Growing Faith
Isaiah 55:10-13; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
The Reverend Anne Benefield
Geneva Presbyterian Church, July 13, 2014
Introduction: The first recorded parable of Jesus is “The Parable of the Sower.” It is the only
parable that Jesus explains line by line.
We are awfully far away from the agrarian culture of Jesus’ time, so the clear understanding
of the imagery here is fuzzy for us. One of the important things for us to understand is that fields in
biblical times were not like our fields today which have been prepared by modern machinery with
the crops planted in neat rows.
In those days, the fields were in long strips with paths between them so that people could
pass through. That was important in a culture where everyone walked. Sometimes the Romans
built their roads next to a farmer’s field. Sometimes the land next to the field was allowed to grow
wild; it was full of thorns and weeds. The farmer would cast the seed all over the ground and then
plow it under. In the ancient process of sowing it was impossible not to have some of the seed fall,
or be blown by the wind, onto the different areas.
It is possible that Jesus was watching a farmer sow seed as He told this story, in which Jesus
is represented as the Sower, and the seed is the Word of God. Please note that the seed falls onto
every type of soil without discrimination.
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2Such great
crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd
stood on the beach. [This is a change of direction in Jesus’ ministry. Before this Jesus was teaching in the
synagogue, now He is teaching out in the open, by the sea.
Jesus changes His teaching style, or more accurately begins teaching with parables. He always used pictures
words and images like “salt and light,” “birds and lilies” and the “wise builder and the foolish builder,” but now He
uses full parables.]
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And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And
as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. [Hard-hearted]
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Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up
quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and
since they had no root, they withered away. [Shallow-hearted]
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Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. [Clutter-hearted]
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Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty,
some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!” [Good-hearted]
[Now, we hear Jesus’ sermon as He explains what the parable means.] 18“Hear then the parable of
the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the
evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the
path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and
immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a
while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person
immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the
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word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.
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But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands
it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in
another thirty.”
Prayer: Farmer God, Your words of life are cast upon the earth with a generous hand and a
hopeful heart. May Your word take root in our lives as we grow deeper in Your way and bear the
fruit of justice, righteousness, and love. Amen.
The soil in the parable represents our willingness to hear and respond to the Word of God
as given through Jesus Christ. It’s about how well we listen. Much of the time we are poor listeners.
Franklin Roosevelt often endured long receiving lines at the White House. He complained
that no one really paid any attention to what was said. One day, during a reception, he decided to
try an experiment. To each person who passed down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, “I
murdered my grandmother this morning.” The guests responded with phrases like, “Marvelous!
Keep up the good work. We are proud of you. God bless you, sir.” It was not until the end of the
line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. Nonplussed,
the ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming.”
In the parable of the sower, Jesus talks about four kinds of listeners:
1. The hard-hearted listener
2. The shallow-hearted listener
3. The clutter-hearted listener
4. The good-hearted listener.
Based on Jesus’ sermon, the first question is, “Do we fall into any of these groups?”
Generally speaking, Jesus draws with a broad brush, meaning the separations may not be so clear.
Each of us may fall into a number of categories.
We need to look for the ways the lessons apply to us. We are often so busy that we don’t
even realize we’re not listening. Lee Eclov shares the following true story about a father and his sixyear-old son who attended Reverend Eclov’s church.
The Dad said, “Max! Why didn’t you answer me when I called you?”
Max said, “I didn’t hear you, Dad.”
Dad said, “What do you mean you didn’t hear me?
Max didn’t respond.
Dad asked, “How many times didn’t you hear me?”
Max said, “I don’t know, maybe three or four times.”
On a serious note sometimes we are very shortsighted. We’re neither looking nor listening
for God’s word to us. Our culture encourages emphasis on ourselves, hence the popularities of
“selfies,” but we’ll talk more about selfies in a minute.
There’s an old story about a miserable rich man who went to visit a rabbi. The rabbi took
the rich man by the hand and led him to a window. “Look out there,” he said. The rich man looked
into the street. “What do you see?” asked the rabbi.
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“I see men, women, and children,” answered the rich man.
see?”
Again the rabbi took him by the hand and this time led him to a mirror. “Now what do you
“Now I see myself,” the rich man replied.
Then the rabbi said, “Behold, in the window there is glass, and in the mirror there is glass.
But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver representing wealth. No sooner is the silver
added than you cease to see others, but you see only yourself.”
One of the profound messages of our young people is that they want to serve. They aren’t
interested in hearing sermons. They want to live sermons by serving others. While we in the church
are often spending time judging others as poor listeners – hard-hearted, shallow-hearted or clutterhearted listeners – the young are busy helping others. They are good-hearted listeners.
The second thing this passage tells us to do is to put down roots. We need to build up our
relationships with each other. That is another thing our young people are saying: they want to serve
with friends. They want relationships. Notice that most “selfies” aren’t really “selfies” at all. They
are “us-ies” or “groupies.” They are almost always pictures of friends together, having fun together.
And, make no mistake, having fun together often involves serving together.
Putting down roots means building relationships. At Geneva we are working to build
intergenerational and multi-ethnic relationships. The Christian church was the first religion to take
in people of all different nationalities and traditions, to be inclusive. While taking in people from all
different cultures, the early church took care of ailing strangers they found on the streets, too.
We often think that what Mother Teresa did was extraordinary and it was, but she was not
really doing something new, she was following the practices of the ancient Christian church. We do
a great job of taking care of our own but we don’t go out onto the streets and bring people home
with us.
The third thing we need to do is to make ourselves fertile for the Word of God. We’ve got
to pull up the weeds that take our time and resources away from living our faith. We live in a culture
where we are encouraged to think of ourselves first. We are encouraged to focus on wealth,
prestige, and appearances, but those things are like weeds. They will grow and grow until they take
over our lives.
To make ourselves fertile for the word, I think we need to become warm-hearted listeners,
readers, and communicators. I’d like to challenge you to look differently at the news, our neighbors,
and strangers. I suggest that in every story we hear and every person we meet, we look beyond the
obvious into the soul of the situation.
Let me explain: Say you see a story about people whose homes have been destroyed by a
hurricane, tornado, flood, or storm. Now instead of just realizing the tragedy of the situation, think
about people in our community who may not have homes. We tend to blame people who are
homeless. What if instead we stopped judging and became compassionate. What might we do to
ease the pain of a person or family suffering homelessness? Could we visit a homeless center and
make friends with a resident? We are so often “doing” when the thing most needed is listening –
warmhearted listening.
There is a powerful prison ministry at the St. James Episcopal Church. Each volunteer –
these are all lay people – is taught the Stephen Ministry approach to caring for others. After
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finishing the course, the parishioner is assigned a prisoner at the detention center just up on
Montrose Road.
The parishioner and prisoner meet together weekly, building a strong personal relationship.
That relationship doesn’t stop when the prisoner is released. Actually, when the prisoner is released,
the relationship becomes even more important. As the released prisoner returns to the outside
world, their friend helps the prisoner find work and housing. The program is hugely successful at
keeping former convicts from returning to prison.
The parishioner and the prisoner make themselves fertile soil for the Word of the Lord.
Together they grow in faith.
The story of the sower tells of abundant possibilities, but to yield one hundredfold, sixtyfold,
or even thirtyfold, we have to create in ourselves space for the Word. There is much we need to do,
so let us get tilling the soil of our souls. Amen.
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