The Parable of the Abundant God

Do you know the feeling of planting something?

The hopeful feeling of wanting something to grow

the slightly scary feeling of knowing that you don't have total control over what is going to happen

the awe inspiring feeling of knowing you don't actually know exactly how growth happens?

Planting is fraught with emotion.

Between last Sunday's sermon and this Sunday's Gospel passage,

I found myself compelled to reach out to Grow It Green here in Morristown

and spend an afternoon at their Urban Farm.

If you don't know Grow It Green, they are a local non-profit farm,

managing the community gardens on Early Street, the partner greenhouse at St. Elizabeth's, and the Urban Farm on Hazel Street behind the Lafayette Learning Center preschool. Their mission is

"to promote community health through urban agriculture, discovery-based learning and equitable food access. Grow It Green Morristown creates sustainable farms and gardens, and educates communities on healthy eating and environmental stewardship."

St. Peter's has donated offerings to them in the time I have been here,

as well as having their Urban Farm be one of the field trips for our VBS Summer Camp students.

On a daily basis they have volunteers come to the different parts of the farm and help out.

So Wednesday afternoon I spent three hours in 90 degrees in long sleeved, long legged clothing

weeding, planting, raking, and watering perennials, herbs, and vegetables.

I got my hands in the dirt.

I disrupted a nest of ants.

I made a worm very happy.

I was reminded of the awe inspiring nature of dirt.

Its one of those things we know as children, how cool dirt is

and somehow some of us forget it as we grow older.

In our summer sabbath of going back to basics

I want to talk about one of the underlying basic attributes of God.

Abundance.

There is always more than enough with God.

More than enough love.

More than enough grace.

More than enough sorrow.

More than enough joy.

God gives abundantly

though we don't always understand it.

Today's parable from Jesus is evidence of this basic attribute of God.

We call this parable of Jesus that we hear in the gospel of Matthew today the parable of the sower.

Though most of the time when we look at this parable, we actually focus on the different types of soil,

as if this is the parable of the soil.

This is the way that the author of the Gospel of Matthew sees this parable and how the author offers his commentary on it.

We see the Sower as God, we see the seeds as God's Word, and us as the soil, in which the seed is planted and something might grow.

Many times when we hear it preached on, this is the direction and the preacher spends time trying to get us to think about how we are as soil.

Are we rocky or hard or thorny?

However, when you look at just the parable, there are other ways of seeing it as well.

That is one of the many joys of a parable, a story.

You can be any and all of the parts of it and there are lessons to be learned in all areas.

If we focus on the sower in this parable we see the mindset of abundance,

immense abundance as the sower flings seeds every which way

with no regard for the soil type.

There is a joy present in having more than enough seeds to send everywhere.

I do think God creates with joyful abundance and sends creation,

creativity out to all the ends of the earth.

The parable of the sower is a crazy one,

if we know anything about farming.

Seeds are precious and farming takes a lot more than simply spreading seeds and waiting for them to grow.

For first century farm workers this parable is like a white upper class crowd hearing

an investor went out to invest

and they put their money in all kinds of ventures

some grew quickly and then crashed

some were bought out and sold

some were out competed and lost their business

and others did well and grew steadily.

Let anyone with ears listen!

What kind of investor, what kind of farmer spreads their precious money all over the place?

The only way this makes sense is to look at it with this idea of abundance

obviously there is some risk in spreading seeds all over a farm and not just the good soil,

but this mindset of abundance changes everything.

There is more than enough.

I think the way St. Paul would look at this parable is saying

human wisdom says to study and learn about your soil and climate

and perfectly portion out your seeds to grow your crop.

But God's wisdom is foolishness to our ears,

so God's wisdom is to be abundant and share everywhere

and in an upside down world this makes sense.

In fact, this parable is the start of a series of parables in the gospel according to Matthew

all about the kingdom of God

and this parable shows how abundant God is with the Good News.

In imitation of God we are called to live abundant lives, not in the scarcity mind set that we too often take.

This parable seems to say, don't be wise in your dealings, be abundant

live in a mindset where there is possibility everywhere

we don't know how things are going to turn out

so spread love and grace and the Word of God everywhere.

In the Parable of the Sower, if we are to imitate the sower,

we are called to share abundantly.

With everyone, in every situation, everywhere we go.

This image of God doesn't depend on how well prepared we are

God shares all that is available

taking the risk that nothing grows

but also the risk that we grow into amazing expressions of love.

I want to leave you with one last image, something to inspire you to be abundant and hopeful

and foolish with your sharing of love and grace

the gifts of God in this world.

During the youth pilgrimage a couple of weeks ago

We went hiking in a place called Eaton Canyon outside of Pasadena.

We walked a couple of miles around the canyon and to the waterfall of the river which created the canyon.

we walked along a rocky and dusty trail with some fantastic views

The flora of the area is typically shrubs, with the Mediterranean type climate.

The Eaton Canyon Nature Center website has a listing of the flora of the area,

only listing 14 different types of trees compared to the 44 different types of shrubs in the canyon.

All that to say, the views off the sides of the canyon were fantastic and easily visible.

And it was all the more impressive when we were hiking towards the waterfall and saw

fifteen feet up the side of the canyon wall, a twenty foot tree

going out of the rock.

God's creative love is abundant

and we never know where it will grow,

so share it everywhere.