NRS Matthew 13:1
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.
3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.
6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!"
18 "Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

Dear Friends in Christ, may the Lord grow us in love and keep us in faith; for the sake of Jesus the Messiah. Amen.

If you take one story and tell it from three different perspectives, what do you get? That's right: You get three different stories with, you hope, one ending. Likewise, if you take a single parable and explore it from three different angles, you also get three different, but overlapping messages, with each reinforcing the other.

Today's parable of the sower is a very simple story. A guy goes out throwing seed, and depending on where the seed falls, the crop fails in some places, but succeeds wildly in others. Nothing could be simpler, until you start really looking and listening to this simple story from the different perspectives present in the parable itself.

So let's start with the sower. Now this is how you planted a field in first-century Palestine. First, you scattered the seed, and then you plowed the field, in the process of which you buried the seed. The seed is, you know, a farmer's most precious commodity. If all your seed comes up, then you're looking at a successful growing season, but that obviously depends on getting all the seed successfully planted. But get a load of this sower. He's throwing it everywhere. He's throwing it on the path, on rocky ground, even among the thorn patches. It's amazing he even hits the good soil.

This is very peculiar agriculture, which suggests that maybe we're dealing here with a very peculiar farmer. What would you call a farmer with such bad aim? What about wasteful, or profligate, or how about a biblical word, prodigal? Prodigal can mean someone who is careless and reckless, like the son in the parable who blows his father's inheritance in wild and riotous living; or, it can also mean someone who is wildly generous and extravagant, like the father in the parable who lavishes his wastrel son with the best he has to offer.
" So who in the Bible qualifies as so totally prodigal as to throw seed on worthless soil?
" Who brings forth life from even the darkest depths of the sea?
" Who plants all those incredible Alpine grasses on rocky mountaintops, or makes a dandelion to poke its furry little head from out of the tiniest crack in a concrete sidewalk?
" Who does that?
Huh? Do you think? Of course!

So let's look at this parable from the ground up, that is, from the perspective of the soil. A clear tone of judgment comes through when Jesus allegorizes the different soils as different types of people. It's the kind of message that makes you want to start looking around and begin sizing people up, especially in church. After all, I mean, you're sitting here, you got up this morning, you made the effort to come to church, and now, of course, during this sermon, you're having to suffer for it. "So where," you think to yourself, "where is everybody else? Those slackers! Those backsliders! Yes, they're like the seed sown on the path, or the rocky soil, or the thorn patch."

But you know, if you really start thinking, if you really start scratching your head over this, then you also have to ask yourself:
" Wasn't there a time when my heart was as hard as an asphalt parking lot?
" Wasn't there a time when I was a whole lot more concerned with getting ahead than with getting close to God?
" Wasn't there a time when I made earnest, deep, heartfelt promises to God that I haven't even begun to keep?
" And was that such long a time ago?

You know, when you think about it, aren't we actually a composite of all those different kinds of soil? Isn't that what most farms are like, with different soils appropriate for different uses? So maybe sometimes we're more receptive to the seed than others. Maybe sometimes we're completely closed off, and other times a little more open, but always - Always! -- with the potentiality for receiving the sower's seed in a way that will allow the fruit of righteousness to blossom. And think too,
" What if the sower had written me off?
" What if the sower had said, "That guy will never change. That woman is no good. That kid is like sowing seed on a basketball court."
" And what if the sower had concluded that he wasn't about to waste his time, effort or seed on the likes of people who can be so mean, so fickle, so without a clue?
But amazingly, miraculously, marvelously, the sower keeps sowing and searching and seeking until the seed finds the good soil in us.

So now let's talk about this seed. As we established earlier, the seed is, first and foremost, precious. The sower stakes everything on the seed, and unless the seed brings forth new life, then the sower is at terrible risk. But then, sowing is always risky business, maybe the riskiest of businesses because the seed is so tremendously vulnerable. Birds can carry it away; the sun can scorch and kill its first tender blossoms; thorns, briers, and weeds can choke it to death before it can ever really grow. This seed, however, is remarkable for the life it brings forth. In the agriculture of ancient Palestine, a farmer was lucky if his crops yielded four or five times the amount of seed he sowed. But this seed brings forth thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.

Now in the Bible, you know, a seed can be that little thing you plant in the ground. But seed can also mean offspring, you know, like a son. So let's think about biblical sons. Let's think of a son who came into the world all tender and vulnerable, maybe even a son that was almost killed even as a baby. Let's also think of a son whose father entrusted him with the most important mission imaginable. Think, too, about a son who suffered in the course of fulfilling that mission, you know, like maybe he was rejected, or like maybe people said terrible things about him, or like maybe powerful men conspired to have him arrested and tried and executed in a really awful way. And yet, think about son who for all these trials and tribulations remained totally, completely, wholly faithful, and for that perfect faithfulness was exalted, raised even, by his father to bring forth a new life that could never be killed, a new hope that could never be extinguished, a new faith that would never die.

Think of the Sower. Think of the Soil. Think of the Seed.

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.