In Search of Fertile Earth

There is a scene in the movie A Bug's Life when Flik, the rebellious, free-thinking ant, is trying to explain an important concept to Dot, one of the smaller ants in the colony. He picks up a rock and says, "Here, pretend - pretend that that's a seed."

"It's a rock," says Dot.

"Oh, I know it's a rock, I know. But let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed, alright? We'll just use our imaginations. Now, now do you see our tree? Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain, and voilá!"

"This rock will be a tree?"

"Seed to tree. You've gotta work with me, here. Alright? Okay. Now, y-you might not feel like you can do much now, but that's just because, well, you're not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed."

"But it's a rock," Dot says.

"I know it's a rock!" Flik shouts. "Don't you think I know a rock when I see a rock? I've spent a lot of time around rocks!"

Dot responds, "You're weird, but I like you."*

Flik learned the dangers of using metaphors to explain deep philosophical concepts. But he stands in a long line of teachers. What you may not realize is that Flik was talking about Aristotle there in that conversation with Dot. He was trying to get Dot to see that the seed was a bundle of potential - that she was a bundle of potential. And even though she couldn't see it now, just like that seed, the makings of a great tree were right there inside her. I know, it was a rock.

Aristotle said roughly the same thing. The great Greek philosopher said that we know the reality of things, not by what we can see at the moment, but by what will become of them. Things, events, people, have a purpose, an end and we are being drawn toward that end. The ultimate reality of a seed is the fully-formed tree that will emerge from it. The ultimate reality of a person is the unfolding of all that potential that we all contain.

But you didn't come here today to hear about Aristotle. You came to hear about Jesus. And, lo, and behold, Jesus is telling a story about seeds.

Now it's not just a story, it's a parable, which is a story-like way of getting at a spiritual truth. It's the kind of thing that frustrated Jesus' followers to no end. I can relate to this because, you know, I'm kind of a storytelling preacher myself and some people do not like that way of preaching. They want to hear a point.

When I was growing up that was the dominant style of preaching - three points and poem. Just tick those points off. Maybe put a clever title on them. Make them rhyme or something. But I think I've successfully eliminated that style of preaching from my bag of tricks. No three point sermons here. Some people say I've got no points. I must be doing something right.

But Jesus was not a 3-points and a poem preacher either. He spoke in stories, parables. And his disciples questioned him about it. In fact if you look at verse 10 in chapter 13 of Matthew, (this is in the section we left out of the reading today), if you look there you will see the disciples taking Jesus aside and asking, "Why do you talk to the crowds in parables?"

Jesus answers in a kind of cryptic way, too. He talks about the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven and how they are not just revealed to anybody. But what he really seems to be doing is challenging the disciples and anybody else that might listen to work for a blessing - to work for the message. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah who had that great vision of God filling the Temple and then being called to serve a people with unclean lips and then receiving this cryptic saying - "Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!"

In that passage it's almost like God is saying, "I don't want you to know what I'm saying. I don't know want you to understand what I'm doing." But Jesus is saying something a little bit different. In verse 15 he says, "This people's heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand." What he has come to do is to open their ears and their eyes and their hearts. And Jesus appreciates a good student who will work to understand.

But what's unusual about this parable that Jesus tells is that this is one of those rare stories where he interprets what has been said. Usually he leaves it to the listener and on the second hearing, the third hearing, the sixty-second hearing you are still seeing new things in the passage. Actually I think that's true here, too.

A sower went out to sow. Who is this sower, by the way? Who do you think it is?

What's unusual about the way this sower goes about his planting?

He's broadcasting the seeds. He's throwing them here and there - on the path, on the rocks, in the weeds. Now what little I know about agriculture in Jesus' time tells me that it was not all that unusual for a farmer to just throw seeds on the ground. They did do some plowing. But they also would scatter seed. But I'm thinking that it would be pretty unusual not to try to get the seed at least onto the ground where it was likely to grow.

This sower is either very careless or very confident that he will get the harvest he wants, even if he scatters seed like a prodigal. I'm guessing that he is confident. He knows this seed is powerful. He knows what it can do.

