What Type of soil are you for God's Word?

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 Which Soil are you? 6th Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 10 July 12, 2020 Year A Children’s Sermon Object: A flower and a common weed Boys and girls, I pulled these out of my garden. What is this? (Let them guess the flower.) I love flowers, don’t you? Flowers add so much beauty to our world. We all love to smell a beautiful flower. Girls can look so pretty with a flower placed carefully in their hair. A man might even wear a flower in his lapel on special occasions. When someone is sick we send them flowers. When we are in love we send flowers. We place flowers on our altar to remind us that Christ is alive bringing love and beauty to his world. Most flowers have to be planted and carefully cultivated. That’s the difference between a flower and a weed. Weeds will grow anywhere and usually do. But a flower usually takes some care. That’s the way our spiritual lives are. Usually we have to work at the things that really matter. If we want to be a good athlete, we have to exercise and practice. If we want to be a good student, we have to study and read and learn. If we want to follow Jesus, we need to work at it, too. We work at being loving to others. We work at remembering to pray. We come to Sunday School even when we might like to do something else. And as a result, we become beautiful people inwardly. We become beautiful flowers rather than merely weeds that always do what comes easy. Remember, God created you to be a beautiful flower. ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Third Quarter Sermons 2008, by King Duncan Opening Song Welcome Opening Prayer Call to Worship #4: L: The Lord is the sower of the seeds of love and redemption. P: But we have not always been ready to receive these seeds. L: Today we hear again the scriptures that remind us of the awesome generosity of God. P: Help us be good soil, O God, prepared to receive your love and to grow in that love. L: Amen. P: AMEN. Stewardship Moment The theme of our worship experience this morning is sowing weeds of hope, love and peace, and looking to God to give the increase. God and Three Pennies Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India died as a world-known figure. But who would have ever thought she would have attained such influence when she first began? What did she have to recommend her? A tiny woman, she began with the most meager of resources. Mother Teresa told her superiors, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” “Mother Teresa,” her superiors said, “you can’t build an orphanage with three pennies . . . with three pennies you can’t do anything.” “I know,” she said, smiling, “but with God and three pennies I can do anything.” Mother Teresa understood the principle of the seed. It takes very little -- but very little blessed by God -- and miracles can occur. This, of course is akin to Jesus’ teaching elsewhere, that faith only the size of a mustard seed can produce an enormous bush (Matthew 17:20). That is a constant law in God’s world. King Duncan, www.Sermons.com Offertory Prayer God of the universe, we come to worship this morning, longing to set our minds on the Holy Spirit, to live with Christ within us. We have not always made room for Christ in the clutter of our lives. We have indulged our wants so often that too often the voice of the Spirit is downed out. As we dedicate these gifts this morning, may it help us to live more in tune with the Spirit and to use our resources in a way that reflects that Christ is Lord of all our lives. In his holy name, we pray. Amen. (Romans 8:1-11) Scripture Matthew 13:1-9 Common English Bible (CEB) Setting for the parables 13 That day Jesus went out of the house and sat down beside the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he climbed into a boat and sat down. The whole crowd was standing on the shore. Parable of the soils 3 He said many things to them in parables: “A farmer went out to scatter seed. 4 As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path, and birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where the soil was shallow. They sprouted immediately because the soil wasn’t deep. 6 But when the sun came up, it scorched the plants, and they dried up because they had no roots. 7 Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorny plants grew and choked them. 8 Other seed fell on good soil and bore fruit, in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one. 9 Everyone who has ears should pay attention.” Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Matthew 13:18-23 Common English Bible (CEB) Explanation of the parable of the farmer 18 “Consider then the parable of the farmer. 19 Whenever people hear the word about the kingdom and don’t understand it, the evil one comes and carries off what was planted in their hearts. This is the seed that was sown on the path. 20 As for the seed that was spread on rocky ground, this refers to people who hear the word and immediately receive it joyfully. 21 Because they have no roots, they last for only a little while. When they experience distress or abuse because of the word, they immediately fall away. 22 As for the seed that was spread among thorny plants, this refers to those who hear the word, but the worries of this life and the false appeal of wealth choke the word, and it bears no fruit. 23 As for what was planted on good soil, this refers to those who hear and understand, and bear fruit and produce—in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one.” Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Sermon I have learned from doing genealogy on my family that there are different kinds of farmers with different kinds of resources. When I look at the census records, all of my ancestors were listed as farmers. But some of the farmers in my family owned land and some did not. For instance, my grandmothers family moved all over the area taking care of the crops of other people. These would have been the type of farmer that Jesus was talking to as he gives his third major teaching in the book of Matthew. Jesus tells them a funny story who is sowing seed. Obviously he is not a good farmer, because he is taking good seed and just throwing it anywhere, even in places where the seed will obviously not grow. But the story gets even funnier. Because Jesus says that after he had just thrown the seed in places it cant grow – the farmer now expects the get a bumper crop, not just of four or five times more, but 30, 60 or 100 times more. How in the world is that going to happen? Jesus point is that with God anything can happen. As Jesus is telling this story to the crowd, on the one hand they can relate to the everyday life in the story. But some parts of it are just crazy. So crazy on fact that they ask Jesus, why are you even telling us stories like that? What does this story have to do with planting crops? More importantly the disciples want to know what does a story about farmer, seeds, the ground and an unexpected harvest have to do with training he disciples in evangelism and mission? Jesus must have been just as dumb as the sower that he talks about in the story. (even though some scholars calls this sower a genius). The Wrong Question: What Does It Mean? For a moment, let's put this story to one side and hear another story. It concerns a young anthropologist named Connie who works among aboriginal people in Australia. The community where she lives has a rich tradition of storytelling. Everyone gathers at night, a story is told, and then another, and another. Connie feels extraordinarily privileged when she is asked to join in this activity. The first story told that evening is about the animal ancestor of this community and its adventures at the beginning of time. The story overflows with detail, action, imagery. At the end of the story, Connie is delighted. "May I ask a question?" she says. "What does it mean?" All eyes are upon her. The elder looks at her gravely and says, "That is the one question you cannot ask." A long time passes before she is invited again. She has asked the wrong question. "What does it mean?" was the wrong question for Connie to ask about the aboriginal myth. It may also be the wrong question for us to ask about the story of the sower, or any of the stories told by Jesus. "What does it mean?" is the wrong question if we think that by having an answer, we can somehow get a handle on this story, domesticate it, make it safe. The stories Jesus tells are not subject to our control. He tells these stories so that we can be transformed. He tells these stories, not so that we can ask questions about them, but so that the stories can ask questions of us. Charles Hoffacker, What Kind of Soil Are You, What Kind of Sower? The important question is what does it mean for all of us? Each of us as we listen actually get a different meaning out of the story because we all listen differently. As we are gathered today in different circumstances, we also respond differently. Some of us come to church and we participate and we don’t get anything out of it. Some of us come and we are inspired for about a day and then we are distracted, some of us care and want to be inspired, but there is so much other stuff going on that we just cant listen, some of us listen and it is good but nothing changes, some of us listen and participate, and we are inspired to do things on behalf of others, we truly want to make a difference. Story of church clothes pantry – and planting seeds
There is the story of a church – a small church in a changing community- which started to see its membership declining. They noticed that there were no children in the Sunday school and wanted to do something to attract new members.
They decided that as an outreach project – they turned their Sunday school rooms into a clothing center. They would collect old clothes and give them away to anyone who needed them. Anyone could take as many clothes as they needed.
One winter day – a mother came with her many children. She said that she needed clothes. The kids took bags and bags of clothes. The church realized that this was a needy family – so they asked the pastor and some others to stop by to visit the family. While at the house – they noticed a pile of clothes that they had taken so much time to fold – being used as bedding for the dog. One lady noticed a dress that had belonged to her late grandmother torn and crumpled on the floor. As they were walking back to the church – they decided that the clothing ministry was a waste of time. People did not care anyway. And the help that you gave most people was wasted, because there were ungrateful about what you do for them.
Until one snowy day a winter later – when the pastor noticed an old beat up pickup truck in the parking lot before church service. The pickup was plowing the parking lot – when the pastor asked why – it was one of the older children of the family who had taken all of those clothes – the young man was now eighteen. He replied that the church had helped out his family when they were down on their luck. Now that they were on their feet and doing a little bit better, this was their way of helping out.
For many years later – the family plowed the churches parking lot. Most parishioners never even noticed.
