Sunday, July 10, 2005

Sun, July 10, 2005 - Seeds that Grow

Isaiah 55:10-13

Romans 8:1-11

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Well, our parable this morning doesn't seem to be the most encouraging parable, does it? In fact, if you look at it closely, it can start to seem downright discouraging. A farmer goes out to sow some seed and some of it lands on the path, where it immediately gets gobbled up by birds. Some of it lands on the rocks, where some seeds manage to find there way between the cracks in the rocks and put forth leaves, but then there's no more soil so they die. Some of the seed lands among the weeds, where it starts growing but the weeds grow faster and block out the sunlight and the rain, and the seedlings die. And only a very small portion of the seed it seems like, only about 1/4 of the seed actually lands where it can actually grow and take root, and then, yay, it brings forth a good yield. I mean, think about it for a second, how much of the seed that the farmer sows actually makes it? The seed on the path doesn't, the seed on the rocks doesn't, the seed among the weeds doesn't. Only the seed on the soil does. The odds aren't good for this farmer that she's going to get a lot of bang for her buck.

Now, if we were just talking about a farmer and her seed, this wouldn't be so worrying. After all, farmers can always sow more seeds, or clear out the weeds, or remove the rocks. But this is a parable, and since it's a parable, we know that Jesus isn't really talking about farmers, he's talking about the bigger life and death, good and evil issues of the world. The seed is the word of the kingdom, the good news of God's grace and mercy and justice, the promise that God is committed to the world becoming the place of peace and equality that it was meant to be. And the path and the rocky ground and the weedy soil and even, yes, the good soil are all the world - the people of the world - where this word is supposed to be growing.

And that's where it starts to get discouraging. Because when you look around you, and you listen to the news, and you when you go through your day-to-day living, it can all too often seem as if the word of God's kingdom isn't having any effect at all. Now, just to be clear, I'm not talking about the number of Christians, or how many people go to church, or anything like that. When I say that we don't seem to see the effect of the word of God's kingdom, I mean that it seems as if everywhere we look, the moments of good are being constantly overwhelmed by the moments of evil. Shootings in Toronto happen so often now that they're no longer a surprise but almost expected. Last week at the Live 8 concerts we heard about the enormous number of starving and impoverished people living in Africa. And of course, there were the horrific London bombings this week that killed dozens of people.

And we don't even need to look at that mass scale to see the presence of evil and injustice in our world. The usage of food banks in Toronto is up again this year, with the Daily Bread Food Bank having to do a summer food drive in order to meet their need, something unprecedented in their history. Housing is at a critical shortage in cities all across Canada, not just Toronto, with the waiting list in this city for subsidized housing being ten-years long. Even the little things, like the politeness of drivers on the road or people waiting in line has gone way down, with some people being downright mean to others. With all of these things happening, it really does seem as if pretty much none of the seed in the world is actually landing on the good soil. The path and the rocks and the weeds seem to be everywhere.

So why try and do good? What's the use? Where's the hope?

Well, hope comes from one line in our parable, a line that makes sense if you know about farming, but needs to be explained if you don't, like me. The line is: other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Now, what I'm told is the normal yield for grain is seven times. That is, one seed will put forth seven of itself. So, you plant one seed, you get seven. You plant one hundred, which is more likely, you get seven hundred. That's what's normal. But here is Jesus saying in this parable that when the farmer sows one seed, she gets between thirty and a hundred back. And when she plants one hundred, she gets between three thousand and ten thousand back. Now there's a big difference between seven hundred and ten thousand. And when you think about it, getting a hundred seeds back from one tiny seed is pretty amazing. That completely makes up for 3/4 of the seed landing on crummy soil and not growing. That more than makes up for it, in fact.

And, like I said, since this is a parable, this also has bearing on the larger issues of life and death and good and evil. Despite it seeming like evil is taking over the world, what is happening is that the seeds of good that God is sowing, although they may look like few, are taking root and will bring forth results one hundred times bigger than themselves. They will grow to make the goodness of God a real presence in the world.

Now I saw this happening yesterday. Yesterday, a small number of people from the church went out to Malvern to the Habitat for Humanity building site. And when we got to the site, we saw four row-houses of three units each, in varying stages of being built. Now there were not even ten of us from the church, and ten people can't do much in the face of all that work. But we tried our best and put up drywall and installed locks and painted baseboards. Now I have to tell you, putting up drywall is finicky business, especially when there are angles and funny lengths involved. And in fact, by the end of the day, we really hadn't put that much drywall up. We certainly hadn't put up enough drywall for an entire house.

But here's the thing. Our group put up a little bit of drywall. And another group next week will put up another little bit of drywall. And another group will paint window frames. And another group will install baseboards. All little things, but by the time it's done, twelve families will have new houses. Twelve families will no longer have to worry about not having enough money to pay the rent, they won't have to worry about ending up on the street or in a shelter. And then those twelve families will go on to make the world a better place in their schools and at work and even in their neighbourhoods by building more Habitat housing. Our little group of ten's small efforts will in fact yield major results in the world.

And it's all because of God. You see, in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah, God says, "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 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." With God looking after things, even the small amount of seed that goes out brings forth a great abundance. With God running things, even the smallest efforts of ours makes a huge difference in the world.

So do not be discouraged. Have hope in the face of the evil that threatens to overwhelm your lives. The tiny little good things that you do, that we all do, do in fact make a difference in the larger scheme of things. It may seem like you're trying to sow on rocky ground, it may seem like the weeds are going to choke your good deeds out, but that is not the case. God is taking the seeds of love and mercy and justice that you sow and turning them into fields full of goodness. The good things done in the world shall not return empty. They shall accomplish that which God purposes and succeed in the things for which God has sent them. Thanks be to God. Amen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

thank you for the sermon . I realy liked it.
takako D