There is a well-known parable where Jesus talks about seeds thrown in wild abandon. Seeds thrown randomly, haphazardly, you could almost say carelessly … some seeds tossed upon a path, some seeds on rocky ground, some seeds among thorns and other seeds on so-called “good soil.” (To read the whole parable, go to Matthew 13:1-9, Mark 4:2-9, Luke 8:4-8.)
In the parable there is extravagance, luxury, lavishness. Truth be told, it is terrible farming. But if you take out what we all know about farming techniques, the throwing of seeds in this parable is unfathomable and incomprehensible and beautiful to behold.
And yet … so often we want to tame the throwing of seeds. We want to make straight lines and uniform rows. We want organization and structure. We might want new things to grow, but we want them to be what we want. Perhaps newish … but not new. Undergirding it all, I think we want control over this seed thing.
But this isn’t how the Spirit works.
Instead, as we hear in this parable, God’s seed-throwing is all about possibility and energy and the extravagance of God. This parable is about the wildness of God’s Spirit. The Sower is throwing out seeds with abandon so that something may develop, sprout, and grow – something unexpected, something astonishing.
This, of course, doesn’t mean we cast aside everything already growing. Not at all. Nowhere in this parable does it say that the plants already rooted must be cleared before new seeds can be sown. There are deep-rooted plants already flourishing in God’s Garden. These plants have lived through trials and joys and still bear fruit. They need to be watered and tended. They deserve our care, our gratitude, our celebration. The new seeds being scattered don’t replace what is planted. Instead, they add to the texture and beauty of God’s Garden. Old and new. Rooted and scattered. This parable reminds us that God’s Garden is not static—it’s alive, growing, evolving.
Of course, some seeds that have been thrown have not always taken root. As the parable says – some seeds fall on rocky ground, other seeds land on thorns. There have been experiments that started with high hopes that ended sooner than we would like. There were perhaps disagreements or different ways of doing things. It is true that what works in one section of God’s Garden doesn’t necessarily work in others.
But this is why we plant and trust and sow and dig in the dirt. This is why we trust this Sower sowing seeds. For God’s Garden is founded not on the quality of soil but on the lavishness of God the Sower through the Spirit.
When I hear this parable, I celebrate the many different ways that we are living into and sharing God’s love and grace in this synod – in ways that the saints before us would recognize and cherish, and in ways they might never have imagined. I invite you to pause for a moment and think of the place and space where you are promised forgiveness and new life, where you receive the body and blood of Jesus, where you hear the proclamation of grace through faith, where you have holy community. What are some ways that you are deeply rooted? What are some ways that seeds of new possibilities are being planted? What are seeds that are in the wind right now but haven’t landed yet? When you think of the broader community where you live – what is your congregation called to in partnership and imagination? How is the Sower throwing seeds of God’s love and grace where you live and move and breathe?
In the Northwest Washington Synod, let us rejoice in this time when old and new things come together. Now is the time that the Spirit is opening us up to new possibilities. Now is the time for listening and collaboration and being in community. Now is the time when we both hold that which we already love and, at the same time, open our hands in order to receive other gifts of promise and wonder.
The dirt, the soil that we are becomes holy ground when God is present. God’s seeds of grace fall indiscriminately into the lives of all God’s children, into the rocky, thorny, barren and fertile soil of our lives and ministries. The outcome of this gracious sowing cannot be known immediately. One never knows what may come of decadent grace. And yet, day by day, the Sower sows in wild graciousness. And we receive. Together.
Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee | bishop@lutheransnw.org
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