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The Sower Sowing Seeds

July 18, 2004

When Pastor Ann told me that she was doing a series on the parables of Jesus, I thought, great back on familiar ground. We all know what is a parable. But just to be on the safe side, I thought that I had better check out the definition for myself. It was then that I realized that what sounds so familiar could be so elusive to define.

There are some 39 parables in the Gospels ranging from simple similes [ the kingdom of God is like..] to short stories [ a man had two sons.]

The word parable comes from a Greek word meaning, literally " that which is tossed alongside" hence implying an analogy or comparison or an illustration.

I went to one of my seminary text books and I found my notes saying that there were five types of parables:

1- the proverbial – as in Physician heal thy self.

2- common comparison – mustard seed,

3- illustrative story – prodigal son,

4- example story as in the good Samaritan,

5- an allegory – vineyard leased -Mk 12:1-12. Interesting information but not helpful for our purposes.

C.H. Dodd, has this definition: "At its simplest, the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought." "To tease the mind into active thought.

While I like that I realize that not everyone will like that definition of a parable.

Those who want us all to think alike would not want this openness. Parables would not be used by speakers who wish to control their listeners by telling them exactly what to think and to do. And neither would a parable be welcomed by a person who wish to be told what to do and how to think about something.

But I invite you to have your mind teased into active thought for the next 9 weeks with the story parables from Luke. And as your mind is teased into active thought I also believe that you will find that your faith will be deepened.

The first question I want to ask is of this or any parable is "what is this parable about?" Is it about the sower, or about the seed, or about the soil? I know we call it the parable of the Sower but is that correct? And the reason I raise this question is that to often we focuses our attention on what we call a parable.

For example: if we referrer to the parable of the prodigal son, then our focus is first on that son. But if we would refer to that same parable as the "father who had two sons" or "the waiting father", or "the father’s love." Then our primary focus would be on the father, or if we would call that "the parable of the son who refused to come to the party" then we shift our attention to the elder son. So let’s be careful as to how we refer to a parable.

So if this parable is about the sower then I want to say this is a dumb farmer, at least from our view point. After all a good farmer knows were to sow the seed. Its just stupid to sow it on the foot path.

But remember, in my definition we said that a parable was drawn from common life.

And in the common life of that time a sower sowed seeds before the field the plowed. We picture a field well tilled ready for seed to planted. Wrong picture. Picture a field waiting to be plowed that the farmer sows seeds. Then he plows the field. Now he discovered that some of the seed had fallen on the paths, and the some of the seeds fell where the soil had no depth but rocks weren’t discovered till after the plowing. And some the seed fell where there were just too many weeds yet some indeed did fall where the soil was just right. Whether this is the most efficient way of sowing is not the point. We know that its not. But it was common practice in those days so this made sense to Jesus hearers. If they hadn’t done it themselves they had seen it done. This did not sound strange to them.

The farmer didn’t get discouraged become some on the seed fell on the paths or that some fell where the soil lacked depth. Those were just part of the accepted risk of farming. And the early church could see this as a parable of encouragement. All of their preaching would not and did result in conversion, some would ignore their invitation, some would begin but fall away and yet many others would respond. So thy keep on preaching and so should we.

And if we wish to carry this farming allusion a little further we could say that one does not see the results of spreading the word all at once. Seeds take time to germinate, to grow, one does not harvest a week after sowing the seeds.

So this parable could tease our mind into patience, waiting for the harvest to come.

For the moment we will assume that all of the seed was good. But we will come back later to this.

Now for the soil.

Its doesn’t take a County Agent to tell me that all soils are not created equal. The soil in our font yard may be very different than that in our back yard.

We struggle with the question what can we do to make the soil more receptive? In our garden we can take a sample of our soil to the county agent and have it analyzed so we know what to do.

But what can we do here at 36 and Yale to make the word more receptive? Or maybe we need to ask a different question, - ‘how can I be more receptive?

If the seed is good and the response is less than what is desired or hoped for, then maybe the problem lies with the soil.

While we like to think that we are the rich, productive soil, maybe this parable should tease our minds into wondering where or not we allow some things to choke out God’s word to us. That we do indeed like to keep up with the Jones. Maybe we don’t want to go back to the days of blue laws, but how and in what manner can we keep the Lord’s Day holy. Just how do we show respect for God’s house?

Do I expect the word, the seed, to adept itself to the type of soil that I am, or should I being making the changes?

For some, this parable says that not all teaching and preaching will be fruitful. The parable encourages those who have experienced failures in their ministries, reminding them that some seed will yield abundantly. The parable says to every one that it is in the honest, good and patient heart that the word of God comes to full fruition.

If a parable is to tease the mind into active thought, another though occurred to me . While the seed, if seen as God’s word is good as sowed by Jesus, but what if the seed as sowed by us has become contaminated? It started out as good but we have allow our prejudices, our views to shape the word, rather than allowing the word of God to shape our views and prejudices.

I say this for two reasons. One, a book I am reading titled " When Religion become Evil’ by Charles Kimball. Rev. Jane Hostetler, of St James called my attention to this book when she reviewed it at a seminar during the last meeting of Presbytery. I have not completed the book so I will say no more about it other than it provides examples of what I would call sowing soiled seed.

The other reason is based on my limited years on COM. Unlike the General Presbyter or the Stated Clerk who might hear all or more of what is going on in the local churches, we on the committee do hear enough to come a few simple conclusions.

One: If we were a diligent is speaking the truth of the gospel as we are in spreading rumors, more churches could avoid some of the major problems in which they fine themselves. I won’t give any examples but I think you know only too well what I mean.

Weeds don’t need any encouragement to grow. Yet we seem to assist them by sowing more. Rumors can chock out the good news to have. We made good news sound bad and bad news sound good and then wonder what’s wrong with the church. In the words of Pogo, " we have met the enemy and they is us." So let us carefully examine the seeds that we sow and made certain that they are the seeds of God’s word and not ours.

Has this simple parable teased our minds into reflection?

This parable can be both a warning are we indeed sowing that good news of the gospel? Or are we sowing a contaminated version?

Also as a warning as to how we hear and receive the word of God and

This parable is an encouragement to banish all despair in the certainty that not all the set backs can defeat the ultimate harvest of God.

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