In this story, the church members were the sower and the seeds were planted within the lives of those they served. It is not our responsibility to make the seeds grow – the life is inside of the seed not inside of our actions. We may never know the difference that our Christianity makes to those whose lives we touch. But it does indeed make a difference. Our job is to plant freely and abundantly – just as God has done for us. We are the tenement farmers that Jesus is talking to. It is not our land, not our seeds, we have no control over the ground, it is not our world, it is not our ministry, we have no control over the things going on in the world. But we are all called to plant seeds of hope, peace, and love wherever we go. Sometimes we may never see the crop that we are caring for, but we can celebrate that the harvest appears to us in so many unexpected ways. When the crop is harvested not only does it satisfy the landowner, provide seed for next year, pay our bills, and feed our family – but it benefits others. What we do for the church makes a difference. Jesus knew that there are all kinds of farmers in the crowd – but he also knows how to keep on the same page in spite of our differences. You keep us together by sowing the seeds in so many different places and nurturing all seeds no matter who. God blesses the efforts of us all in the harvest. There is the seed that falls upon the good earth and takes root and grows to maturity. This crop, we are told, is a harvest that will bear fruit a hundredfold. Jesus mentions this last because it is the thrust of the story. True, there are failures, but the good news is that there is also victory. Now, here is the hard part. Our efforts in life are not always measurable. Sometimes, you may not see the final product. You may not see the actual harvest. Sometimes all we can do is plant a seed, and trust that God will do the rest. A school teacher works with a troubled child, but she may not know how the story ultimately turns out. All she can do is plant a seed of love and trust that God will do the rest. Sometimes just a word of encouragement to a person in need, or a shared personal thought and someone picks up on it and it gets them through a dark night. We may never see the results, but God always blesses our efforts. Isaiah 55:10-11 says “My word is like the snow and the rain that come down from the sky to water the earth. They make the crops grow and provide for planting and food to eat. So also will be the word that O speak – it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.” God’s word never comes back empty – is changes everything it touches. Do not be afraid to go out into the world and throw seeds where ever you go. Let’s pray… Prayer Pastoral Prayer Lord, our spirits are on a summer time schedule. We change things around in our lives to accommodate new activities, times of rest, times of visiting with families and friends, times of travel and leisure. Help us remember that in all these things you are with us. Hear our cries of frustration when the plans that we have so carefully crafted do not work out. Be with us in all of our journeys, guiding our lives and our steps. Again, lavishly pour your love and mercy on us. Prepare us to serve you in all that we do. AMEN. Time of Reflection Announcements Benediction God has placed the seeds of love and forgiveness in your heart. Go into God’s world with joy, telling of the good news of God’s abundant, lavish love for all creation. Go to be a witness to all the miraculous possibilities for hope and peace. AMEN. Special Music Additional illustrations Sowing the Seed One of William Barclay's friends tells this story. In the church where he worshiped there was a lonely old man, old Thomas. He had outlived all his friends and hardly anyone knew him. When Thomas died, this friend had the feeling that there would be no one to go to the funeral so he decided to go, so that there might be someone to follow the old man to his last resting-place. There was no one else, and it was a miserable wet day. The funeral reached the cemetery, and at the gate there was a soldier waiting. An officer, but on his raincoat there were no rank badges. He came to the grave side for the ceremony, then when it was over, he stepped forward and before the open grave swept his hand to a salute that might have been given to a king. The friend walked away with this soldier, and as they walked, the wind blew the soldier's raincoat open to reveal the shoulder badges of a brigadier general. The general said, "You will perhaps be wondering what I am doing here. Years ago Thomas was my Sunday School teacher; I was a wild lad and a sore trial to him. He never knew what he did for me, but I owe everything I am or will be to old Thomas, and today I had to come to salute him at the end." Thomas did not know what he was doing. No preacher or teacher ever does. Keep sowing the seed. We can leave the rest to God, including keeping the fire going. And that is GOOD news for all us tenant farmers. David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com What Only God Controls Janet Mathistad is a Lutheran pastor in Minot, ND. She writes, "One aspect of this text that has interested me is that even in the good soil, there was such a difference of yields. I got an insight into one answer back in 1993, when I had just married my husband, who is a farmer. That was the summer that the Mississippi River flooded, and our area of North Dakota received 13 inches of rain in June (our total average annual moisture is only 17 inches). A phenomenon happened in Todd's durum fields that he referred to as "stooling out." Whereas normally, each seed sends up one stalk and produces one head of wheat, when the weather is cooler and wetter, the grain will send up a second and even a third stalk. The yield is therefore abundantly greater." Pastor Janet continues. "I see it as an example of something that humans have no control over. If the wheat stools out, it is not because the farmer was especially clever or because the soil was so good, but because the weather