Once upon a time … When you hear that you kind of perk up. A story is coming. Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she wanted to eat worms. She was tired of struggling all the time, problem after problem. Her father took her to the kitchen where he filled three pots with water and placed each on a burner. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and coffee in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them on a dish. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her, he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she replied. “Touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face. “Father, what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same challenge, the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato was hard and unyielding before, but in boiling water, it became soft and malleable. The egg was fragile originally, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. The coffee reacted differently – it changed the boiling water itself to create something new and wonderful. “Which one are you?” he asked his daughter.
Jesus’s preferred method of teaching was parables – short stories with a punch. He did recite some commandments: Love God with your whole heart and love you neighbor as yourself. He taught some prayers, the “Our Father” the most prominent. He instructed us how to live: turn the other cheek, stop worrying, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But Jesus most often conveyed his message by telling a story, a parable. His disciples asked him “why?” Why parables? Why not a list of dos and don’ts? By using parables Jesus demonstrated that he trusted his listeners, us, to come to an understanding of the underlying truth. Instead of a rule book or a catechism he told stories and left it up to us to complete the parable, to figure them out for ourselves. Knowledge of the mysteries has been granted to you, Jesus tells us, because you are willing to enter into the story, to let the story challenge you, to become changed by the story.
For the next three weeks we will hear from the so-called “sermon in parables,” from Matthew 13. The chapter begins with the parable of the sower. Actually upon closer examination the chapter begins with two parables with different emphases – there is a parable of the sower and there is a parable of the seed. We usually concentrate on the second parable which focuses on the seed. Seeing how the seed develops is, after all, a good way to examine our lives. Do we treat God’s word as precious and try to deepen our understanding of it or do we take it for granted? Like teeth and bullies, a neglected word goes way if you ignore it. Do we receive God’s word with delight but then not nourish it by prayer and spiritual exercises? Do we lose track of God’s word because we are so obsessed by work, by school, by worries, by cares that the word fades in importance in my life? The parable of the seed gives us a lot to think about.
What about the initial parable, the parable of the sower? When you look at it by itself without the second parable, the sower seems kind of foolish, scattering his seed so widely. Why scatter the seed on the path, on the rocks, in the thorns? Why not be more careful and just put the seed where it will do some good? The image suggests that God isn’t stingy, God isn’t measuring out grace. Instead God spreads it hither, thither and yon in the hopes that some of it will bear abundant fruit. To have the same attitude toward the world we must be generous in sharing the love God has given us with all, not just some, of the people woven into our lives. An analogy: think of parents who have several children. Every child is unique. Some are easier to raise than others. Some are more willful than others. Some are more talented than others. But the parents don’t decide as a result of those differences to put all their efforts into just the one child who is easier to raise, or more obedient. Parents don’t write off any of their children but instead work with what God has given them. They sow the seed. They can’t control whether the seed will bear fruit or not. They don’t know if their efforts are going to pay off or not. But no matter what, they scatter the seed of parental affection willy-nilly and hope at least some of it sticks. That is the pattern of the sower that we must imitate in all things. There isn’t any child who isn’t worth our time and energy. There isn’t any generation that we can write off as lost. There isn’t any individual no matter what they have done who doesn’t have a divine destiny. We as hearers of the word must look for those trapped on a rocky road of life, for the thorn choked individual, for the lost and rootless souls who need what we have – the word of God! It is important for us during this time of pandemic to be like the sower and spread around what joy we have, what hope we have, what faith we have, what love we have … and leave the growth to God. Scatter it, spread it, give it away and you’ll end up having more, 30, 60 and 100-fold.