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That We Good Soil May Be Text:
Matthew 13:1-9 Lord, plow the trodden way, And clear the stone away; Tear out the weed and sow the seed. Prepare our hearts your Word to heed That we good soil may be. Begin, O Lord, with me! [LW 338:3]
Matthew chapter 13 records seven parables of Jesus. No less than one-third of the recorded teachings of Jesus consist of parables. Interestingly, parables are at once simple and yet confounding, at the same time clear and yet confusing. They both reveal and conceal. The difference is that understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven is given to the disciples, but to those who reject Jesus as the Christ, it is not given. The parables are therefore at once an act of grace for believers but of judgment for unbelievers. The difference between those who “get it” and those who don't is not in the words themselves but in the Word Himself, namely, Jesus, the Son of God. That is, the difference is not in the outward hearing and receiving of our ears and processing of our mind but in the inward perception of a relationship of faith in Jesus or the rejection of his words by unbelief.
As the hymn says, let us preface our hearing of this parable first by plowing the trodden way, clearing the stone away, tearing out the weed, preparing our hearts That We Good Soil May be. That is, let's state first what the words of these parables do not say or mean. The purpose of the parable of the sower is to show what happens when the Word of God is proclaimed. The Word of God has power in and of itself. The seed is sown. And yet the results differ resulting from whether it falls on hard, compacted soil, thin, rocky soil, surrounded by weeds and thistles or well-tilled and receptive soil. But my sermon title may be a little misleading, for the point of the parable is not to test the soil in order to sow the seed only where it might be the most productive. The Church in her preaching is not to adopt the business model of seeking out only those who we think will be the most receptive. This is to fall into the error called “synergism,” the idea that there is something in some hearers that makes them more receptive than others. It stands in scripture, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23 (ESV)]. Because of inherited sin and separation from God all men are spiritually blind, dead and at enmity with God. It is only when we realize and admit our total helplessness and ungodliness that we can discover that salvation is totally God's work, for it is “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” [Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)]. The sower sows liberally on all kinds of soil, and the seed of the Word has the power even to turn bad soil into good.
A second error concerns the unbiblical teaching called “double predestination,” that is, the unbiblical idea that some people are predestined to be saved and some predestined for damnation. For this false teaching implies that the seed of God's Word is somehow at fault. Yet Isaiah wrote, the Word of God is always effective—“so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” [Isaiah 55:11 (ESV)]. God so loved the whole world, not just a portion of it that he sent his only Son. For it stands in scripture that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” [1 Timothy 2:4 (ESV)].
The goal of the parable of the Sower is to sow the seed of the kingdom in hearers' ears so that, by God's grace, they may “understand” and come to an ever-closer relationship with Jesus our Savior, while warning them of that which stifles or hinders growth and offering encouragement and confidence in the Word—confidence in the Word!—as they face those who reject it.
The disciples saw how many reject Jesus and his Word. Maybe they were impressed with the “great crowds gathered about him” that day by the sea. How could they not be? Yet the time was coming when all would reject him and leave him. Think of the glaring contrast between the cheers and hosannas with which he was received when he entered Jerusalem for the last time and his total rejection just a few days later. Among the religious leaders of the day all of them would end up rejecting Jesus—most out rightly, a few only by their silent, maybe agonizing consent to the majority. The parable of the sower is meant to strengthen and to warn Jesus' disciples. What they and we need to remember is that the sower is always God Himself; the seed is nothing more nor less than the Word of God. God is active in the sowing and in the growing. The Word works faith in the hearts of many and produces amazing growth in God's kingdom of grace even as it hardens unbelievers in their unbelief.
Now the kingdom of God has come to you. The seed was planted in you in your Holy Baptism. The Word of God breaks up our cold, stony hearts and makes us good soil where the seed of the Gospel is sown and faith in Jesus Christ grows. It is to you that it is given to understand both the encouragement and the warning of this parable. Like the birds of the air coming and taking some of the seed for food, “the evil one,” Satan, the devil is always trying to steal away the seed of God's Word from you. He tries to do this by everything from creating doubt of God's Word in your mind to simply convincing you that God's Word is boring and dulling your hearing or, better yet, keeping you away from hearing the Word all together. Like the scorching sun or the noxious weeds the evil one will use troubles and persecution, worries and even riches to steal you away.
The faith that God has given you and that God continues to strengthen and preserve in you sees the bigger picture, however, recognizes the attacks of the devil and drives you not away but ever closer and ever deeper into God's Word which is our only offensive weapon against the attacks and allurements of the devil, the world and our sinful flesh. The Rite of Confirmation is not intended as a one-time event as is the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Every day faith makes confirmation of the truth of God's Word and of personal commitment to remain and abide in the Word of Christ, “knowing” by faith that it is in this way that God continues to be at work in your heart “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” [Phil. 2:12-13 (ESV)].
The example of the first disciples shows that the life of faith is a constant struggle. They exhibited occasional bright flashes of faith and commitment. More often, however, they demonstrated lack of faith even denying their Lord, abandoning him in his darkest hour on the cross. The Good News is that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It was in the very midst of our denials and faithlessness that Jesus brought forth the forgiveness of our sin, including the sin of faithlessness, by the shedding of his blood for us and for the life of the world. It is this unmerited, undeserved, un-asked-for gift of forgiveness that has the amazing power to till and clear our hard and stony hearts, to tear our the weeds and overgrowth of worries, to sow the seed and give saving faith that issues forth in great thanksgiving to God our Savior.
It was after Pentecost when the Spirit of truth gave those first fledgling disciples the power in great joy to become sowers of the Word themselves. The sower is still God himself, but he sows his Word through the witness of the apostles and the confession of the Word through each and every member of the Church. The book of Acts is the record of how the seed of the Word of God yielded amazing results as the disciples bore witness in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Somehow the seed they sowed there was reproduced through the centuries and over the continents to include you and me today.
Now we too find ourselves to be not only faithful hearers of the Word but also sowers as we bring the saving Word to others. How do we do that? Certainly we bring that Word to our own children as of first importance. Then we also are to be active in supporting the public proclamation of the Word and the administration of the sacraments through our congregation. Then there is the interesting drama of sowing the seed of God's Word in others in our day-to-day life. All along the way we are not to become disheartened by the temptations of the devil, the world, and the flesh because the powerful, mighty Word of Christ dwells in you richly.
This is the key to the future of St. Mark's congregation—every member becoming more knowledgeable, falling more and more in love with the beautiful, pure doctrine of this Seed, the Word of God, so as to be not only able but driven to share it with others, to sow that seed in the hearts of others. God provides the growth and amazing growth it is. We look forward to God's rich blessings as we reach out through our Lutheran preschool. Look forward also to God's blessings of your testimony and confession of faith in the ears of those with whom you come into contact. Keep receiving and delving into the Word yourself that the Spirit of truth may enliven your heart to be a sower of the Word. For our confidence is as St. Peter wrote, “you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. …the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you” [1 Peter 1:22-25 (ESV)]. May it be our prayer: Prepare our hearts your Word to heed That we good soil may be. Begin, O Lord, with me! [LW 338:3]___________________
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