conditions were right. It seems that in farming or in ministry, we can sow, but we cannot guarantee results. We can give it our best effort, but cannot completely control the outcome. Only God can do that. And God is convinced that in the end, when it comes to [that] harvest the results will be abundant." David E. Leininger (with thanks to Janet Mathistad), Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Good Seeds on Good Soil A farmer went out to sow seed, said Jesus. As he was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the path. Well, everybody knows you don’t plant seed where people are going to be walking. It’ll never grow. It won’t penetrate the hard-packed soil. So, said Jesus, the birds came and ate the seed that had fallen by the path. Some of the other seed, said Jesus, fell on rocky places where there was a deficiency of soil. Again, not a very good place to sow. The resulting plants sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, Jesus said, which grew up and choked the plants. So, it didn’t survive either. This farmer is 0 for 3 to this point. Looks like he will have a poor harvest this year. Finally, however, he got lucky. Some of the seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop -- a miraculous crop -- up to a hundred times what was sown. This will not be a bad year after all. Where good seed falls on good soil, amazing things can happen. It reminds me of something Robert Schuller used to say: “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.” The greatest things in this world, including the kingdom of God, grow from tiny seeds. King Duncan, www.Sermons.com Seeing Christians Bruce Larson tells about a young African woman who came to the U.S. from Angola. Her name was Maria and she was always laughing. One day she went to a meeting on evangelism in her church where they were talking about pamphlets, missions, campaigns, and all the rest. At one point someone turned to Maria and said, “What do they do in your church in Angola, Maria?” “In my church,” said Maria, after a moment’s thought, “we don’t give pamphlets to people or have missions. We just send one or two Christian families to live in a village. And when people see what Christians are like, then they want to be Christians themselves.” Somehow I believe that is the best way of all to sow the seed of the Gospel. It is the way of love. The best type of sower is the person who loves God and who loves others. The light of Christ shines though their lives. They are “good soil.” They respond to the Gospel, then they share that Gospel with others. Of such is the kingdom of God. King Duncan, www.Sermons.com Knocks You Flat The Parable of the Sower. One of the best known of Jesus' pithy little anecdotes, these "earthly stories with a heavenly meaning." P. G. Wodehouse says, "A parable is one of those stories in the Bible that at first sounds like a pleasant yarn, but keeps something up its sleeve which suddenly pops up and knocks you flat." David E. Leininger Humor: Birdbaths and Flagpoles "I want to start a garden, but my yard's a little problematic," a customer told the proprietor at the yard and garden center. "I get blazing afternoon sunshine for about two hours, but otherwise it's all shade." "What kind of soil?" asked the proprietor. "Hard clay, lot of rocks," said the customer, "What do you recommend I plant." "Hmmm," mused the store owner. "Why don't you look down Aisle B. We've got a big new supply of birdbaths and flagpoles . . . " Maybe you have a lawn like that--good for growing only birdbaths and flagpoles. Fertile Soil But there is a fourth kind of soil. Don't ever underestimate the power of a seed. Did you know that in 1959 there were 1 million Roman Catholics and 600,000 Protestants in China. That may sound like a lot, but when you compare it to a population that is rapidly approaching 1 billion people, you understand what a tiny seed that represented. Then in 1959 China closed it doors to the outside world. Many people began to wrap a burial shroud around the Christian church in China. They said that it would never survive. Then in 1979 China again opened its doors to the West and to the rest of the world. And a strange thing had happened. That tiny seed 20 years earlier had taken root. The number of Roman Catholics during those dark years rose from 1 million to 3 million and the number of Protestants rose from 600,000 to 3 million. The church in a time of persecution and hardship, had grown 53% in a twenty year period. How do you explain it? Fertile soil! There was obviously a hunger for the gospel. Brett Blair and Staff, www.Sermons.com Sowing the Seed One of William Barclay's friends tells this story. In the church where he worshiped there was a lonely old man, old Thomas. He had outlived all his friends and hardly anyone knew him. When Thomas died, this friend had the feeling that there would be no one to go to the funeral so he decided to go, so that there might be someone to follow the old man to his last resting-place. There was no one else, and it was a miserable wet day. The funeral reached the cemetery, and at the gate there was a soldier waiting. An officer, but on his raincoat there were no rank badges. He came to the grave side for the ceremony, then when it was over, he stepped forward and before the open grave swept his hand to a salute that might have been given to a king. The friend walked away with this soldier, and as they walked, the wind blew the soldier's raincoat open to reveal the shoulder badges of a brigadier general. The general said, "You will perhaps be wondering what I am doing here. Years ago Thomas was my Sunday School teacher; I was a wild lad and a sore trial to him. He never knew what he did for me, but I owe everything I am or will be to old Thomas, and today I had to come to salute him at the end." Thomas did not know what he was doing. No preacher or teacher ever does. Keep sowing the seed. We can leave the rest to God, including keeping the fire going. And that is GOOD news for all us tenant farmers. David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com