Summary: We shouldn't be shy about sharing our faith with others, because it's God who gives the growth.
It's a location only a James Bond movie villain could love. A remote Norwegian island, above the Arctic Circle -- only 1,300 miles from the North Pole. A reinforced tunnel dug 360 feet deep into a sandstone mountain, specially chosen for its geological stability. At the end of the tunnel, through a set of air locks, are two chambers -- the air within them carefully filtered.
Few people have ever seen that inner sanctum. Those chambers, sunk deep within the mountain, don't have much room for visitors. It's kind of chilly, too. A sophisticated climate-control system maintains the temperature at a steady 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
The installation cost $9 million to build, in 2006. What's it all for? Seeds.
Yes, seeds. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is accepting donations of seeds from all over the world. It aims to be the location of choice for storing samples of every plant species on earth.
It's all for the purpose of preserving genetic diversity. No matter what catastrophe -- natural, or human-instigated -- may befall the rest of the world, the living seeds locked within that Norwegian mountain are likely to survive.
Think of it as Noah's Ark for the plant world. Seeds are a wonder, a miracle worth preserving.
Even a kindergartener knows that. She comes home from school one day with a little paper cup, filled with black earth. Her instructions are to put it in a sunny spot and water it every day. If she fulfills her teacher's instructions, in a week or so she'll be rewarded by the sight of a little green shoot poking up through the earth.
It's a bean sprout: her teacher chose a bean seed because it's so large, so easy for little fingers to pick up and handle.
As the girl returns to school in triumph, holding her paper cup, to join the other children with their paper cups, the entire classroom is filled with a heady sense of wonder. These children have all witnessed an everyday miracle of nature. Most exciting of all, they've each had a hand in making it happen!
Jesus often commended to his disciples the virtue of being childlike. Maybe he was endorsing the same sort of wonder as he told a large crowd a parable about seeds.
Jesus' story in today's scripture text has become known as the "Parable of the Sower" -- although some modern commentators have tried to rename it the "Parable of the Soils," because of the four types of soil within it. It's more about the varieties of soil, they insist -- some hopelessly hard and dry, others soft and pliant and filled with nutrients. But the parable begins with the words, "A sower went forth to sow ...," making it likely that the sower title will endure.
The usual thing for preachers to do with this passage is to ask the people, "What kind of soil are you? Are you the hard-packed earth of the pathway, which no seed can penetrate? Or the weed-choked patch that strangles any newcomer? Or are you the rich, receptive and fertile soil that welcomes God's word and allows it to flourish within you?"
Most folks don't mind hearing a sermon like this, because they figure that, if they're hearing it, they've got a leg up on everybody else who's not in church that day. Surely, if they're sitting in church, it must mean they belong to the Good-Soil League, right? (And besides, the text leaves room for us to think of people who aren't good soil -- though that misses the point.)
It's a time-honored approach but today let's go in a different direction. Let's focus, instead, on the sower -- that farmer who reaches into his shoulder-pouch and flings the seeds to his right and to his left as he walks along.
The conventional interpretation -- even supported by Jesus himself, in the interpretation he thoughtfully provides -- is that the sower is God. Yet, aren't we also called, in our Christian lives, to be sowers -- propagators of God's word? As we seek to fulfill our Lord's Great Commission, to "make disciples of all nations," we're doing something very much like scattering seeds.
Yet did you notice something about this method of agriculture? It seems inefficient, doesn't it? All those seeds that fall onto inadequate soil go to waste -- it's a crying shame.
What sort of farmer is this, anyway? Doesn't he realize some of his seeds are landing on the footpath, where birds will swoop in and scarf them up? Doesn't he realize other seeds will land in places with just a few inches of soil layered atop ledges of limestone? Those plants may do very well at first, but as soon as their roots hit solid rock a few inches down, it's curtains for them. Then there are those seeds that end up "among thorns." Those well-established briars are sure to choke out any new seeds that dare to sprout in their shadow. What's this guy thinking, scattering seeds so wildly? This subsistence farmer may lack many things, but seed doesn't seem to be one of them!
