Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA

8:30 & 11:00 traditional services – 7-14-02

by Gregory S. Kaurin, associate pastor

 

text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 & Isaiah 55:10-13

Sermon:

He’s Out of Control!

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My sermon title this morning is “He’s Out of Control!” and it’s all about gardens and gardeners.  At the start of last week I was really wondering what direction I should take with today’s parable.  What’ll I say about all these soils: the rich soil, the shallow and rocky soil, and the weedy soil?  Now that I have a twenty or twenty-five minute drive to the office, I used that time to ask God the same question, and wasn’t hearing much from him, until I got to the office on Wednesday morning.  Then, God sent me a word; although it took awhile for it to sink in.

Wednesday is food bank day here at the church.  Last Wednesday our food bank included something a little different.  Apparently Carmen and Lynne received a desperate call from one of our members earlier.  She was asking if it would be possible to give out fresh homegrown lettuce heads.  They had more lettuce coming up than salad bowls to put it in. 

You see, this member was suffering one of the common side effects of a husband with too much time on his hands: an over-producing garden.  This one was especially bad.  It was a severe case of compulsive lettuce planting.  “He’s out of control!” she said, “row upon row, box after box of lettuce heads.”

 

I called her up to try to provide some pastoral assurance and comfort, …but I also wanted her permission to use him as an example for today’s message.  She gave me her permission, but I decided not to use his actual name, because I just didn’t have the heart to embarrass Janet Oke’s husband like that; so, I’m not going to tell you who he is.  If you did know him, you’d know why I find that comment so funny: “He’s out of control!”  (Of course, as I told Janet, we just need to get his lettuce together with my wife’s umpteen thousand tomato plants and we’d have a great mega-salad!)

He’s out of control!  It wasn’t until that afternoon, before I called Janet, that it hit me.  That’s it!  That was the voice of God from a desperate spouse with a prodigal gardener on her hands.  “Prodigal” means, “extravagant,” “reckless,” or even “wasteful.”  There’s a great Baptismal hymn that calls God the “Prodigal Creator,” an extravagant, reckless Creator, God the Prodigal Gardener.

 

The soil is very important in Jesus’ parable—don’t get me wrong—very important.  But we’d better start by talking about the Gardener.  He’s crazier than both my wife and Janet’s husband put together!  There are no neat rows in this parable, no carefully planted seeds or transplanted seedlings.  This is the sloppiest job I’ve heard of.  It says in Jesus’ story that, as he walked, some of the seed fell on the hard pathway, some fell into the rocky, shallow soil, some among the weeds, and some actually managed to fall onto good soil.

Was he sloppy?  Was he blind?  Or, was he just unbelievably and recklessly …generous?  …and hopeful?

 

He truly is out of control.  He’s certainly not under our control!  We can’t tell God how or where to sow his seeds.  I’m sure that we’d try to show him how to be more efficient, and which soils to avoid. 

“Not yet, God,” we’d tell him, “not here on the path!  Wait until we get to the garden first!”

“No, God, not in those weeds!  Those all need to be mown down, rooted up, burned, and tilled under!”

“No, God!  Stop throwing them into the rocks!  The chances are too small, and whatever takes root will just waste away.”

 

But look, when God finally gets to the good soil, I don’t hear about careful planning and an efficient use of seeds.  I still see God throwing and tossing his seeds, over and again, more and more. 

Pauline and I were in the forest yesterday, walking along a path.  All over the place were scattered these pinecones.  Did you know that the cones of the lodge pole pine need to reach about 125 degrees Fahrenheit before they will pop open to scatter their seeds?  That means that the natural lodge pole pine forest absolutely depends on forest fires.  And the pine cones need to be buried just perfectly under the surface of the soil so that they get hot, but not so hot that they burn.  I don’t see Mother nature carefully planting pinecones and planning perfect forest fires.  What I do see are thousands and hundreds of thousands of pinecones generously scattered for every tree that manages to takes root.

