Ordinary 15

The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2017 – Cycle A Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23/ 13:1-9

A farmer went out to plant seeds.  Have you considered that in this parable three-quarters of the seed is wasted on unproductive land?  Not much of a farmer, is he?  In fact, this has to be one of the worst farmers in the world, just flinging out the seed, anywhere, letting the breeze take it where it will.  The ground is not prepared in any manner, there is the problem of pesky birds and thorn bushes that are not addressed, and there is no effort to make sure the seed, the majority of the seed at least, lands on relatively fertile soil.  It’s as if the farmer doesn’t care – or does he?

I often hear of the work of the church, of spreading the faith, even of prayer talked about in business terms.  Jesus is a product to be sold.  It is a practice now to brand parishes with a logo and a mission statement, use advertising, and make sure you keep your website and Facebook page updated.  There is value in these aspects of contemporary communication but being formed in the faith, that is, growing in a relationship with Jesus, is not a business.

This farmer is not a good farmer with any business sense.  But neither is the shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep (to the wolves?) to go and look for one lost sheep.  She doesn’t know enough to cut her losses and move on.  Or the owner of the vineyard who pays everyone the same salary whether they had worked a full twelve hour shift or one hour.  Unions and the State would have a field day with such labour practices.  And might Jesus have been so much better off if he did job interviews with the women and men he took on as his followers?  Would you hire, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward?   …a bunch of fishermen: Peter, Andrew, James and John?  …Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out?   …Simon, who belonged to a revolutionary group working to overthrow the Roman occupation?   …Susanna, though wealthy, also had evil spirits in her?  …Matthew, who worked for the Roman occupiers as a tax collector?  Not the cream of the crop, are they.  (Spoiler alert!  Neither are we.)

Yet, do not Jesus’ choices for followers give us some insight into the parable?  The stories of Jesus tell us about God and what God’s reign over the universe is like.  They are not sources for good business practices or success.  In fact God is downright poor at business.  But God is a master at being tireless and insistently going out of his way to offer us unconditional compassion and hope.

Is it wasteful for this Farmer – God to throw seed on hard, rocky, barren and broken places?

It depends.  For what is a seed but a compact event filled with the possibility of life?  Does a seed not remind us of the infinitesimal point of compressed space, energy and matter that after the Big Bang continues to expand as our universe birthing new stars, planets and galaxies?

Seed as the possibility of life and therefore hope.

Does not the hard, protected and seemingly impenetrable heart not need this possibility of hope and life?

Do we ever consider why some hearts are hard, closely protected?  Have they been beaten down by life, by abuse or lack of love?  Are they in deep mourning or are they just one of those people who never seem to get a break in life?

The seed of God’s word, the seeds of compassionate acts by others, the seed of listening to another person’s story, the seed of the church’s daily prayers continue to rain down upon them even if there is the possibility of birds eagerly willing to steal their hope.

Do not hearts filled with the rocks and thorns of resentment, anger, memory, grudges and judgment not need the possibility of hope and life?  Do we ever consider why some hearts are rocky and sharp?  …why they harbor such feelings and memories?

The seed of God’s word, the seeds of compassionate acts by others, the seed of listening to another person’s story, the seed of the church’s daily prayers continue to rain down upon them even if there is the possibility of scorching heat and thick, stronger, sharp thorn bushes willing to wither and choke off their hope.

Can we begin to understand why this Farmer – God continually throws seeds out at what the world views as wasteful, strange and broken places?

Can we reflect that those among us who may be fertile soil and are producing an abundance of hope and life have a responsibility to share in the work of our Farmer – God?  Does not the fruit of the crop also contain the seeds for the next time the Farmer – God goes planting?

How often are we the seed sown in another person’s life?