Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23
Every year…the national Future Farmers of America meets to announce the FAA’s “Star Farmer” award…given to only one of thousands of entrants.
- Last year…the honor went to Peter Bliss of Merced (Mer- ‘said), California.
- Bliss was honored for his 417-acre project farm…growing crops such as cotton…almonds and wheat.
- When he started the farm…he had only 30 acres he inherited from his grandfather.
- Young people like Bliss are crucial to the U.S. economy.
- It’s a well-known truth: No farmer…no food…no future.
Non-farmers tend to romanticize the farming life.
- But farming is not just about cows and plows.
- The hours are long and involve manual labor.
- Fields need to be plowed…crops must be sown and irrigation pipe needs to be moved.
- Crops are vulnerable to any number of diseases and might be ravaged by pests.
- Farmers are at the mercy of natural elements.
- One hailstorm can ruin a season.
- And if the crops survive disease…pestilence…drought and natural disasters…
- There is often only a small window for harvesting.
Then there are the animals:
- They need help coming into this world.
- They must be fed and medicated.
- Nursed and treated and given pasture.
Farming requires the patience of Job.
- Crops do not appear magically overnight.
- Jesus said: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies…it remains just a single grain…but if it dies…it bears much fruit.”
So…every farmer knows that if the mud’s not flyin’…you’re not tryin’.
- And the work is never done.
- Yet…despite the long hours and arduous work…most farmers would not leave the farm.
- For them T.G.I.F. is short for “Thank God I Farm.”
It is likely that the people who gathered around Jesus on the northern slopes of the Sea of Galilee were either farmers on break…
- Or people connected in some way to agriculture.
- 90% of the people in the ancient world earned their living by working the land.
- Galilee was no exception.
- This was an agrarian culture.
- And although many parts of Palestine were difficult to farm…much of Galilee was fertile and flat.
When Jesus spoke to the people…he told stories.
- And on this occasion…he probably saw a farmer sowing a crop of barley.
- Although Jesus grew up in a carpenter and stone mason’s shop…
- He knew farmers and he knew farming.
- The evidence for this is scripture itself.
- In fact…Jesus was so knowledgeable about agribusiness…he could have developed a college syllabus for farming.
- The syllabus is at the end of this worship text.
Jesus’ parable is a lesson about what plagues most of us:
- Developing the skill of managing the process.
- Initiating the production.
- Managing production and completing the task.
- Or…Jesus would have put it this way:
- Sowing…growing and mowing.
- The seed…the soil…the harvest.
A teacher at an elementary school asked her students to write an essay about what they would like to be.
- At home that evening…while grading the essays…the teacher read one student’s essay that made her start to cry.
Her husband walked in just at that moment.
- “What’s wrong?”
- “Read this. It’s one of my students’ essays.”
Her husband sat down and read:
- “I would like to be a television set.
- I want to take its place and live like the TV in my house.
- I would have my own special place.
- And have my family around me.
- They would take me seriously when I talk.
- I would be the center of attention and people would listen to me without interruption or questions.
“I want to get the same special care the TV set receives even when it is not working.
- I would have the company of my dad when he arrives home from work…even when he is tired.
- And I want my mom to want me when she is sad and upset instead of ignoring me.
- And I want my brothers to fight to be with me.
“I want my family to just leave everything aside…every now and then…just to spend some time with me.
- And last but not least…I want them all to be happy and entertain them.
- I just want to live like a TV.”
The husband looked up.
- “That poor kid. What horrible parents!”
The wife looked at him and said:
- “That essay is our son’s.”
This mom and dad discovered…to their dismay…
- That the love and relationship they are trying to nurture in their home is being choked.
- Choked by the thorns of so many hours in front of the television.
- And withering by a lack of attention and care for one another.
Today…Jesus reminds us to model the sower of today’s Gospel within our own homes and households.
- To sow seeds of encouragement.
- To sow seeds of joy.
- To sow seeds of reconciliation.
- To sow seeds in the earth of our own gardens.
Today…Jesus is asking us to do the patient work of realizing the harvest God has promised.
- Today…Jesus is asking us to trust and believe that our simplest acts of kindness and forgiveness may help the seed that recreates and transforms us.
- Today…Jesus is asking us to trust and believe that our humblest offers of help and affirmation may be the seed that re-creates and transforms our homes and hearts.
Jesus was so knowledgeable about agribusiness, he could have developed a college syllabus for farming, and it might’ve look like this:
- Farming 101: How to Plant Crops — Matthew 13
- Farming 102: How to Control the Weeds Among the Wheat — Matthew 13:24-30
- Farming 103: The Care and Feeding of Sheep — Matthew 18:10-14; Luke 15:1-7; John 10:1-18
- Farming 201: How to Tend a Vineyard — John 15:1-11
- Farming 202: Managing Human Resources — Matthew 20:1-16; Matthew 21:28-45
- Farming 301: The Care and Feeding of Shrubs and Trees — Matthew 24:32-35; Mark 4:30-34; 13:28-33; Luke 13:6-9
- Farming 401: Thinking Outside the Barn — Luke 12:16-21; Matthew 10:16; Luke 16:8-9