Pastor Detweiler’s sermon from Sunday, July 13:

"With faith, hope and patience, we can harvest the word of God."

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Is 55:1-10

In my family everyone had large vegetable gardens and carrots were a staple of them. One uncle, though, had very rocky soil – big rocks and little stones everywhere. (After plowing each spring we had to walk back and forth over the fields and pick up the latest crop of stones that the previous winter had pushed up from China.) He grew carrots anyway. They were the most unusually shaped carrots – they looked nothing like what we buy in the store except that they were orange mostly: they were brown where the dirt clung to their twists and turns and crevices from growing around the stony obstacles in the soil. They were impossible to peel without peeling away half of the carrot.

A few years ago I was given lots of these as a gift during a visit. I brought them home thinking they were useless – they were thick and woody and twisted this way and that. But Debra had an idea for using them: peel them as best I could, then use the slicing blade on the Cuisinart and freeze them. It worked! They actually tasted sweet, and when sliced thinly and cooked they were edible. Even rocky soil could produce a worthwhile harvest!

The parable in today’s gospel is about apparent waste and failure but ultimate success: there are four verses about failure but only one of success. It was the immense size and value of the harvest that made the risk of failure among rocks, thorns and the path worthwhile. It is a comment on the importance of Jesus’ ministry that also produced what seemed like a lot of failure and very little success.

The frustrations of Jesus’ ministry are recounted in this parable of the sower. Jesus was sowing the seed of God’s word – the good news of God’s coming kingdom, God’s reign that will be perfect and eternal, unlike all other rules and kingdoms.

Some ignored Jesus and his message of God’s coming kingdom. Some were intrigued and interested at first, but lost interest quickly, especially when Jesus was opposed by the religious authorities and there was conflict. Some believed, but the requirements of discipleship were too strenuous: they couldn’t give up their control of their money, or privilege, or power, or family. Some were just too busy with other things and commitments. Only a few followed him, but Jesus was confident that through their faithfulness God’s kingdom would triumph – there would be an abundant harvest for the word of God.

It takes a mixture of faith, hope and patience to continue working toward a harvest that can seem distant or too small. I’ve been impressed over the last 10 years by the faith, patience and persistence of Bono, the leader of the rock group U2, in pursuing debt relief for the poorest African countries, including Tanzania. At the beginning it seemed to me a hopeless cause, but Bono kept flying here from his native Ireland several times a year to meet with and lobby Jesse Helms, the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and promoting the issue with the sale of white wristbands. I don’t think Helms was impressed by Bono’s stardom, but he was impressed by Bono’s Christian faith which was the motivation for his interest in this issue of international justice.

The fruit of his efforts came in the agreement from the G8 summit meeting three years ago to provide debt relief for the poorest African nations. A lot of seeds were planted, watered and only now years later hopefully they will bear fruit. It is this kind of faith, hope and patience that Jesus is teaching about with the parable of the sower.

This parable has quite a bit to say to congregations. We sow a lot of seed for the word of God – baptisms, weddings, confirmations, Sunday school, contacts with visitors – but the harvest is much smaller – some respond with interest in the Lord of all shown through regular worship and many do not.

The parable tells us that part of the problem is expecting that all the seeds will sprout and grow. Jesus warned us that not all the seeds of the word – not even most of them – will grow and produce fruit. Some will fall along the path and be trampled. Some will fall among the weeds and be choked. Some will fall on rocky soil and wither as soon as they sprout. But God will produce an abundant harvest anyway. He does it in and through us – his Church – but he does it one seed at a time.

The question this parable raises is: What kind of soil are we? Is the word of God taking root and growing in us? Are we tending and watering the seeds we have sown or have been sown in us? It would be nice if every seed grew, if every person who visited joined, all the inactive people returned to regular worship, and everyone sought to serve God.

Jesus does not promise that it will be that way. Remember, the parable contains four verses of failure and only one of success. Instead the response is one at a time as the seeds that sprout are watered and tended.

Sometimes the seed sprouts and grows incredibly. Pastor Dave is an illustration of that. As we saw in the video presentation a week ago Wednesday, some of you watched him grow from a child, through teen years, college, working here as a summer intern and eventually to becoming one of your pastors. Along with that we watched his ability as a communicator of the word of God grow and prosper.

What has impressed me about him is his singular focus on how God is at work in and around what others view as negative events, like staff departures. At staff meetings he frequently asked us to consider where God was in the occurrence we were discussing and pressed us not to answer too quickly. He kept reminding us that God is at work in Christ and by his spirit in our lives and in the life of this congregation, so we should seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit in making decisions for ourselves and for FELC.

He was making the point of today’s parable and today’s first lesson: God will accomplish his purposes with or without our help. Many seeds are planted, but only some sprout and grow the way we expect.

That’s how the harvest of the word of God comes about. God sows and waters the seeds through us. God brings an abundant harvest even where we cannot see the possibility. (The carrots may look bad but can still be delicious.) It takes a mixture of faith, hope and patience to continue working toward a harvest that can seem distant or too small.

But God gives the harvest of his word in Christ; he makes the fabulous seed of the kingdom grow among and around us. His word does not return to him empty, but accomplishes his purposes. That’s his promise. Amen.