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Extravagance
Cultivating Kingdom Values - Part 1
Sunday, July 12, 2020
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
He said many things to them in parables: “A farmer went out to scatter seed…”
Matthew 13:3
Jesus said many things in parables. Most of these parables speak to the nature of the Kingdom of God, the very Kingdom Jesus taught us to pray for to “come on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The problem, if we’re honest, is that while these parables may make perfect sense in God’s Kingdom, many of them do not make sense in our earthly kingdoms. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). If it was at hand over 2,000 years ago, surely it is at hand now. The Kingdom of God is not some far away reality beyond the crystal sea. Perhaps what Jesus is offering us is not a “how-to manual” in building the Kingdom, but rather a new set of lenses through which to see God’s presence in our midst, here and now.
Let’s consider first this “Parable of the Soils,” as it is commonly called. Any of us who have spent much time in church have probably listened to the sermon or the Sunday school lesson where we examine our own lives in terms of the various soils. Is our heart like the path where the “birds” come and snatch the Word of God away from us or are we filled with weeds on the inside that choke out the power of God’s Word to transform our lives? Or perhaps the Word has grown deeply in our hearts for many years but then we hit that desert season where we feel scorched and dried out, longing for just a drop of that living water that once quenched our thirst so easily.
This is all fine and good. We should regularly examine the condition of our own hearts and our receptiveness to God’s Word in our lives. But what if there is more too it than that? What if we need a fresh perspective?
Though deep down we may know that our “soil” is not as fertile as it should be, we rarely like to admit it. Instead we look around at the “soil” of others and begin to make comparisons. Well, my garden might have a few weeds, but my neighbors yard is so dried up there is barely any grass growing at all. At least I’m doing better than them. This comparison is indeed a dangerous game, and it leads us to one of the most dangerous sins of all: the sin of pride.
Let’s turn the lens just a little further for still another perspective. What happens when God calls us to sow the seed of the Word which we have been given? Do we hoard it for ourselves, thankful that we have received the Word of salvation when so many others have not, or are we generous in scattering that Word beyond ourselves and our little church shaped gardens? And if we do go out beyond the walls of our church shaped gardens to sow a little seed, with what spirit do we go? Do we sow generously as the farmer did, or do we first evaluate the various types of soil we see in others and choose carefully where we will and will not plant the seed God has so graciously given us? Do we hold back the seed of the Word from those we deem “unworthy” to receive it?
So often we think we are wiser than the farmer in this parable. We know better than to waste good seed on the dry or thorny ground. We are careful not to drop any along the path. We want to guarantee that all of our seed will produce good fruit, and what better way to achieve this goal than by only planting in good soil.
There’s only one problem. We are not wiser than the farmer. What may seem like bad soil to us might be just right for God to till and nurture and grow something wonderful and what looks like fertile soil to us might just be a thin layer of topsoil covering a landscape of rocks or hardened clay.
While we must continue to keep our own soil fertile to receive the fresh seed of God’s word every day, perhaps we should be far less particular about the soil in the lives of others. Instead, let us sow extravagantly like the farmer. Let us carry with us seed-bags filled with holes that the seed might drop where it may and bloom wherever God sees fit. God has given us more than enough seed to sow, but if we hoard it for ourselves or allow our pride to determine where we will or will not plant, we may find that our own soil is not as fertile as we thought after all.
Listen to this week’s sermon here: