Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 12, 2020 - 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Isa 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Matt 13:1-23]"A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirty fold. Whoever has ears ought to hear." [Matthew]
I wonder what Jesus and his contemporaries would have thought about today's scientific agriculture with planting and harvesting machines guided by GPS! Jesus' audience would have included what are called subsistence/tenant farmers who were trying to live from their crops which they had to share with landowners. The plowing and sowing were not very scientific, as the parable shows. Nevertheless, Jesus' audience would have recognized how the agricultural image worked with preaching the gospel. If we can suspend our images of row crops and big machines, and maybe think of our own small gardens, we can benefit. (I don't think I and my religious community could live on what I produce in my little garden!)
The first challenge is for the preacher to recognize that not every effort will be rewarded with success. What is important is that if there is to be food at all, the sower must go out and sow!! The gospel will not sow itself!! All the baptized are called to be sowers. We may be more like Johnny Appleseed and simply throw seed everywhere and never see the results (like my itinerant preaching used to be), or we may be more methodical (as I try to be with my garden).
The second challenge is to see where we fit in the land! What kind of "soil" are we providing for the seed of the gospel? Are we as hard as some of the sunbaked earth that I deal with in my yard here in West Texas? Are we able to receive the seed of the gospel?
The richness of Jesus' image offers us food for thought if we are open to being sowed! AMEN