The Rev. Carol S. Wedell
July 13, 2008

If you asked any of us who went on the recent mission trip to West Virginia which person we'll most remember, the answer will be unanimous:  Ms. Patty.  (I knew she would be making her way into a number of sermons - I just didn't know that it would be so soon!). Ms. Patty was in charge of the kitchen.  When we first arrived, the woman who greeted us made Ms. Patty sound a little scary - "You don't mess with Ms. Patty!"  In fact, the first morning, CJ and I went out together to meet her - unsure what we had gotten ourselves into.

As it turned out, Ms. Patty was remarkable.  Only one thing really made her mad -and you would definitely hear about it!  As the one responsible for feeding nearly 100 people both breakfast and lunch, Ms. Patty simply could not - would not tolerate waste.  Wastefulness was unthinkable when it might mean the difference between a child going hungry or not. 

So Ms. Patty encouraged the mentors and adults at the tables to have the children take a small portion first, and have more if they finished the first serving.  There was always an adequate amount of food - she just didn't want to see it go down the garbage disposal. 

She watched the kitchen crew like a hawk, to make sure that nothing was unnecessarily put down the sink or dropped on the floor.  The old saying, "Waste not, want not," could easily have originated from Ms. Patty. 

For many of our youth, this may have been the first time that anyone had been so adamant about avoiding wastefulness. For others, it would sound much like home, or definitely like their grandparent's homes!  Those who lived through the depression, as did my in-laws, who recently moved, saved everything - because you never knew when you might need it.  Nothing should go to waste.

Whether being a member of "the clean plate club," conserving gasoline, turning off lights when you leave the room, turning the water off while you brush your teeth or recycling everything possible, even those of us who have more than enough readily buy into the wisdom of avoiding wastefulness.  It just makes sense.  Why would anyone purposefully be wasteful?  It sounds like incredibly poor stewardship of what has been entrusted to us.  We consider it a compliment if someone says that we made good use of the resources we have.

Then this morning we are greeted with a familiar parable from the gospel of Matthew.  We'll spend the next several weeks looking at passages which many of us have heard numerous times.  The challenge, of course, is to listen, really listen, so that something new may grab our attention, and let us hear God's voice in a new way.

Jesus spoke in parables so that he could take something familiar to the audience and turn it around in such a way that it surprised them to make his point.  Parables are supposed to catch us off guard and encourage us to see something we think we know in a new way.  So what of this familiar parable of the sower?

Countless sermons have been preached on this text, and I would guess that a good many of them have focused on the soil.  Think of the musical, Godspell.  As the parable is acted out, we watch as the birds snatch up the seed that is sown on the path, as the quickly sprouting seed in the rocks withers from lack of nutritious soil, or the seed that grows, but is quickly diverted by the lure of better things. Three out of the four places that the seeds fall produce no return - no growth.  It's not surprising that nothing grew there.  What's surprising is that the sower chose to let the seeds fly in those directions.

In subtle and not so subtle ways, we are asked, "what kind of soil are you?"  Are you good soil?  Am I good soil?  I don't mind it so much when I can decide that you might not make it, but what about me?  Do I measure up?  What do I need to do to become the kind of soil God wants?

Which, when you stop to think about it, is a rather strange question!  Soil doesn't have the capacity to change its character. It is what it is.  What if this parable isn't about the soil, but about the sower?   What if this parable isn't about us, but about God?   Matthew begins the story, "Listen!  A sower went out to sow." OK, so far so good.  This would be a familiar scene to Jesus' audience.

Now you should understand that in Jesus' day, the process of sowing seeds was done differently than we would go about it today.  The seed was spread first and then the soil was tilled. 

However, that still doesn't mean that a farmer would be unnecessarily wasteful!  He wouldn't scatter seed in places where there was no hope of it growing.  Seed was precious, a valuable commodity.  He would no more have spread seed on the path, than we would throw grass seed on our parking lot.  Operating under standard principles, we would assume that the farmer would be very careful with those seeds - he wouldn't just sling them anywhere.

Here comes the first surprise.  This farmer is totally reckless when it comes to sowing seed.  He throws it anywhere and everywhere, with no concern for the likelihood of whether or not it will take root and grow.

