1Jesus went out and sat beside the sea. 2Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!”
18“Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
My husband, Dwayne, is a very impatient gardener. In the spring, after seeds have been planted he starts to watch…he watches for the first shoots of the season. And as warm weather drifts his impatience tends to grow. A week passes…no sign of sprouts. Two weeks pass…he starts to get worried. Three weeks pass…he begins to consider that nothing is going to happen. Four weeks pass…he is certain something is wrong. With each passing week, Dwayne’s impatience grows to a strong conviction…maybe all of our work isn’t going to pay off.
I think we both breathe a sigh of relief when the tiniest glimmer of green finally breaks through the ground.
But we have also had our share of disappointments cultivating our green thumb.
For a little history…for years we worked to reclaim a forgotten garden behind our church. We repaired the raised beds, pulled up a jungle of weeds, cut down a few fledgling trees, planted seeds and watered the ground. But each year, only a portion of our plants would thrive. There were a couple of beds that refused to grow anything at all and the weeds became unbearable.
Dwayne’s impatience started to rub off on me and I started counting down the days until fall when I could pull it all up and walk away for a few months.
It seemed that no matter how hard we worked, we just couldn’t get it right. Impatience turned to discouragement. Discouragement turned to doubt. Doubt turned to ambivalence. And the garden would ultimately become a burden year after year. The reality set in that we just didn’t have the skills we needed…at least not on our own.
Then, someone observed that the soil wasn’t healthy. And no matter how much we planted and watered and weeded, the soil wasn’t rich enough to grow big, strong, healthy plants.
So we went back to the basics…a proper ratio of garden soil, peet moss and fertilizer. In hindsight, it seemed so simple…how had we not worked with the soil before? We had jumped ahead in our impatience but hadn’t created the right foundation.
Once the right foundation was in place, the plants started to overflow to the point that it was hard to walk between the raised beds. The flowers were so heavy with blooms that they bent under their own weight. The bees were thrilled with the pollen and butterflies were everywhere. It was magical.
All it took was some much-needed guidance from others, a good foundation, and a dose of patience.
Guidance. Foundation. Patience.
I want you to remember those three things as we consider our parable from the Gospel reading this week. The parable of the Sower carries with it a special beauty especially for those of us who love to spend hours outdoors and in our gardens. But, when I look beyond the beauty of the harvest in this text, I can’t help but remember all of struggles we had in our little garden and how much help we needed.
It makes me notice something bigger that I think this parable is getting at. Maybe our text in Matthew isn’t so much a celebration of the good harvest but a cautionary tale on how easily our rush to get what we want results in unhealthy patterns and choices that take us away from God and away from one another. Patterns and choices that pull us away from seeking guidance, building a healthy foundation, and cultivating patience when the work is difficult.
In other words, the parable asks us to consider how our impatience is pushing us towards ambivalence…when we are desperate for change…in our lives and in our communities. When we have worked so hard to repair a relationship or end an addiction or heal a sickness. When we watch the news and see violence and hate all around us. When things are so overwhelming that we start to wonder if all of the effort we have put forth is even worth it.
And so our impatience turns to discouragement and discouragement to doubt and doubt feeds ambivalence. And we pull up all of the things we have tried to grow. We walk away. We say to ourselves, I can’t make a difference or my voice doesn’t matter or I’m tired or I’m scared or I don’t have the skills to do what needs to be done.
This is where our text gets interesting. Matthew actually gives us affirming guidance when it comes to our tendencies toward impatience. However, the guidance we need to hear was left out of our lectionary selection for today. Verses 10-17 are omitted. But I want you to hear these words in order to gain the larger lesson that this text has to teach.
When Jesus finishes the first part of the Parable of the Sower, his disciples ask him why he teaches in parables. He answers them with a quote from Isaiah,
“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn…”And then Jesus goes on to tell his disciples…
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Jesus is teaching the disciples that not everyone is going to get it right. Not everyone is going to understand. In essence, people will be impatient. They will get discouraged. They will doubt. They will become ambivalent because their hearts have become dull and tired.
It’s important that we include these verses in our reading because they affirm for us that we will struggle to get the foundation right and we will need help at times. Luckily, like the disciples who were sent out to teach others, there are people in our lives who can help us cultivate our hearts and encourage us when we struggle. The blessing of a community is that we can lean on one another when we become impatient and discouraged, when we doubt or when we want to give up.
Jesus understood this.
Because there will be times when our work doesn’t take root right away, when our endurance runs thin, when trouble pulls us away from what God is calling us to do, when the cares of the world choke out the yield we had once dreamed of.
In those times, we are called to work together, to break up the hardness of the human heart, to heal the wounds that have cut too deep, to reassure one another of the importance of hope and faith for a good harvest.
Jesus understood that we will all get impatient. He understood that the change that is needed in our hearts and in our world takes time but when we get the help we need, when we place our hope in God and in one another, we are able to cultivate that beautiful, healthy foundation that can begin to grow something wonderful. So be patient. Have faith in yourself and in one another.
Beautiful reflection, Emily. The reminder that growth begins with a healthy foundation and that patience is part of the process really stayed with me. Thank you for sharing this wisdom.