Rev. Danielle K Bartz July 16, 2023
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 “The Bad Gardener”
It looks like God is a pretty bad gardener, if this lesson of Jesus is any evidence. We don’t have a parable of a sower finding the good soil, adding fertilizer and compost, making sure the moisture levels are right, and carefully planting seeds with some assurance that they will grow and thrive. Instead, we have a sower tossing seeds around without care where they land, hoping that a few will take root and produce. The sower is acting like they are dealing with just grass seeds, when in fact they are heirloom seeds.
If you have ever spread grass seed, you know that it comes in a giant bag for very little money. You pick the seeds up by the handful and just toss them around. Maybe, maybe, if you are trying to be a bit more careful you will use one of those seed dispersing devices with a hand crank on it to more evenly disperse the seed, but even that is not very precise. You can even buy a liquid version of grass seed that you just spray over an area, still not worrying too much about where it goes. You don’t have to be very careful with grass seed.
Whereas heirloom seeds, you do want to be careful with. These are seeds that have not been genetically tampered with for at least 50 or so years – opinions vary about how old the lineage of heirloom seeds need to be. These seeds are precious, and when you and I plant them, we are more careful. We don’t just grab them by the handful and toss them around willy nilly without care of where they land. Heirloom seeds require precision, tending. Any good gardener would never throw an heirloom seed on a path, amongst choking thorns, or on rocky ground that does not have depth of soil.
And, the sower in this parable isn’t throwing around something cheap like grass seed. The sower has handfuls of heirloom seeds, capable of producing tremendous yields. Like all of Jesus’ parables, this is meant to shock the listeners. Since Jesus did the vast majority of his ministry in the countryside, agriculture was a way of life for those who were listening. The farmers around him were tenant farmers – meaning that the land they tended was not owned by them but by occupying Rome. The farmers were required to produce a certain yield every year, sending a large portion of it to their Roman landlords as payment. If they were unable to meet that requirement, they were in debt and they had to try to produce even more the next year to cover the debt and fulfill the yearly requirements. Debt was the norm. So, none of the farmers listening to Jesus tell this parable would have ever dreamt of just throwing seeds around without care, hoping a few would produce. And yet, that is how Jesus describes the Kingdom of God – God tossing out blessings – the Good News – without worrying about where they land. The Kingdom of God is about extravagant abundance – throwing around heirloom seeds with wild abandon. God is lavish, not sensible, over the top and careless with blessings. That is what I think this parable is ultimately about – being over the top and lavish with the blessings we share.
If you notice, this is not the parable of the four terrains. There is no reminder to be good soil. This is the parable of the sower, and it is the sower, I believe, that Jesus is calling us to emulate. Indeed, in his explanation of the parable to the disciples, he says nothing about seeking out only people who are capable of producing good fruit and concentrating all of your ministry efforts there. Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples to avoid people who are not able or not ready or ‘worthy’ – if you notice there is no instruction or description of worthiness here. Jesus instead just reminds the disciples that, essentially, ¾ of their ministry efforts will produce no fruit. And Jesus does NOT go on to say – “so that means you need to be more careful and judicious in how you share the Good News.” No. Jesus states an honest, and maybe hard, truth. A lot of the efforts will fail. But, the ones that succeed will be extraordinary.
At first glance, then, this may seem depressing. No one likes to hear that ¾ of their efforts will fail. But, rather than this being depressing, or discouraging, I think it is in fact quite freeing. To emulate the sower in this parable, Jesus is removing the burden of trying to decide who is worthy and who is not. Jesus is taking away an obstacle to do ministry, to bestow the blessings of God. Further, Jesus is reminding us that God’s blessings are so abundant, so extravagant, that we don’t have to be careful in our sharing of them.
But the human temptation is, of course, to be careful. The idea of scarcity is so pervasive that even when we have enough to share, more than enough to share, we will hold on with fear. This fear is very understandable, and quite real. Our human economic system is very broken. The gap between the wealthy and the poor has grown to absolutely ridiculous amounts. The super rich do indeed hoard their wealth and often create or sustain unjust systems that leave the poor, poor. So, this fear is real. But what we are reminded of, what we are taught, and what we are called to do by Jesus is to let go of that fear, step outside of the systems of scarcity, and live into the Kingdom of God – one of lavish abundance. One where the blessings of God, the Good News, the hope for tomorrow has no limit – so we can be as carefree as we wish in sharing.
While I do not equate blessings with money, there is a story about money that I want to share. It is a story of this congregation. In 2020, the church Council, on behalf of the entire congregation, made the decision that each month the church would make a $1000 donation to a local organization that was working to fill the gaps caused by the pandemic. The Council made this decision without knowing if we would have the finances to cover it. This decision was made early in the pandemic, within the first month or two, and well before the various loans and grants the federal government gave out – which we did benefit from. The decision to give, and give big, without knowing for sure what the pandemic would do to our budget – was a decision that emulated the sower in this parable. The Council didn’t spend time worrying too much about how the money we gave was being spend – yes, of course, we gave to local organizations that we trusted and knew did good work, but there certainly was no follow up or demand to be given an itemized accounting of how the donation was spent. We simply did it because we could.
And that same year we, in partnership with other local churches, eliminated $2.2 million in medical debt across MN and WI. We did so not knowing who it was going to benefit and expecting nothing in return. We did not ask how they were going to change their lifestyle or demand they “pay it forward.” We simply did it because we could.
And on Thursdays we cook a meal for people in our community using what we have and the generosity of our donors and volunteers. We do not do this for a thank you or demand that our guests repay us in some way. We simply do it because we can.
¾ of our efforts may very well produce no fruit. And it is very possible that the fruit that is produced, we will never see. But, that is not why we do it. Ministry is not about deciding who is worthy and focusing our efforts there. Indeed, Jesus spent his time with the outcast and the shamed. Ministry is about trusting in the abundant nature of God, in God’s bad gardening style, and being lavish in how we spread the seeds of the Good News. They are indeed all heirloom seeds, they are all precious, but there are enough, more than enough, to share with wild abandon. Can you imagine a world in which everyone does this, where everyone emulates the sower in this parable? Can you imagine a world in which we don’t judge for ourselves who is worthy and who is not and just share freely and even carelessly? That is what Jesus is calling us to imagine. And in that holy imagination, Jesus is calling us to go and do likewise. Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER
Generous God, you are lavish in the way you share your blessings. You never hold back and heap grace upon grace upon us all. For this we are so grateful. And it is in that spirit of gratitude that we come before you in prayer.
O God, we know that this world is broken and that there are far too many who only take and never give. We also know that they are forgiven by you and that you will always continue to offer opportunities for even the most greedy to embrace the grace you offer. And we know that when we have chosen to keep for ourselves what we can in fact share, you forgive us and will always offer us opportunities to live into your Kingdom. Help us, God, to see those opportunities in front of us and to step forward into them with bravery, resting in our trust of you.
One of the ways we share the blessings you have offered us is through prayer. As we open our hearts and spirits to you in silence, we freely give you our prayers for ourselves and for others, trusting that you hear and respond…
Good and Great God, you are so lavish in your love for us that at times it is overwhelming. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who taught us what it means to be bad gardeners just like you. And we pray in the way he taught…Our Father…