Bad Farming

BAD FARMING

JUDITH B. BRAIN "The Sower" Luke 8:5-10 

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

People love stories. Jesus knew that and used them in his teaching all the time. This month, I'm going to be preaching on the stories that Jesus told. This summer, Joe and I gave a couple of sermons on Aesop's fables. These fables are very different from Jesus' stories. Aesop's tales have a very clear moral lesson-in fact, he'd often tack the moral on in case you didn't get it. Jesus, on the other hand, told stories that were head-scratchers. Huh? What did he say? What did he mean by that? Rabbi, could you explain that please? Sometime he explains, sometimes he doesn't. Just like last week's parable of the wheat and weeds, today's story is another one that uses images familiar to Jesus' rural audience. And just like last week, it raises questions about the main character's qualifications as a farmer.

When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold." As he said this, he called out, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"

Most scholars believe that's where Jesus left it. But his followers struggled with the meaning and interpreted the story according to their situation and their needs. The disciples ask Jesus what it means and here's the explanation according to Luke.

LUKE 8:9-15

The seed is the word of God. The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.

A PERFECT TEXT FOR PARENTS AND EDUCATORS

This is a perfect reading for today when we celebrate those among us who are called to Christian education. Seeds of faith take good soil to flourish. The teachers we commissioned this morning and the parents and grandparents who bring their kids to Sunday school are helping to cultivate a fertile medium in the lives of our kids. I've heard people say, "I'm not going to bring my kids up with any faith so that when they are old enough they can choose their own." Research tells us that rarely works. It is much more likely someone will choose to be part of a religious community if they have developed habits of faith from childhood.

AND FOR ADULTS ~ MAKE CHOICES THAT NURTURE YOUR GROWTH

This story also has something to say to adults. Although in the parable, the seeds are utterly passive, we know we are not. We have some agency when it comes to planting ourselves on rocks or among thorns. We can choose to provide for ourselves an atmosphere where faith and goodness are nurtured.

Many of you have heard about the Cherokee shaman who was teaching his grandson.

"A fight is going on inside me," he told the boy. "It is a struggle between two wolves. One wolf is anger, envy sorrow, regret, arrogance, self pity, lies, resentment, and false pride. The other wolf is joy, hope, serenity, humility compassion, truth, generosity, and faith. That same fight is going on inside of you and inside of every person."

The child grew pensive. He thought about the two wolves inside himself. And he asked his grandfather, "Which one will win?"

The old man answered, "The one you feed."

The one you feed. There are lots of temptations to neglect the feeding of our souls. Jobs and activities that devour every minute of our time giving us no room for works of generosity and compassion. A coarsening of the culture that elevates violence and diminishes beauty. Personal exhaustion that makes us too tired to contemplate or pray.

These are temptations, but they can be overcome. We can make different choices. We can consume less, make time for quiet and reflection. We live in a time and place where we can choose which wolf to feed. We are fortunate. There are many who truly are at the mercy of rocks and weeds.

THERE ARE THOSE WITH MINIMAL CHOICES

This summer I read Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi's experiences of a Nazi concentration camp. It's a chilling narrative of what it means to be reduced to our most animal nature-Will I eat? Will I have clothing? Will I be killed? Levi writes about living with survival as your only goal. How does one maintain any sense of human dignity when you are covered in lice and vomit and your survival depends on cheating, lying, stealing, and sometimes murder. After I read the book, I felt I owed it to God and myself to value the choices I have, and to make them more mindfully.

Feed the good wolf.

ANOTHER ASPECT OF THE PARABLE ~ THE CHARACTER OF THE SOWER

Let's look at the parable from another point of view. How about that farmer? Last week we studied a parable in which a farmer wasn't very smart about letting weeds grow up in his wheat patch.

This week, we've got a farmer who wastes seeds like there's an endless supply. Among the folks who heard Jesus speak, this would be far from the case. They lived in a culture of scarcity. Again, we'd have people shaking their heads and raising their eyebrows at this foolish farmer wasting his seeds by broadcasting them so carelessly. If the farmer in the story represents God, what do we make of Jesus positioning God like that?

Well, it makes his audience sit up and take notice. And it also does say something radical about God. In the divine economy, there is no such thing as scarcity. There is enough for everyone. Especially, there is enough Good News. When we hear "sowing the word," we may think that "The Word" means the bible. But the Word of God is the whole of the divine revelation-scripture, nature, Jesus, love, the spirit that abides with us-not just the Bible but every single aspect of the good news of God's compassion for this beloved world. There is plenty of that.

LAVISH GENEROSITY

An article in the Christian Century this summer told this story. A church in an urban neighborhood was dying. Its grand building was crumbling and its once flush endowment spent down to a fraction of what it was in its golden age. A new pastor called the trustees together. "We've less than a year before our money is gone and we are going to have to disband the congregation and sell the church building. Let's go out with a bang."

The congregation prayed about the next steps and decided to spend the money they had left on food for the poor people who lived in the neighborhoods around the church. They turned the church kitchen into a supper-time gathering place. The retirees in the congregation bought groceries and cooked meals of chicken and spaghetti and meatloaf with plenty of vegetables. The working folks came from the office to don aprons and serve. The doors opened up to a pleasant dining room in the fellowship hall, the smells of comfort food, flowers on the table. And the hall filled with grateful people who were just scraping by.

Night after night, the church gathered to cook and serve, and the people came. Their discipleship was simply following Jesus' command to feed the hungry. Their congregation grew as it encompassed neighbors who had never attended the formal services in the stained glass sanctuary. Their prayers were the earnest and desperate pleas of people living on the edge. They gave it all away.

THERE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH GRACE AND GOODNESS ~ GIVE IT AWAY!

You can guess the rest... somehow, they are still in business; and they have found new life and purpose. People of good will joined because they wanted to be part of the mission. Like the sower in the parable, they gave without calculation. The story seems to say, Don't be careful or stingy with Christ's wonderful message of love and acceptance. Give it away like there is a endless supply. Because there is.

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