Daily Lectionary: Gen. 11:27-12:20, Mark 4:1-20 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. This Gospel text tends to cause a lot of navel-gazing. It makes us look at ourselves too much; and sometimes, we use this text to judge others, too. We try too hard to figure out which kind of soil we (and the people around us) are. We look too much at ourselves and others and forget the whole point of what is happening here at the very heart of the text. So, let’s focus on the sower. 

Today’s farmers are very meticulous. Soil analysis, moisture content, drainage, nutrient levels—these all contribute to a successful harvest. The sower seems a bit foolish when you look at things that way. We are all about harvesting the most produce with the least amount of input. But the sower is just foolish. 

He throws the seed all over the place, flinging it all over the ground with not the least bit of care as to where it lands. Sure, he ultimately gets a good crop that produces thirty, sixty, and a hundred times more than he planted, but what about the wasted seed? 

What about it, indeed? Later, Jesus says this seed is the Word of God, and the types of soil reflect the types of people who hear it. Yes, it is imperative to be the soil in which the Word grows, but you didn’t make yourself that good soil, did you? The Sower has already plowed and prepared that soil to receive the Word. 

Isaiah proclaims that God’s Word never returns to him empty; it always accomplishes what He sets out to do. So also with you. God’s Word has been landing in the soil of your ears for years. The Holy Spirit has been at work, creating and sustaining your faith. Plowing and turning the ‘soil’ within you so that you might reflect that faith to those around you. 

The Word of God will continue to be scattered upon the earth, and there will be places and times when it lands on the road, between rocks, or among thorns. Thanks be to God that he, by the power of that same Word, can change even those hostile places into fertile ground to produce saving faith in the most unlikely places! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.