Advent Lutheran Church

"Tossed by God (Pentecost 4)"

            Grace and peace to you from God the Creator and the Lord Jesus.  Amen.

            This is one Bible story that has just about everything going for it.  There’s a hero, of course, represented by the Sower (God), who broadcasts his seed with reckless but confident abandon.  In order for a story to be compelling, it’s also got to have a villain, and we have one here: “the evil one,” or Satan, who threatens the work of the Sower.  We have variety, in the form of the various types of soil.  And we have the possibility of an incredible outcome.

            We’ve got a hero, a villain, some variety, and the potential for an outstanding ending.  This story is lacking only one thing: a clear explanation.  Just what does a harvest of the Word of God look like?  Sure, we’re in Kansas; we know about harvests.  We’ve seen harvests of corn and beans and what – we know what those look like.  But an abundant harvest of God’s Word?  What’s that supposed to be?

            Welcome to the world of the parable.  In the ancient world, Jewish rabbis, including Jesus, often told parables as teaching devices.  Parables did not come with one-size-fits-all, pre-packaged answers; instead, they invited the listener into the story to participate in deciding what the story meant for the listener’s own time and place.  Parables were stories constructed of common, ordinary experiences that led to extraordinary endings.

            So Jesus tells a story that begins in the everyday experience of the ancient world.  Following common agricultural practice of the day, a sower reaches into his bag, pulls out a handful of seed, and flings it everywhere.  It’s almost like he doesn’t care where it lands.  He fully expects that some of the seed will be eaten by birds; some will land on ground where the rocks are so numerous that the roots won’t be able to grow; and some will land among thistles, which will simply choke out the seeds.  The farmer accepts all of this, knowing that the loss of the seed will be more than compensated for by the harvest that will come from the good soil.  Everybody in the crowd knows that that’s the expectation; they know that if the farmer works hard and the weather is favorable, the yield from the good soil could be as much as 10 or even 12 times what was sown.  So far, nothing unusual about the story.  Jesus’ listeners lean forward, waiting for the surprise.  And then it comes: forget about 10 or 12 times what was sown, Jesus says; the harvest from the good soil will be as much as 30- to 60- to 100-fold!

That’s a surprise, all right, and for some in the crowd, it’s too outrageous.  They shake their heads and walk away, muttering to each other, “Typical city boy, knows nothing about farming, nothing about how the real world really works.  A harvest of 10-fold, maybe 12-fold in a good year, OK; but 100-fold?  That boy’s just plain crazy.”

But there are some in the crowd who do not walk away.  They remember a story way back in the middle of the book of Genesis, when God blessed the planting efforts of Isaac.  Now, there was a harvest of 100-fold.  A harvest like that doesn’t happen every day, but it did once.  Could happen again.

And so Jesus leaves his hearers, then and now, with a most intriguing question: What does an abundant harvest of God’s Word look like in our time and place, in a world where God is perfectly free to operate exactly the way God chooses?  There’s only one guarantee, and we heard it in our first reading this morning, from the prophet Isaiah: My word, God says, will not return to me empty but will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it.  There will be a harvest.

There’s an old story about the young Baptist preacher, fresh out of seminary, who was assigned to his first church, up in the hills of Kentucky.  His first Sunday, he preached about the evils of gambling, especially betting on the horses.  That sermon did not go over well.  A parishioner pulled him aside after church and said, “Reverend, we pride ourselves on raising quality race horses around here, and a lot of us make our living from that business.”

Next Sunday, the preacher preached against the evils of smoking, only to discover that the reason that sermon fizzled was because some of his parishioners grew tobacco for a living.  The next Sunday, he preached about the evils of drinking, only to discover that the reason his church members sat stone-faced through that sermon was because a lot of them had stills back up in the hills.

Finally, in desperation the young preacher called together a group of his parishioners and fumed, “Well, what in the world can I preach about?”  Lengthy silence as they all thought it over.  Finally, a long-time member said, “Well, reverend, why don’t you preach about those godless Chinese communists?  Why, there isn’t a godless Chinese communist within a million miles of here!”

