One Out of Four
There’s a story going around about two women of a certain hair color who stopped at a service station on the coast of Texas and asked where the lighthouses were located.
The service station attendant was a little confused and asked if there was any particular reason they were looking for lighthouses. One of them said, “We understand lighthouses have good paying jobs. There are lots of ads in the paper for them, but we don’t know where they are located so we can apply.”
The service station attendant said, “As far as I know there are no lighthouses in Texas. Let me see that newspaper.”
Sure enough, there were the ads that read, “Light housekeeping needed. Apply in person.”
I know that’s bad, but when you write a newspaper ad, you might consider that all kinds of people will be reading it, and therefore, all kinds of misunderstandings can take place.
Communication is a wonderful thing, but it is also tricky. Every Pastor is aware that what he or she says isn’t necessarily what people hear—or what they want to hear.
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
I know that some of you have been to the beach this year, I’ve seen your pictures on social media, and probably some more of you have plans to go before school is back in session. People go to the beach for all kinds of reasons, myself, I go for several reasons. For the lap of the waves on the beach, for the peacefulness, to get away from everyday life, and most importantly, the sunrise and sunsets, poignant reminders that we are all a small part of God’s marvelous creation.
I bet, if I took a poll, that none of you would say you went to the beach to hear a sermon, but that’s what we have going on this morning. Jesus has come out of a house; we assume Peter’s since that’s where He stayed when He was in this area. He sits by the lake, and the crowds gather, and He decides to take this opportunity to preach to them. The crowd is so large that in order for everyone to hear Him He gets in a boat, once again probably Peter’s, and pushes away from the shore which formed the perfect amphitheater.
We will be spending the next three weeks in this 13th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew which contains seven parables with visions of the Kingdom. This would be in line with Matthew’s custom of collecting items by topics. It also highlights his central emphasis on the kingdom of heaven which all these parables will portray.
The term “parable” literally means, “to throw alongside” or “a comparison.” Parables are stories drawn from life—or fictitious stories used to illustrate one and only one point. They are example stories—brief metaphorical sayings and similes. And they can also be an occasional allegory which is a story that communicates an important truth in a symbolic form.
I would imagine that if this is the first time you’ve read or heard this parable and have any experience at farming or planting and caring for a garden you would think this is a huge waste of seed. This farmer is just throwing seed everywhere not taking into consideration that most of it will fall on places where it won’t grow successfully. In fact, as you read the parable you come to realize that only one out of every four seeds sown shows any growth that lasts. This would not be a very good ratio.
The sower in our parable represents God/Jesus, and ultimately you and me—the seed represents the teaching of the message of Christ and His Kingdom—and the soil represents humanity. The seed was good seed—the sower was a faithful man—but the soil would determine his success or failure.
This parable isn’t really about farming—it’s not about a careless farmer who just throws his seed wherever it lands. No, our parable is about a loving and generous God who sows seeds of love and acceptance for all people. It’s about a loving and generous God who scatters His seeds even on ground that has very little chance for success.
Many seeds were sown here this week during Vacation Bible School. Some of them will take hold and grow, but some won’t, but we must remember that our job is to simply sow the seeds. We aren’t responsible for the way the gospel message is interpreted or heard. We are only responsible for sowing the seeds for people to hear. God will take care of the growth and the timing of the fertile ground.
Rev. Fred Craddock, a preaching giant, shared a story about the time he got a phone from a woman whose father had died. She had been a teenager in one of the churches he had served as a pastor twenty years before, and he would have sworn that if there was a person who never heard a word he said, that teenage girl would be it. She was always giggling with her friends in the balcony, passing notes to boys, drawing pictures on the bulletin. But when her father died, she looked up her old pastor, the Rev. Fred Craddock, and gave him a call. “I don’t know if you remember me,” she started. Oh yes, he remembered. “When my daddy died, I thought I was going to come apart,” she continued. “I cried and cried and cried. I didn’t know what to do. But then I remembered something you said in one of your sermons…” And Fred Craddock was stunned. She had remembered something he had said in one of his sermons. It was proof to him that you can never tell how the seed will fall or where it might take root. I’ve had this happen to me as well!
I heard about a woman who came into the house one day and said, “Honey, we’ve got trouble with the car; it’s got water in the carburetor.” The husband said, “Water in the carburetor, that’s ridiculous.” She said, “I’m telling you; the car has water in the carburetor.” The husband said, “You don’t even know what a carburetor looks like. Where is the car?” She said, “In the swimming pool.”
What’s the point of this parable for you and me? Simply this: the Gospel is the power of God—the Bible is the Word of God—and Jesus is the Son of God. But you will only believe this and receive this with a surrendered heart.
In closing, I had never seen Kudzu until I moved to Georgia, and I had to be schooled on what it is. If is, of course, that leafy vine that grows up telephone poles—covers little valleys—and grows on about anything that doesn’t move. If we could find a commercial use for the stuff the South will surely rise again. Nothing can grow like Kudzu. It’s the only plant whose growth is measured in miles per hour. The best way to plant Kudzu is to throw it over your shoulder and run. And it’s important to plant Kudzu at just the right time: at night, if you do it in broad daylight your neighbors will have you arrested.
As Christians, shouldn’t we be part of a Kudzu-kind of kingdom? When Christians are faithful, when we go about sowing the seeds of the kingdom, spreading the message and the Word—though we may not see it right away—God blesses His Kingdom, and He blesses our work with amazing growth and transforming influence. Isn’t it time for us to get busy sowing seeds?
Thanks be to God!
Eastman First Methodist Church 