Wasted Seed
St Mary’s Linton 16th July 2017 Trinity 5 Proper 10Ian Fisher
I have sown quite a lot of seeds this year. I am generally very careful trying to give them the best chances of germinating and growing into sturdy plants. Some I have had to soak before planting, others have needed to go into a propagator to ensure the right temperature for germination. Not all the seeds I have sown have been entirely successful but most have so my cucumbers, courgettes beetroot, broccoli beans and salads have all done very well this year. In all cases I have taken care with the sowing and planting on. I haven’t just stood in the garden and thrown the seeds at the ground.
Those of you who went on the farm tour yesterday will have seen the extent that modern farmer go to ensure that there is no waste of seed or other inputs, fertilizer or water. Their combine harvesters have GPS and continuously record the yield. Drones are used to overfly the crops and photograph the crops at various spectral wavelengths and so pick up an deficiencies or problems there might be. Results are sent to estate computers where they can be collated and analysed.
The care taken by the modern farmer and the care I take sowing seeds are in marked contrast to the sower in today’s story.
The sower is not particularly careful about how he is sowing his seeds. Yes the systems of farming in those days were different you may have heard that the general practice in the middle East at that time was to sow the seed and then plough it in, hence why the sower doesn’t know where the good soil is. There is no evidence that such a practice ever took place. No! The explanation of the seed landing all over the place is because the sower, even by standards of his day, wasn’t very good.
Walking up and down the field he reaches into his bag of seed and just flings it wherever. The original hearers of the parable would have readily recognized the setting, they would, though, have been slightly surprised by the seeming waste of seed, this sower didn’t seem to have selected a particularly good piece of land, he isn’t very careful where he’s throwing the seed, he doesn’t try and avoid the Rocks or the Path or the Weeds.
When you hear this parable we are often prompted by the explanation to think about the different kinds of soil what it might mean to be path or rock or thorny grown how we can avoid having the word plucked from us, or being shallow rooted or being throttled by the cares of the world and instead be thegood soil yielding abundant fruit.
But I don’t want to think about it that way today. I want you to think about it from the point of view of the sower and not the soil. Well it is the parable of the sower and not the parable of the seed or the soil. It is also generally considered that the interpretation of the different kinds of soil was an interpretation added by the early church.
So a sower goes out to sow.
With the fields sown, the sower stands back and watches. First the birds come down and peck up the seed on the path – what a waste. Then some of the seed sprouts but almost immediately witheraway, more waste. Then some more springs up but is choked by weeds more waste. Perhaps the sower ought to give up he’s clearly not very good or the fields a total waste of time. But then the good soil brings forth a crop and what a crop 100 fold 50 fold 30 fold. Having heard about such a bad sower the hearers would have been astounded at the abundance of the crop
It was some crop, it was extraordinary. My books tell me that at that time 10 times would have been excellent 7.5 timeswas normal but 30 50 or a hundred. The crop far outweighs any seed that was wasted on the other ground.
What Jesus is telling us is that that is how God works. The seeds of his kingdom are scattered all over on good soil and bad soil alike, God doesn’t pick and choose between people he gives everybody the same opportunity. Yes some comes to nothing but what takes root and grows produces a phenomenal crop.
God doesn’t give up because some of the seed goes to waste. What’s more he come back year after year to sow more seeds and raise more crops. God knows that in the end there will be a bumper crop
If God doesn’t give up then neither should we. The efforts we make to tell people about Jesus and to live the Christian life may seem to come to nothing but if we persevere if we keep sowing the seed the harvest will come and that harvest will far outweigh the effort that went into the sowing.
Also when we tell people about God, we shouldn’t be picky, thinking that they’re not the right sort of people. They’re not worth bothering with; they weren’t interested when we tried before;talking to them would be a waste of time. No the example that Jesus gives us in the parable of the sower is that if we spread the seed wide enough the crop will outweigh any waste.
But any way do we really know where the Good soil is?
Amen
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