When I bought my house, the first thing I wanted to do was get a garden growing, and the first seeds I planted at my house were wildflowers. In preparation, I spent countless hours pulling the crabgrass that makes up my lawn and to my dismay truly nothing seemed to stop this powerfully rooted enemy of mine. Over the past year or so, things have continued to blossom, and I’ve planted more and more things, yet the crabgrass has remained a part of my daily life. There is something holy about tending to a garden, and as we see in our gospel lesson, there is something intrinsically true about how our garden grows being directly tied to the work we put into cultivating it.
Today we hear of the Sower who sows seed with radical abandon. This is not the kind of sowing that results in hours spent on an early spring morning, but rather the sort of sowing that spreads seeds, letting them fall where they may and seeing what sprouts. In this parable, the seeds scatter across all sorts of differing terrains, each with their own result. There is the rocky and shallow soil that sprouts quickly but doesn’t last long, the ones that grow but get choked out by thorns, and there is the soil that is fertile that not only sprouts but also yields fruit. Our Christ tells this parable from out on the boat, preaching to a crowd that had gathered on the edge of the sea. And unlike some of Christ’s other parables, it is explained immediately after. The rocky and shallow soil are those who receive the Good News as good and immediately rejoice, but it have no roots and cannot last. The thorny soil has interest, but the thorns of this human existence and the trappings of society are too much for the seed to be able to sustain itself. The good, well-turned soil has space for deep roots and will yield much for the kingdom of God. And even though this parable is directly explained, it can invite different interpretations and understandings.
When I think of what it feels like to be the rocky, shallow soil, I am reminded of how intensely appealing Christianity can be on its surface, especially if you are raised in a majority Christian area. But the truth is, these things that seem to be projected as the entry points of Christianity are hard won. To follow Christ requires us to change, not merely to baptize our natural inclinations or how our own community has always done something. There is danger in claiming Christianity without reflection and repentance because we tend to hold onto beliefs as “Christian,” but that results in an unexamined Christianity that is anemic at best and harmful at worst. To be the rocky soil is to constantly claim the hope of the resurrected Christ without ever walking in the steps that Jesus took to get to the cross.
And of course, it is no challenge to see the ways in which the thorns of society can choke out our faith, there is truly no shortage of examples. The challenge of reflecting on the times when we are cultivating this kind of soil in our life of faith is that it’s much easier to see thorns from a distance. When you are up close, they may just look like a vital part of the ecosystem, and there is a danger in thinking that we can see the thorns choking out other’s faith while failing to see our own. To be the thorny soil is to be closed off to those around you in a way that only the most vicious parts of our worlds can flourish without ever realizing what this sort of insularity costs us in our life of faith.
In this parable, these rocky and thorny soils are compared to the good and fertile soil that takes on the seed that the abundant Sower sows with abandon, because God weaves these seeds of the kingdom throughout our world without reservation or hesitation about if the seeds will be appreciated or if soil will be fruitful. The Sower, or God, does not need us to prove the worthiness of our soil to be a part of God’s kingdom. The love and grace that is made known to us through Christ is something that changes our lives without us ever doing anything to earn it. Even in the rocky soil, the seeds sprout quickly and in the thorny soil things grow until the world chokes them out. But if we want to be co-creators of God’s kingdom on this earth, we must work on cultivating the soil of our faith to receive the seeds so the things that God plants in this world with flourish with abandon.
When I think about what it takes to cultivate the soil of our faith, I think about the people in my life whose faith has yielded fruits from which I have benefited. There needs to be a sense of curiosity and wonder; things flourish when they are not constrained by harsh and immovable boundaries. There needs to be a sense of gratitude and appreciation for those around you; we all bring various gifts to this world and to our community, and it is when we appreciate them that can grow more fully. And there needs to be commitment and work put into the soil; on some level, we cannot cultivate good soil if we are not actively working toward such cultivation. The crabgrass will grow over, the thorns will choke out, the neighbor will hang a flag you don’t like, the stories we tell ourselves begin to exclude more and more people.
The Parable of the Sower is a tale of hope not because it pats us on the back and affirms that we’ve got it all right, but it is a parable of hope because it teaches us that God longs for our growth like the Sower sowing seeds. God longs for our growth so much so that God’s grace, love, and compassion are boundless, no matter the soil on which we stand. It’s our challenge to figure out what it means to show up and engage in this faith community as the world puts more and more demands upon our lives. Each of us have certainly been the rocky, the thorny, and the good soil at points in our lives, but it is the collective work of our community as Christ Church to try to cultivate good soil in our city. God is sowing the seeds of the kingdom of heaven with abandon and it is our work to cultivate these seeds, to do the work we have been given to do and to bring about God’s kingdom on earth. And I am confident we are able to do so, but only with God’s help and only together.
A sermon delivered tot he people of Christ Episcopal Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky for Proper 10A on July 16, 2023.
Becca Kello 