FOURTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST

July 10, 2011

Text: Matthew 13:1-8, 18-23

Pastor Dale G. Bauer

When I headed out for vacation, we had just survived the predicted end of the world on May 21. Harold Camping backtracked and said the spiritual end of the world began on May 21 and the actual end would be October 21.

While on vacation I read a book about the building of the Titanic. Not the sinking ofher on April 15, 1912. But the building of her. From the keel to the riveted plates, to the propulsion system, to first-class food service. She almost failed to sail on April 10 because of a coal strike. A journalist and passenger who sailed her wrote:

The general feeling of unrest which is surging over the world just now is disquieting many minds ... there is a general conviction that the end of all things is near at hand.

Why the unrest? There had been an attempted revolution in Russia in 1905; Marx and Engels were busy promoting communism. The Women’s Chain Making Organization went on strike in 1910. The Irish were rioting.

Another book I read was titled Mayflower; it was about the 1620 sailing of the Pilgrims to Plymouth, in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Part of the motivation for heading to the New World was to get some religious freedom. But in 1618 a comet appeared over Europe which many believed, the Puritans included, signaled the dawn of the Millennium. The beginning of the end, and so it was time to get out of England and start a new, pure millennial community in anticipation of Christ’s return.

Jesus tells us that he shall return. And it could be tomorrow. We should live and order our lives to be prepared to see him face to face. But he warns that only the Father knows when the moment will be. Instead, he suggests, have a seedy faith. A faith not focused on the end, but planting the kingdom here and now. In ourselves first, then in others.

To get the point across he uses a simple agricultural image: sowing seeds, planting seeds. That’s what he did.

He extends his image to help us. A sower, someone with seed, broadcasts it. Rather than sticking the seeds one by one in the ground, they are thrown, scattered, out of the hand. Some of the broadcast seed falls on a path. People create footpaths, trails, by walking in the same place over and over again. The soil becomes compressed, hard. Seeds don’t have a chance. They lay exposed and catch the eyes of critters, or in Jesus’ example, birds who came and ate it. The kingdom is the good news; that Jesus Christ came to enrich, forgive, and redeem our lives. But often that good news falls on the stomped lives of human beings and it fails to penetrate. It happens to me. It happens to you. And it happens to others. The hardness here is sin. It is a powerful hardness of the heart that keeps the good news out. Sin is an ally of evil, which lurks everywhere, distorting and stealing the good news.

Some of the seed falls on rocky ground, poor soil. It gets a start but the lack of moisture and nutrients destines it to fail. One of the first things the Pilgrims realized in 1620 was that Plymouth wasn’t the best place to grow things because of the rocky soil. As you know, I am a gardener: I grow tomatoes, chilies, grapes, and
raspberries. I have been digging rocks out of my backyard every spring for twenty-three years—because I know if my plants can’t set their roots deep, they can’t thrive. Some people come to faith. That’s a great thing. But failing to nurture faith through Bible study, prayer, and koinonia, faith fails when confronted with the harsh
realities of life.

Some of the seed is sown on good ground but competes with other plants. God’s Word comes to us in a real world full of many options and alternatives. One of the reasons Financial Peace University does so well is because it liberates people from things. As I’ve said before, we don’t have things. Things have us. These things choke and crowd out the gospel. Jesus is now only one among many saviors. Worship that honors the tradition and truth of the church can’t hold a candle to a high-tech concert. It is easy to find fault with the church, especially organized religion.

Some seeds fall on good ground. It is an abundant, amazing harvest. I know the Spirit has brought about great harvests in the lives of many of you and many faithful saints I have known. I have seen this church year after year witness a great harvest because of planting seeds faithfully. For all the evil, all the fear that results in predicting the end of the world, for all the mistakes of the church, we witness a great harvest.

This parable has very important implications.

One, kingdom work, broadcasting the seeds of faith is hard work. It takes faith and courage. Some of the seeds we cast will make it; somewill not.

Two, we plant the seeds of the harvest. It is God, in the Holy Spirit, who brings about the harvest. Did you hear that? Not me nor you, but the Holy Spirit. Relax, friends.

Three, being people of the short term rather than the long term, we expect results, now. And when we see the kingdom suffering, good news failing, we get discouraged. Don’t be. Just cast seeds and wait patiently in Christ for the harvest.

I went to the Synod Assembly in Colorado Springs in the middle of May. I love to get together with other believers, colleagues, and friends to cast seeds of the kingdom. One of the highlights of the assembly was a visit from a student of mine whom I had not seen for twenty years. He was assigned to Epiphany Lutheran Church, Denver, as a student of Wartburg Theological Seminary. We had a delightful year of learning and casting seeds of the kingdom. In the years since his ordination he’s had his fair share of ups and downs. But while we were sitting in the convention hotel’s watering hole, he said to me that he wanted to just say thanks. For teaching him what a pastor was like and teaching him how to preach.

It is a seedy kingdom. Marked by casting the seeds of Good News.

Amen.