That makes this a good image for Jesus to use when he's teaching about spreading the gospel. That good news is not going to run out any time soon! Salvation comes in an unlimited supply. The important thing is not to be shy in spreading it around -- so at least some of it will fall onto receptive soil.
Jesus' point is that it's not the seeds -- the gospel message -- that's faulty. It's the soil over which some of the seeds are scattered. But Jesus doesn't want his disciples to back off. Far from it! He wants them to keep sowing those seeds, keep sharing the good news. They'll never know whether the patch of soil in front of them is fertile or infertile. The only way to find out is to send a handful of seeds flying that way and see if anything comes of it.
So often, in our efforts to share the good news, we proceed in an entirely different matter, don't we? If we share the good news with anyone at all, it's likely someone safe -- someone we already know. Compared to the full spectrum of evangelistic seed-planting methods, this one is like the most targeted of all. It's the kindergartener with her single bean in the paper cup. One carefully planned, meticulously thought-out contact; if it works, fine; if not, we've done our part for this year.
If that's the total of this church's involvement in evangelism, then how on earth are we ever going to grow -- let alone, make up for the losses that come from an aging demographic and a falling birth rate? Once upon a time, we could count on growing Christian families to boost the church's membership. But no longer. The seeds of the next generation of the faithful are not likely to self-propagate, dropping from the plants directly into the soil below. The services of a sower are required. Lots of sowers, in fact. Which is where all of us come in.
Yes, this is all about the dreaded "e-word": evangelism. Or, if you prefer, faith-sharing. Or -- to really get at the heart of the matter -- showing our neighbors where to find the greatest joy we've discovered in our lives: the joy of knowing and trusting Jesus Christ.
You'd do that with the joy of a new movie you've seen, right? You'd do that with a great little restaurant you've just discovered. You'd pass on a hot tip about a supermarket coupon or discount. Well, why not about your community of faith -- in which you've found a warm welcome and a spiritual home?
All those other attractions we treat like a handful of tiny seeds. We've got a million of 'em. We'll gladly spread them far and wide. But, when it comes to inviting friends to church, what's our approach? It's the single bean planted in the paper cup.
No, it isn't, says Jesus! Spreading the faith is like the farmers he knew, walking their rows with their seed pouches around their necks. You can't be shy about it, he's saying to his people. You've got to take up a great, big handful of those faith-seeds and let 'em fly!
The wonderful thing about this parable is that it takes away a lot of the worry and guilt most of us are inclined to feel when we think about sharing our faith with others. The way Jesus tells the tale, some seed falls on the hard-packed path, others on the rocky soil and still others in the middle of a future weed patch. The problem's not in the sower's technique, or in the seeds -- it's in the patch of ground where the seed happens to land! Do you realize what that means? When it comes to faith-sharing, it's impossible to succeed everywhere, but it's also impossible to fail altogether!
Here's a wondrous thing about scattered seeds: Sometimes they sprout right away, but other times, it takes a while. Sometimes a seed may, for whatever reason, lay dormant in the ground for a time, then unexpectedly begin to grow. Most of the time, we never fully know or appreciate what impact our words or actions are having on another person's life. But that's no reason to stop trying.
Remember those seeds we talked about at the beginning -- stored away for decades and even longer, in Norway's Global Seed Vault? Even after many, many years have passed, those seeds still have the potential of growing. The Egyptologists have taught us all about that. They've even run across three and even four-thousand-year-old seeds deep inside the pyramids. When they've soaked them in water and planted them in the ground, some of those ancient seeds have actually sprouted!
It's all about the grace of God Almighty -- in sustaining the growth, in boosting the harvest. It's not about us, friends. All we have to do is meet God halfway, and God does the rest!
It's as our hymn says: "We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, but it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand." So, grab yourself a handful of gospel seeds, my friends, and let 'em fly!