“Seeds Scattered” Orange Congregational Church, July 12, 2026, (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23) Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Today our Gospel text is the Parable of the Sower as found in Matthew’s Gospel.  As we have moved into Ordinary Time this summer the next few weeks will feature some wonderful parables Jesus taught.  Before we get into the specifics of that sower going out to sow, we can recall that parables were central to Jesus’ ministry.  New Testament scholar Arland Hultgren offers a helpful definition of this teaching device that Jesus often used: “a parable is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between God’s kingdom, actions, or expectations and something in this world, real or imagined.”[1] 

We hear Jesus proclaim, “The kingdom of God is like . . .” a seed growing secretly, a mustard seed, leaven, treasure hidden in a field, an expensive pearl, a great banquet.  Jesus is comparing the concept of the Kingdom of God or the Realm of God to everyday ordinary things.  Yes, Jesus was all about parables!

Which brings us to the Parable of the Sower.  Jesus tells this parable where a farmer scatters seeds throughout the field.  Some of the seeds land on the path and the birds eat them right up.  Some of the seeds fall on rocky ground and grow into plants, but then die because they cannot take root.  Some of the seeds fall in with weeds which basically choke them to death.  Finally, some seeds fall on good soil and grow to be tall and strong, yielding a good harvest—some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty!  We are invited to admire the seeds planted in the good soil and wonder about our own faith.  Does our faith have the water, sunlight, depth, space to grow and flourish? 

I realize that we don’t know one another well yet, so as way of background my hometown is Wadsworth, Ohio (my parents still live in Wadsworth).  And my father grew up on a farm outside Wooster, Ohio (Wooster spelled the normal way and not the unhinged Massachusetts way.)  I actually ran a farmstand for family friends every summer all through high school and college and even into seminary.  Anyway, my dad’s family grew corn, wheat, oats, and clover and alfalfa for hay on their land.  In order for these crops to grow, they had to first plow the ground.  Then disc it—level out the furrows, turn the soil over.  And then they would harrow it so that it would be ready to plant.  The soil became so fine that the wind could even blow it around my father once told me.  After all that work was done, the soil was ready for crops.  Though my dad grew up with 73 acres on the farm, some of their land was wooded—probably around 45 acres had to go through this process.  The point is that farming is a process, and if a farmer desires land to yield good crops, there is preparation that must go into the soil itself before a seed even enters the ground.  Given my roots I personally love that the town seal of Orange has that farmer and team of oxen plowing the land.

So all of this to say that it is worth remembering what it takes to farm when we hear Jesus’ Parable of the Sower.  And it just so happens that this particular parable is thought to be one of Jesus’ oldest teachings.  This story is found with some slight variations in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and the Gospel of Thomas.  We can understand the parable as being a word of encouragement Jesus gave to his followers to proclaim the Kingdom of God.  In spite of the seeming failure at times (the seeds not thriving in the pathway, the rocky ground, and the thorns) there would be an abundant harvest in time!  So, keep your head up and keep the faith!  Keep telling and showing people that God is about to do a new thing.  Keep preparing that good soil so that people can receive the message of God’s abiding and abundant love.[2]

The parable begins so simply with “a sower went out to sow” and Jesus rather nonchalantly says “other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain.”[3]  We hear these words and remember that it takes a process to make that soil good.  Perhaps we’ve had moments where we want to explain something to somebody and it seems to fall on deaf ears.  Afterwards we may think to ourselves that we didn’t prepare for that conversation very well.  We could have done some work to make sure the other person could hear what we were trying to say.  The point is the seed couldn’t take root—it was like that seed that just fell along the path and the birds ate it up.

Preparation matters, both in farming and in life.  Sometimes we have to work hard to create that good soil for life to flourish.  Though what if it’s not that simple?  What if this seemingly simple parable isn’t that simple? 

Rev. Martin Copenhaver once wrote a wonderful reflection in a UCC Daily Devotional about this Parable of the Sower. Copenhaver’s reflection stemmed from acting out this parable with children and youth of a church he once served somewhere in Connecticut. The children and their young pastor planted bean seeds beside the road, among rocks, among thorns, and in good, fertile soil in accordance with how Jesus describes the situation.  His plan was that all the seeds would die except the seeds planted in the good soil, bringing home this parable about living into Christ’s message of God’s Realm. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.  In his words, “As the weeks passed, however, I noticed with horror (the children with glee) that the bean planted among the thorns was keeping pace with the bean planted in the good soil.  In four weeks, only one plant remained … the one among the thorns.  It was doing so well that it yielded a handful of beans.  The children thought this was so hilarious they planted one of the beans in a pot and gave it to me as a gift.  Bless their little hearts.”

Copenhaver wanted to teach the lesson of the parable exactly as it was outlined in Matthew’s Gospel.  If you plant anything too shallow or among thorns or among weeds, that plant will not be able to grow and thrive.  However, if you prepare good soil for the plant, well—that plant will grow and grow and grow until you can’t believe your eyes!  But they all ended up learning a different lesson.  In the end Copenhaver reflects, “What I noticed only after attempting to act out the parable is that we cannot know where the rocks are, where the good soil is.  That knowledge is given to God alone.  We simply never know where God’s kingdom is going to take root.  Our job is simply to spread kingdom seeds with something like abandon so they might take root where God sees fit.  There is something wonderfully freeing about knowing that.”[4]

This reflection on the Parable of the Sower has everything to do with all of us.  Because how was Jesus to know that his teachings would stick with some of his followers and not with others?  The preparation had been basically the same for all of them and Jesus worked hard to prep that soil.  Jesus would take the disciples aside and explain his teachings to make sure they got it.  Except sometimes they didn’t.  Or how were the disciples to know that some people in those early crowds would find truth and meaning in their words and others would not?  The disciples ended up just spreading the seeds of the faith with abandon in some cases, hoping and praying that they would take root.

And isn’t this exactly what we are called to do?  We reach out to people.  We preach and teach.  We learn and grow.  We baptize and bless.  We share joys and struggles.  We welcome and see visions and dream dreams.  We glorify God and give thanks for this community of faith.  We spread our kingdom seeds with abandon and hope in our hearts, filled with the love of God and the presence of the Spirit to make this world a better place.

Here’s the thing though—no matter the amount of careful preparation we do, some of the seeds will not take root.  There is some variability in the parable, right?  Even the seeds planted in the good soil yield thirty or sixty or a hundredfold, it wasn’t all the same!  And other seeds even planted among the thorns or the weeds may grow and flourish against all odds as those children discovered. 

We can’t know exactly the impact of our loving actions in Christ’s name.  We won’t always know the difference that a kind word or action makes to a person who is struggling. But isn’t that rather liberating?  We do our best.  We still prepare.  We pray for those seeds to take root and grow.  We scatter love with hope and abandon, leaving the rest up to God.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1]  Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary, 3.
[2] Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus, 188.
[3] Matthew 13:3, 8, NRSVUE.
[4] Martin Copenhaver, “Where is the Good Soil?” UCC Stillspeaking Daily Devotional, May 20, 2012.

Photo by DHARANISH SAKTHIVEL on Unsplash