Sermon - Sexagesima 2020 - Luke 8:4-15

“A Sower went out to sow His seed.” And as Jesus says: “The seed is the Word of God.” What a beautiful picture this is of our Lord sowing the seed of His Word across the world. Spreading it far and wide! And what a strange picture it is as well, almost to the point of absurdity, because it’s so wasteful! 

Today’s agricultural industry is so mathematically and scientifically precise. Today we’re good at calculating our return on investments, only spending precisely what we need to in order to get the best possible yield per acre. Thus, we would never plant the roads and the ditches, the rock piles and the windbreaks, it would be a waste of money! You wouldn’t get anything out of it!

But that’s not how God operates. He wouldn’t make a good capitalist, because his business practices are crazy! Last week we heard Him pay all of his employees the same wages, even the ones who came in the last hour and didn’t work. Today we hear Him sowing seed on bad soil which will never produce fruit. God’s practices make Him a terrible business owner, but that’s okay, because the church isn’t a business and it should never be run like one. Instead the church operates on the foundation of God’s abundant and unending grace. Christ shed all His blood for all the world, even those who reject Him, not because He’s wasteful but because He gracious.

Therefore, Christ sows the good seed of His Word into the bad soil of our hearts, thus preparing our wild hearts, so that we might bear the fruit of faith as good soil.

In our parable there are four types of soil mentioned, and I suppose we might be tempted to ask the question: Which type of soil are we? Are we the hard soil? Are we the dry rocky soil? Are we the weedy soil? Or are we the good soil that produces a hundredfold? Probably you’re hoping that you’re the good soil, because to be otherwise sure would stink! 

But that’s really asking the wrong question. There are frankly only two types of soil: soil that produces fruit and soil that doesn’t; good soil and bad soil. We, my friends, all of us are by nature, not good soil. That stinks!

Think about what land is like when it’s left in its natural state. Think about what the homesteaders here in Iowa faced when they first moved here over a century ago. They couldn’t just toss out the seed and wait for harvest! The land was hard, and covered in rocks, grass, and weeds. Before the seeds would grow, the soil needed to be prepared. Likewise us, before the seed of God’s Word will sprout and grow and produce abundantly, the soil needs to be prepared and continually worked on in order for the fruit of eternal life to blossom.

“As he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it… The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” It is as the apostle Paul writes, we “were by nature children of wrath.” We were enemies of God, and we didn’t understand the things of God because we were not spiritual. But God plowed the field with the cross of Christ! He made our hardpan hearts soft and loamy. “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” 

Our Lord called us to repentance over our sins and brought us to faith by grace, so that our hearts might receive God’s Word with joy! But let us not become conceited, just because our hearts have once been plowed and made soft doesn’t mean that isn’t needed again. Just as the farmer must repeatedly plow the field, so must our hearts continually be plowed and made soft once again.

Thus says our Lord in Jeremiah: “Plow a new furrow!” “Break up your fallow ground!” So God continually softens our hearts with His law, He sends us tribulations and crosses. The Psalmist cries out: “The plowmen have cultivated my back and drawn their long furrows over it.” Our Lord sends us these trials and His law all with a purpose: that our hard hearts may be made soft and fertile for the Word of His Gospel to come and grow within us. 

So if you begin to notice that your heart has become hardened to the Word of God, such that you don’t care for it: plow your hard heart with God’s law and come to confession and absolution. Receive again a new heart, ready and fertile, to delight and grow in the Word! 

But hard ground, a bored heart, isn’t the only issue. “And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture… And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.” Our life on earth is filled with rocks, filled with times of testing. My dad’s farm is named Rocky Gardens, because when he started it it felt as though he were just growing rocks with all the rocks he picked. You know how it is, with as many rocks as you pick and how big the rock piles are, you would think eventually you’d run out of rocks, but no, every year more rise to the surface. 

So in our lives there are many rocks, many trials, and if we’re not rooted deeply we will not survive the trials that come our way. The solution for rocky sandy soil is to water the plants deeply. It’s as the Lord says in Isaiah: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.” Drink deeply of the word of God so that His Word might take deep root in your heart so that your faith is deeper than the rocks beneath you!

There’s a famous quote by Alexander Pope: “A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring; There shallow sips intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” Drink deeply of the Word of God! It is a never ending well that shall well up in us to become a spring! God waters you well with His Word, He douses you in Baptism, and even gives you His blood to drink to quench your thirst. 

In times of testing and trials, when it feels as though you may be close to drying up and withering away, don’t retreat from God’s house, but instead draw closer to Him! God’s Word is for you a marvelous treasure! It’s like a refreshing Spring shower, a long steady rain! When you begin to dry up, draw near to the altar and drink from the refreshing chalice of life and live! 

After plowing and watering, one thing remains: thorns. “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it… And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” In this life there are many temptations, many fun, entertaining, pleasurable things, which choke out our faith.

Insofar as you can without sinning, enjoy the good things in this world! Eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die! …or so they say. But as soon as these riches begin to eclipse Christ, His Word, and our faith, we must pull them out from the roots like thistles. Just as the best way to pull out a weed is to first water it, so let us first be watered with the Word as we remove our temptations. As we approach Lent, a time of fasting, consider those things that distract you from Christ, and cut them out of your life and replace them with prayer and God’s Word. Life is too short to be distracted from the one thing needful. 

So in those three ways, by plowing our hearts with repentance, by watering us with the Word and Sacraments, and by cutting out all of the distractions: God makes the bad soil of our hearts to be good. Even though it might seem like a waste to us, the fact remains that God isn’t wasteful; He’s generous and gracious. Even to us. He doesn’t think of us as a waste. Christ’s death isn’t a waste, it’s just gracious. That’s why He graciously died for you and graciously gives you His Word. Through His death you have been crucified and risen with Him and made good soil; thus you will bear fruit with patience.