By the way, what is this seed? What do we think it is?

Verse 19 calls it the "word of the kingdom." This is what Jesus came to spread - the news of the kingdom. Now is the kingdom of God dependent on whether or not we are faithful? No, the kingdom is coming no matter what. The kingdom is promised. The kingdom is assured. When Jesus begins his ministry, what does he say? Somebody read Matthew 4:17. The first thing Jesus says in his public ministry is, "Repent, because the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand."

So what this tells me is that God is not concerned that if the people don't respond the kingdom can't come. The kingdom is coming. What God wants is for people to respond and to live their lives differently because the kingdom of heaven is here.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're still talking about seeds. So a sower, (who just might be God), goes out to sow seed, (which just might be the word of the kingdom), and where does the first batch of seed fall? On the edge of the path.

What's that? What is the path? Why wouldn't we want seed to fall there?

It's hard ground. It's unreceptive. It's a place where birds can come get it easily.

What is the path in us? Ever been in such a state that you couldn't even begin to hear God talking to you? What's that like? You get so engrained in your habits, so engrossed in yourself that you can't even hear. Can't even respond to God. Or maybe you get so used to thinking about the world in categories that have no regard to God that you can't hear any other kind of truth. There's that path. And the word comes and it never has a chance to grow in you.

But this sower is not concerned. The sower knows there's going to be a harvest. So he keeps sowing. And where does the seed fall next?

On patches of rock. Now I know they don't have such things here, but in other parts of the world they do have these things called rocks and they are persistent. I used to follow my dad around the garden every spring in that orange clay soil around Orange, Virginia when he would till and all these big rocks would come out of the ground. We swore they grew a new crop every year.

If you go up hiking in the mountains sometimes you'll come across a scraggly tree growing out of a big rock outcropping and if you look close there will be a little bit of soil - just enough for the tree to grow, but not enough for it grow big. Certainly not enough for a forest.

So what are the rocky places in our lives?

So when we don't have depth, when we don't ground ourselves in God. When we just live from moment to moment and never seek to do the work of prayer and listening for God. When we get excited on Sunday morning but forget about it all by Sunday afternoon. That's when the seed is falling in rocky ground.

But the sower is confident. The sower knows that this seed is powerful. He knows there's going to be a harvest. So he keeps sowing and now where does the seed fall?

In the thorns. In the weeds. In the place where it has to fight for what it needs to grow. What are the thorny patches in your life?

I don't know about you but I often feel like I'm in a thorny patch. We live in such a culture of distraction that is very easy to find ourselves flitting from one thing to another, never focused on God, never focused on the thing that makes for life. What are some of the names of the thorns in our life?

But the sower is confident. The sower knows there's going to be a harvest. And at last, where does the seed fall?

On fertile ground. Eastern Shore land. And from the seed comes an incredible harvest. A hundredfold even. And who is the fertile earth?

Jesus tells us in verse 23 of chapter 13 that it is the person who hears the word and understands. You are the fertile earth when you hear the word and let it grow in you.

So what have we learned in this story? That the kingdom of heaven is a persistent thing. It does not depend on the health of our spiritual lives. It does not depend on our efforts on its behalf. It can be despised, ignored, competed with, or tuned out, but it will still yield a harvest. The good news of Jesus is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And God is so confident of this that God does not parcel out the word of the kingdom like a scarce commodity. God spends it out like a drunken sailor.

But here's the question - the kingdom is at hand, but will you be its soil? Will you be receptive to the seed? Will you make space for it to take root in your life? Will you nurture that word within you? Will you repent and believe the good news of the kingdom?

It may seem that the world is godforsaken. It may seem that the work of God is small and irrelevant and decreasing. But that is only our perception - and Lord knows we see through a glass darkly. There is a life of fullness and richness and fertility and abundance all around us. Don't be deceived by the evening news. We are present at a feast. So why do we persist in the things that bring us only death? Why don't we let go of our small-mindedness and receive what God has to give? Thanks be to God.


*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120623/quotes