A SPENDTHRIFT LOVER
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Text: Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23
A spendthrift lover is the Lord who never counts the cost
Or asks if heaven can afford to woo a world that’s lost.
Our lover tosses coins of gold across the midnight skies
And stokes the sun against the cold to warm us when we rise.*
What more can we ask? We are so blessed. God has gifted us in so very many ways. I don’t mean to sound like I have an unrealistic view of life, a Pollyanna perspective on what any of us might have to face in our daily existence, but, in the end, we are graced by God’s constant presence and abiding love, whether we readily perceive it or not.
Our worship resource, Seasons of the Spirit, says of this text that “God invites us to love and to give extravagantly in the hope of God’s future…Extravagant sowing. Unexpected, abundant harvest. God provides for life by word and Spirit graciously given. God’s grace, however, [also] allows our freedom. We can be receptive. We can be closed. How is it with you? Where do you find yourself and your church most receptive to God? What remains hard ground?” (Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life, Pentecost 1, 2005, p. 74) Indeed, where do we see seeds of grace being planted and the fruit of hope being harvested? Where do we experience crop failure?
Jesus tells this parable to a large crowd that has gathered around him, a crowd so large he has had to climb into a boat and push away from the shore, out into the cove, which in turn provides a natural sound system to amplify his words to all those gathered on the beach and up the hillsides sloping down to it. “Listen! A sower went out to sow,” he begins, his eye scanning the horizon and catching a glimpse of one, just over on the hillside, scattering seed, where all can watch him work. A solitary figure, s farmer of enduring faith, planting in hope of a harvest that would provide nourishment and a future for himself, his family and his community.
I threatened to have Ernie Parodi preach on today’s text. Do we have a farmer, a sower of seeds any more qualified? Is there any greater lover of the land and its ability to bring forth a harvest? Do we have anyone in our company more clever at getting the ground to yield its fruit? Isn’t this a true story, Ernie? A sower went to sow…tiny little seeds that amazingly are chock full of life and possibility. Who could imagine that something so insignificant would be transformed into something as wonderful as a rose or a peony or lilac, a cucumber or a tomato or an apricot? Jesus told this story to people who were largely responsible for growing their own produce in a challenging environment. As they watched the sower on the hillside, sowing his seed in silent hope of harvest, they all understood the significance of Jesus’ subject. Where these seed fell and how they were tended was crucial to survival in a harsh land.
Jesus draws a significant parallel in the parable. God’s word is like the seed...tiny containers of life-transforming power and possibility. Like the sower’s seed, God’s word may fall on the path, where it lies on the hardened surface and is gobbled up by birds or gets trampled under foot before it ever has the chance to sprout and grow. Some who receive the word are dull, indifferent, calloused - hardened by circumstances or caught up in total self-absorption. Some are too proud to recognize their need. Some come from circumstances so harsh it is virtually impossible for them to hold hope.
Some seed falls on that thin veneer of soil that covers the rocky ledge, which makes up so much of this countryside. The heat from the rock causes the seed to sprout quickly but there is no way that a fledgling root is going to push its way through the rock and flourish, so they wither and die in the scorching sun. Some who receive the word are shallow, characterized by sentimental fervor and an instant response that dies quickly away. They are so excited to receive the latest word – until another comes along. They simply must have the newest fashion or gadget, only to abandon it when something flashier comes along. Here there is no desire to focus or will to engage in the discipline that leads to growth and fulfillment.
Then there are those seeds that fall on good enough ground, only to find that it is infested with thorns and other weeds which quickly outgrow the sprouts from the good seed and choke them out. That is, some who receive the word have divided loyalties and fragmented lives. Some simply can’t divorce themselves from their obligations and worries. Some go away sad for their wealth is great. Some cannot let go of the burden of the day. Some are just too important, with many competing activities, deadlines and commitments.
Finally, there are those seeds that fall into unencumbered fertile soil where they grow and flourish, where they will be fruitful and multiply, where the extravagant abundance of life shines forth, full flower, in all its glory.
Still more is spent in blood and tears to win the human heart,
To overcome the violent fears that drive the world apart.