There is a truth that comes at us sideways from this story, and it is that sometimes, God’s seed is sown in places of discomfort and unease; but if it is cultivated with patience and persistence and courage, it can yield a surprising harvest.

Sometimes, that harvest looks like justice.  In the fall of 1960, CBS News aired a documentary, the first of its kind, which was titled “Harvest of Shame.”  It detailed the plight of the migrant farm workers in the United States.  Americans had never seen anything like it; they were shocked at the desperate conditions in which the migrant workers lived and under which they worked.  What made the documentary even more poignant was the fact that it was aired the day after Thanksgiving.  Americans, fresh from their Thanksgiving feast, were shown exactly who was responsible for putting that bounty on their tables, and how they lived and worked.

Reaction was swift and vocal.  Thousands of letters and calls came into CBS and Congress, demanding action.  The harvest?  The first set of federal legislation protecting migrant farm workers in this country.  It certainly was not a religious campaign, but it was definitely in keeping with Scripture, especially this Proverb: “Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker; but those who are kind to the needy honor him.”  Sometimes, a harvest in God’s field looks like justice.

Sometimes, that harvest looks like revolution.  We’ve all seen the news coverage of revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, civil war in Libya, widespread unrest in Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria.  There are a number of causes for all the turbulence – government corruption, human rights abuses, dictatorships – but apparently one spark that set it all off: a slap.  In December in a small village in Tunisia, a poor vendor of fruits and vegetables wheeled his cart into an area that was off-limits to him.  He began selling his produce, for which he had no license.  A municipal inspector came along, saw that he had set up his wares in a forbidden zone, further discovered that he had no license to do business, and confiscated his cart and his produce.

A struggle ensued in which the vendor tried to wrestle his cart back from the inspector.  At that point, the inspector allegedly slapped him, then took his cart and vegetables and fruit.  The vendor had had enough – enough of a lifetime of oppression, a lifetime of poverty.  In wild and desperate protest, he set himself on fire in front of the village’s municipal offices.  He later died of his injuries, but the internet instantly carried news of his action around North Africa and the Middle East.  Suddenly, his story released pent-up frustration and rage throughout the region, and millions took to the streets to protest injustice and repression in their own countries.  What has become known as The Arab Spring was on.

Sometimes, the seed of God’s Word – God’s desire for human dignity, freedom, and justice – is sown in unlikely places by unlikely means.  That shouldn’t surprise us, since the psalmist told us, “The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.”  The Arab Spring didn’t start out as a religious effort – it certainly isn’t part of the Christian movement – but God also tells us through the prophet Isaiah: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.”

Sometimes, God’s harvest is not seen in dramatic, world-shaping events; in fact, sometimes, God’s harvest is not seen at all.  In 2007, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University named Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience to give another lecture.  This one was titled, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” and it would soon become known as “The Last Lecture.”  As Pausch’s listeners learned, he was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and in fact the disease did claim his life some months later.

But his lecture was not about dying; it was profoundly about living, about making each day as significant and fulfilling as possible.  About 400 people heard that lecture in person; since Pausch’s death, the YouTube video of his talk has been accessed more than 13½ million times.  What’s the harvest?  Sometimes, the harvest is unseen; it’s only lived out in the lives of people who take personally the promise of Proverbs 23: “Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.”

We have a God who sometimes tosses seed in unexpected places using unexpected means.  And that should prompt a question about God’s harvest in your life, because each one of you is dealing with something – maybe an issue, a challenge or difficulty, maybe an unexpected joy – you’re each dealing with something.  So how might God be using it to plant the seed of abundance in you?

Trust that God the Sower is at work, trying to use you to bring about a harvest; it’s who God is, it’s what God does.  After all, when God wanted to plant the harvest of mercy and redemption and forgiveness for all of humanity, the seed he planted was the single, solitary seed of his son.  You and I are here this morning because we are part of the harvest of grace that grew as a result.

God the Sower continues his work, and he uses you to do it.  Where might God be casting a seed of abundance in you, and then where might he be casting you as a seed of forgiveness, of mercy, of peace, of hope, of encouragement?  Let anyone with ears, listen.

Amen.