” at General Assembly last week. San Jose Presbytery, who authored the amendment, was joined by six other presbyteries in asking the General Assembly to take a stand, calling Christian nationalism “a dangerous and increasingly pervasive ideology that seeks to merge national identity with Christian identity, distorting both faith and politics” that “contradicts the foundational commitments and public witness of our church: love, equality, inclusion, peace, religious freedom and the imago dei of all beings.”

In addition to all of those things happening nationally, we have our own personal struggles with family members, friends and neighbors, medical dilemmas, and financial concerns. We are worried about our beloved SOU university and growingly concerned about health care and the Ashland Community Hospital. We live in some difficult soil!

Our faith plant needs to be strong when planted in such difficult soil, able to show love for God, neighbor, and self, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. Let’s look at ways to make our faith strong in such times.

Let’s begin with your plant of faith. Do you have a strong faith that enables you to bear fruit- to show that faith to the world through your words and deeds? Have you cared for your faith plant, watering it regularly and tending to it in the difficult soil we find ourselves in? Have you been able to attend or watch worship, spend time in fellowship with others in our congregation, or have you neglected your plant of faith and just expected it to grow on its own?

I have an unfortunate example. This is a flowerpot of Morning Glory plants. I bought it at the end of June to put on our back porch table. I wanted to have a spot of color when our family got together for the 4^th of July and ate BBQ ribs, coleslaw, and watermelon on our back porch. According to the tag on it at Lowe’s, direct sunlight was ok. At first it was full of purple and yellow blooms. We watered it regularly, including this past Sunday, even with a bit of Miracle-Gro. Then Tuesday came, and it got hot. By the time I came home Tuesday evening, most of the flowers wilted, and many leaves did as well. The plant went from Morning Glory to Afternoon horror story. I lost over half the blooms and a few branches. I watered it on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday, as every other day until this morning. It looks a little better than it did on that hot Tuesday afternoon. It made it to this morning’s sermon as an illustration of how not to grow your faith. Don’t neglect it on hot days- difficult days like we find ourselves in. Worship regularly. Read scripture regularly—fellowship with others from our church regularly. Water your faith with life-giving water regularly. John 4:14, Jesus says to a Samaritan woman at a well, “Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give will never thirst; the water that I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

A final illustration for you to consider about prayer is this plant which has been with me in my pastor’s office for a long time. On those difficult days, PRAY! Does anyone recognize this kind of plant? It is called a prayer plant. I originally got it from my office manager, Susan, who told me she wasn’t very good with plants. I told her I would happily care for it. I’ve done an OK job, but it could look better. I admit I do not look at it every day. Life gets busy in my office. If this prayer plant represents my faith, I need to tend to my prayer life. Praying regularly, consistently, and daily makes my prayer plant grow. I saw this quote many years ago, attributed to Allen Bartlett. “Not praying for seven days in a row makes one weak.”

A strong faith is a well-rooted faith which is with us in time of joy and sorrow, of blessing and struggle. It is a faith that grows despite all these things because it has been nurtured and is in good soil. British Theologian Father Andrew says, “Great faith is not the faith that walks always in the light and knows no darkness, but the faith that perseveres despite God’s seeming silences, and life’s struggles, and that faith will most certainly and surely get its reward.” May we go from this place today with a growing, strongly rooted faith, even though planted in difficult soil. May God bless and strengthen our faith that perseveres through all of life’s struggles. Alleluia! Amen.

 

Benediction: From Ephesians 3:17-19, (New Living Translation) “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God’s love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great that you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”