Behold the bruised and thorn crowned face of one who bears our scars
And empties out the wealth of heaven that’s promised by the stars.*
The challenge for us is how to receive the good seed so freely given. “Listen!” Jesus says. “Let anyone with ears listen!” How do we open our ears to hear the word of God, a word that is always a word of grace and blessing? In this text, hearing is an action and a responsibility. Hearing is prayer. Hearing is a welcome and nurture. Ears are a gift, a responsible wealth. “…blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:16.)
I invite you to play with the images in your own way. If God’s good word comes flung like a sower sowing seed, what might the pathways be in our own lives on which the word is trampled or spirited away by hungry birds, never to bear fruit? Perhaps they are trampled by the boots of those who have life all figured out and are sure they know all the answers, or spirited away by marauding winged creatures with their own needs and agendas that simply won’t allow the seed to bear fruit.
What might constitute that rocky soil in which the seedlings fail to flourish for us? Maybe it would be those places that are only superficially hospitable and then refuse to support the seed as it aspires to grow into the fullness of its being. Maybe it is some shiny object that demands attention and draws away one’s focus from what really matters in life and living. Maybe it’s the mad whirl of the world in which we live wherein distractions compete with distractions to distract us from even our favorite distractions.
Where do we find those patches of earth infested with weeds that choke and kill the good seed? Looks like everywhere you turn you can find a weed patch full of the insidious demands and lovely attractions that choke out the budding word of God as it attempts to flourish in our hearts and minds, patches full of all those “isms”, like consumerism and materialism and militarism and...you get the picture. Perhaps it is all those obligations, all those things we’ve convinced ourselves we should do or else.
Writing in Christian Century, Bradley Schmeling says that “By now I recognize all the different soils inside my spirit. I have heard and studied the word, but I fail to understand it. I’ve been filled with great joy at the power of the word proclaimed, only to have forgotten it when life called for me to stand in solidarity with those who suffer. I carry Christ planted deep within my consciousness but then wander off into the luxurious temptations of American life.”
“But, “ he goes on, “this common, imperfect life becomes holy ground when God is present. When I remember that the Christ of the harvest is at work within the fields of my own spirit, I see the whole world as a place alive with the reign of God, and the church as a field alive and growing with the presence of Jesus, all of us both good soil and solid rock” (Bradley Schmeling, Living by the Word, The Christian Century, July 1, 2008, p. 23.)
Fertile soil for the word of God is partly our very reason for being and partly the joy of our existence. It takes some effort though to keep our ears and our eyes, our minds and hearts open to those tiny seeds that come cascading from the Sower’s hand, covering the earth, seeking nurture and room to grow. It is interesting to note that there is a progression in this parable as each seed bed allows for a little more growth until we find the full flowering of the fertile soil. Life is often like that...a process, perhaps a struggle over time until we find ourselves, like Jesus, on our way from God to God.
And this way from God to God is a wonderful place to be. For God’s abundance is extravagant, limitless, and it is ours, if we can recognize it, desire it, pursue it, embrace it and live it out. One of the truly remarkable things about this parable is the extravagance with which the fertile soil yields good grain...100, 60 and 30 fold. A normal crop in the land where Jesus lived would have been 7.5 fold and a bumper crop 10 fold. Part of what Jesus is trying to share here is a word about God’s extravagance. A spendthrift lover is our God. There is always more light to appear from God’s word. The supply of seed is endless. Like the sower in the parable, God is free to scatter seed far and wide. God can risk abundance in her love for us.
If we pay attention, set our ears to hear, we may find ourselves caught up in providing the bountiful harvest from which the feast is laid, producing the whole grain from which the bread of life is shaped and growing the grapes of faith that produce the wine of the new covenant. Here, around this table, the promise of the harvest is fulfilled. Here God’s good word comes to full fruition. Here we find ourselves gathered as the beloved community that hears that word and lives that word, day by day, here and there and everywhere, sowing seeds of the promise of God’s realm, watering, fertilizing, weeding and harvesting in the name of the spendthrift lover who desires only the best for her creatures and her creation.
How shall we love this heart-strong God who gives us everything,
Whose ways to us are strange and odd, what can we give or bring?
Acceptance of the matchless gift is gift enough to give.
The very act will shake and shift the way we love and live.**(Thomas H. Troeger, A Spendthrift Lover Is the Lord)