These seeds are God’s words.  Jesus calls them the “words of the Kingdom.”  They are the words of grace, forgiveness, welcome, strength, and healing in Christ’s name.  They are the words of complete forgiveness in his name, eternal, gushing life in his name, accepting, cleaning and comforting a child in his name, baptizing, communing, or praying in his name, giving someone a glass of water, clothes, washcloths, bars of soap, or heads of lettuce in his name.  These words of God are scattered from churches, backyards, curbsides, along roadsides, even in bars and the weedy, seedy places of the city.  All of these places are full of his seeds searching for soil, for cleansing water and sunlight. 

 

Now, let’s talk about the soil, because I believe that the good soil in Jesus’ parable is good soil that just happens to be here and there, in and beside the pathway, good soil found in patches in and among the rocks and even within the weeds.  We’re too quick to think that God carefully cultivates us because we’re the good soil.  We are no accident, not by any means, but God sows and nourishes everywhere, and that is how his seeds find all of us.  That is how you can have a practical garden growing right up through the cracks along your sidewalk; we are in and among the world, not carefully groomed out from it.  And God finds us, he finds our patches of soil because he sows like a God who is generous and full of unreasonable hope for plants and produce anywhere and everywhere he can toss seeds.

 

And then there are the plants.  Plants have a very focused mission in life: to grow and produce.  That is how they thank the sun, rain, and soil for their nourishment.  Plants grow and produce, some more and some less. 

I wish that I had half of a plant’s determination in me.  Pauline just planted our zucchini and already it has popped up screaming, “I want to live!”  I wish I had that kind of will and determination to grow and produce, wildly and abundantly, to be a little more like my Prodigal Gardener.

The truth is that the nourishment and strength to grow and produce is all around me.  So, how do I gather his seeds and rain and soil and sun?  Jesus’ explanation of the parable is well laid out.  He says that it takes time, dedication and patience.  Much of the growth happens slowly for deep roots.

I think it’s important, when you are looking for a place to worship, to seek a right fit for yourself and family, ask for God’s guidance, look around a bit.  We sometimes call it “church shopping.”

What makes me nervous are those—some who are new, and others who’ve been at it for a long time—who seem to think that God’s Spirit only speaks in the language of fire, excitement, and the new.  What happens then?  It can be tough to try to teach about things like Christian commitment, discipline and deep roots when the seedlings keep transplanting themselves all the time.

Maybe it’s time to stop for a while—at least spiritually—and consider: depth.  Among all these choices and theologies and philosophies, even good stuff, even the very best of the good stuff in life, can become weeds if it’s all crammed into one life, one week, or into one person. 

Look at your calendar, your hobbies, responsibilities and commitments.  Are you just running, running, running like all the rest of the world and weeds around you?  Or, instead, does your schedule and life reflect your priorities?  You say your priorities are your relationships with God and your family.  If we could see your actual time spent with God in devotion, conversation and study, and the time spent with your family, all mapped out, would it reflect your priorities, …or would it reflect the world’s demands?

I’m not saying this to try to get you to add more churchy things to your schedule.  I am saying that you might need to change your schedule.  Clean house a bit, weed it out, so that you can focus more on what’s most important to you.

Sheryl Crow has a new song about being frustrated with the financial and social pressures of the world around her.  Finally, in the chorus she sings, “I’m gonna tell everyone to lighten up.  For every time I feel lame, I’m looking up: I’m gonna soak up the sun.”

It’s not that you’re missing God’s presence or words in your life; he’s casting them all around, all the time.  You might not be taking time to soak it in.  You might be choking yourself out.

Stop.  Look up.  Soak in the sun.  Feel God’s presence.  Be patient with down time, with quiet time, with unanswered prayers, and even a boring sermon or two.  The Bible, communion, worship, other Christians, children: in all of these things God has promised to be.  So put yourself in them, watch them.   Trust him to be there and look for him.  Even when it’s only like watching grass grow, he’s still right there making it happen.

And the more you expose yourself to God, to his words, to his grace and love—the more it will soak in and transform you.  You will become more and more like him, even sowing his love where you never meant to, producing seeds and fruits you may never see. 

For, just as the soft-falling snow and the descending rain do not return to the sky until after they have first watered and nourished life, so will God’s Word be.  His Word will not return to him empty.  It will have first given life and nourishment to you, and to millions more.  He is the Prodigal Gardener.  His love for the creation and for us is out of control. 

 

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