Pastor Emillie continued her sermon by preaching on many of the common thoughts that run through people's minds when they hear this parable. What kind of soil is the Word of God falling on when it falls on me? What percentage of grain will the Word of God bring forth in and through me? Our first thoughts are centered on ourselves.
Yet we are invited to move beyond such thoughts through many clues. The parable begins by observing that Jesus is addressing a crowd standing on the beach from a boat. This may be a first clue that he is not speaking from the "common ground" of the world that the crowd walks and understands.
Another clue is the unexpected order of the fruit and yields:
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word
and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a
hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."
Why do the yields go from the greater to the least? Is it because of what 30
represents in the Bible? The number thirty can symbolize dedication to a particular task
or calling. Aaronic priests were
initially dedicated to serving at thirty years of age (Numbers 4:3). God
likely chose thirty because it was when a person reached both physical and
mental maturity and could therefore handle major responsibilities.
John the Baptist, who was of priestly descent (his mother was a descendant of the daughters of Aaron and his father was a priest), began his ministry at age 30. In the fall of 26 A.D., at the age of thirty, Christ began to publicly preach the gospel (Luke 3:23). His ministry lasted for three and one-half years.
Finally we have this grand vision of the sower. As Pastor Emillie alluded to in her sermon, the sower is not a farmer who has carefully tilled and prepared the land. The sower is not acting as if his seed were precious and must be preserved. The Sower instead is God, broadcasting seed in the midst of creative ecstasy. God flings seed, in what to our eyes seems, wantonly and wastefully. Seeds cast every which way.
So God is God. Consider that the kingdom of heaven remains near with or without our help, or our understanding. All is well. What does the parable really teach? Yes, some seed falls only to be eaten, but God's sparrows need to eat. Some seed will spring up only to wither and die, but their dying and decomposition gives new life to the otherwise rocky soil. Some seeds sprout only to be choked by thorns, but we ultimately trust God to resolve the ‘thorny problems’. After all, Jesus rose above the crown of thorns set upon his head. Today's Isaiah reading also provides a particular promise and God's solace to the problem of thorns:
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
Today's Isaiah reading emphasizes the overpowering strength of the Word of God:
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
We are so accustomed to hearing judgment from the Word of God that we tend to insert that judgement in places where it may not be, When this happens we lose both the mystery and the purity of God's good news in these stories that we revere.
The context of prayer is exceedingly powerful, particularly in light of this parable. I find myself reflecting now on Creator as the communal space it has stayed for me for years. A community that celebrates and explores what it means to be human.
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