Using the image of the Sower, Jesus paints a portrait of God - a picture that demonstrates the extravagant generosity of God. God casts the seeds of the Kingdom in every direction.  And as practical people, we may stop and think that maybe God is being a bit too generous here.  This doesn't make sense.  It's wasteful.

Why is God, the great sower, not more selective about where seeds are thrown?   Birds swoop down and devour the seed. Thorns choke the seed. The sun scorches and bakes it dry. Why not choose places that have a greater likelihood of growth?   Isn't that what we do when we consider "planting" a new church?  We look at the neighborhood, we calculate our odds, we evaluate "the soil," to see if this is the best location, "our kind of people" live there!  And, yet, God just continues to throw the seeds of grace and love in all directions, totally disregarding common sense.

The picture that Jesus offers us is of a God who would never think to hold back, to be selective, to wait for the right place and time.  Rather, God is reckless - wasteful in the way these seeds are thrown around.  This is definitely not the way we think things should work.  It's not logical, it's not practical and it's poor stewardship - right? 

No, God chooses to fling the seeds of the kingdom in all kinds of directions, places where the soil looks pretty poor indeed.  Whether in a downtown jail, a wealthy suburb, a half-way house or the local grocery store, the sower finds good soil where none was expected.  And when that happens, the second surprise occurs:  unbelievable results.  Results that would startle any farmer.

Some of the seeds brought forth grain a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty - far beyond anything one might reasonably expect.  With this statement, Jesus totally upsets the apple cart.  If this can happen, who knows what else to expect?  Sowing the word of God in the human heart will bring results that are totally unexpected.

Jill Duffield tells a story about her son when he was not quite two years old.  She and her husband had let him pick out a small treat at a local toy store, and he had chosen a package of soccer ball stickers.  He loved them!  When they got to the playground he wanted to share them with the other kids (another remarkable sower!).  He went from one person to another offering his precious soccer ball stickers.  He was so thrilled with them that he wanted to give them away.  Some pre-school children were equally thrilled and accepted his gift with delight.  School age children had outgrown stickers and walked away from him, far more interested in running or playing on the jungle gym.  A few teenagers were wise enough to know that he really wanted them to have one, and so they politely accepted one, even though they had no interest.  The adults were clueless.  They were insistent that he keep them for himself. 

Jill writes, "As I watched him go from person to person I hurt a little for him when those he approached refused his heart-felt gift.  I noticed, though, that he was undaunted.  He was a little perplexed when they didn't see the value and wonder of the sticker, but he kept on offering it anyway.  He kept on until he had none left but the one he had planted on his own shirt earlier in the day.  When they were all gone, he was delighted - absolutely delighted - pointing out those people and things decorated with his small tokens of care."  (Lectionary Homiletics, Vol. XIX, Number 4, page 61).

This story isn't about us, my friends.  It's about God and how God chooses to spread the good news.  Wasteful.  Reckless.  No assessment of worthiness before seeds of love, grace and mercy are scattered.  Seeds thrown around even if the soil doesn't appear to be receptive.  In what may seem to be the height of inefficiency, the reign of God breaks in among us in unexpected, miraculous ways, and what we consider to be waste is actually a part of God's work of redemption.

Which got me to thinking about Ms. Patty again.  She never wasted food.  Never.  But she did give away other things with reckless abandon:  compassion, confidence, respect, love.  She looked at high school youth who had given up and saw possibilities that others missed.  The same students that slept through class worked with energy and enthusiasm for Ms. Patty.  She saw someone doing community service instead of jail time as a co-worker, worthy of respect and consideration.  She saw feeding hungry children not as a worthless endeavor, since the cycle never seemed to end, but as a worthy calling.  Besides her own children, she raised several others who seemed to come her way - working three jobs to make ends meet.  She understood in the most profound way, that it wasn't about her - but about giving with extravagance, even if the soil looked a bit questionable.

It seems to me that that kind of extravagant generosity is exactly what this parable is about - and is exactly what Jesus calls each one of us to.  When it comes to love and grace and mercy and forgiveness, wastefulness is what it is all about.