Matthew 13: 1-23 (links validated 6/5/23)
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Not Successful, Faithful
A few years ago, there was a story in the news about a police officer named Officer Nate, who was working an overtime shift when he was directed to respond to an emergency call. The cop happened to be just around the block and was able to reach the incident in just a few seconds. He arrived to discover that an older man had collapsed and stopped breathing. So he performed CPR on the man until the fire department and emergency squad responded. A few days later, while on patrol again, he was summoned back to Police headquarters. When he entered the station lobby, a younger man stood there waiting for Officer Nate. It turned out that this man’s father was the one that Officer Nate had done CPR on, and he just came by the station hoping to thank the man who had saved his father’s life. Officer Nate was happy and excited and shook his hand just as the man explained that his father passed away the next day. Officer Nate was stunned and instantly stopped in his tracks. He said that he felt horrible for celebrating. Officer Nate said that as he apologized for being excited to meet the son of the man he saved only to learn he died the next day, the guy said, “No, I appreciate you so much. Because you brought my dad back and I could fly in from Florida to say goodbye to him one last time before he passed.” The officer revealed, “I don’t get too emotional very often in this job, but my eyes were flooded as we hugged.” Another family member posted on her Facebook page: “Today we met the police officer that performed CPR on our dad and brought him back long enough for our family to spend another precious day with him. There are no words that can describe how truly thankful we are . . . you will always be in our hearts. Stay safe out there.”...Anywhere, Everywhere and For All
I went to the battlefields of Gallipoli on my recent trip. And there I heard an unlikely story about a seed. The Battle of Lone Pine was fought between Australian and Turkish forces over a period of 4 days during World War I. In April 1915, the Australians landed on the shore of the peninsula and immediately had to climb uphill while dodging fire from the Turks who were above them. The Australians who reached the high ground were ordered to dig trenches as if their lives depended on it, because they did. The Battle of Lone Pine was fought in August by which time there was an extensive network of trenches. The trenches of the Australians and those of the Turks were separated by a No Man’s Land of just 20-60 yards in some places. When the battle began, there was one single pine tree standing at the place of the fighting. By the end, that tree was gone, obliterated by the shelling. And so the battle was named Lone Pine. The fighting was fierce, the loss of life devastating. But this was also a place where enemies came to respect each other...Sermon Starters (Proper 10A)(2023)
“It’s not a house, but a home.” This might be too cliché, but it might help someone get the sense of the word “understand” in this parable… a house and a home are technically the same thing, but they feel and are lived in differently. A sense of home is deeply rooted within us, transcending the house providing a roof over our heads. A home allows us the safety and belonging to be someone. We carry homes with us, even when we leave the houses of our youth. This is what the word of the Kingdom does when we are good soil, when we understand it, nurture it, and in turn, let it nurture us and produce infinite Kingdom fruit.The Extravagant Sower
my mother went on hospice care in early December of last year. It had been her decades old practice to send out a Christmas letter each December and it was clear that was not going to happen this year or for that matter, ever again. Many looked forward to her letter as she tried to share the promise of the season in a way that spoke with faith and joy. And so, my sisters and I wrote a letter in her stead. Our primary purpose was to let those 150 people know her health status and to ask them, if they were able, to send a message or a story. And the stories came and they came and they came. What a gift it was to be able to sit with her and to have her hear the impact she had on so many! Indeed, those decades of teaching were a gift she gave to the world which did not ‘return empty.’ More than this, our invitation answered in this way surely had the hands and the heart of God all over it as love given was love returned again and again...Ordinary 15A (2023)
Agricultural scientists like Dr. Norman Borlaug from the U.S., Dr. M. S. Swaminathan from India, and Dr. Gurdev Khush from the Philippines proved to the world that seed has enough power in it to save a nation from poverty. In the ‘sixties, political scientists were predicting massive worldwide famine, acutely hitting countries like India with its 440 million people and leaving millions to starve. There was, however, one scientist who saw things differently. His name was Dr. Norman Borlaug an agronomist from the U. S. who went to India with a seed called “Sonora 64,” a wheat seed he developed at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico. Borlaug convinced the Indian agricultural scientists and the government authorities to give it a try. They planted some Sonora 64 wheat in the Punjab region of India. The results were spectacular and soon they were using it throughout the subcontinent...Ordinary 15A (2023)
An old friend of mine is a cardiologist - a specialist heart doctor. In fact, he is probably the most respected specialist heart doctor in his country. After a stellar academic career, he became at 43 the youngest professor of cardiology in his country’s history. Through his research, he has introduced new techniques and better treatments which have saved the lives of many hundreds of patients. And he is also a good man - a man of great prayer and personal holiness – rather more so than is usual among my friends. He is a good husband and a good father. And he is - or rather was - also a talented rugby player, middle distance runner and a musician. His life had been one long chain of merit and success right up until one day when he himself had a heart attack at the age of 48. He is proud of the fact that, having treated so many in other people, he diagnosed it very quickly in himself. And so he was rushed by ambulance to his own hospital. And he lay in the same bed in the same Intensive Care Unit where he had treated so many patients. And he was looked after by the same junior doctors who normally work under his direction. And he was given the same treatment that he had prescribed for so many others. But since then, he tells me, his entire life has changed. For one thing, he cannot work as hard as he used to - he gets tired more easily. For another, he suddenly knows the meaning of the word ‘fear’ - when you are gripped in the middle of the night by the sudden certain conviction that you too, like all others, must one day die. But most of all, he was shocked, surprised and renewed by the realization that heart attacks do not happen just to patients, or even just to people in general; they happen to people like me - in fact they happen to me. And not even being the ranking professor of cardiology in the country can prevent it from happening to you. He said it was the best lesson he has ever learned in medicine. And it has transformed his approach to looking after his patients...An Invitation to Generosity
The sun is extraordinarily generous, giving huge parts of itself away every second. Scientists tell us that every second, inside the sun, the equivalent of 4 million elephants are being transformed into light, an irretrievable, one-time gift. The sun is giving itself away. If this generosity should halt, all energy would eventually lose its source and everything would die and become inert. We, and everything on our planet, live because of the generosity of the sun. In this bounteousness, the sun reflects the abundance of God, a largesse that invites us to also be generous, to have big-hearts, to risk more in giving ourselves away in self-sacrifice, to witness to God's abundance. But this isn't easy...Proper 10A (2023)
In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus has said that those in whom is words take root will “bear fruit.” Hence, although fleetingly and precariously in each human being, the Messiah comes: “If anyone will heed my words, I will come today.” How do the words of Jesus take root and flourish and eventually bear the fruit of compassion and justice? It happens in a response, a response to an over-the-top gift.
Recommended Resources
David Allan Coe and Matthew 13: The Perfect Country and Western Parable
"Jesus has told the perfect country and western parable, speaking to every aspect of our lives and the condition of our souls. He’s covered the rocks, the thorns, the sand, the heat, every emotional, physical, and psychological aspect of our lives. He’s telling our story. In Matthew 13, Jesus is telling our story. That is why these words resonate with us and that’s why we need to hear it played on our spiritual radios..."Observe the Seed
("Tom Sullivan was born blind. His parents in an effort to protect him from the perils of the outside world built an 8 foot fence around his yard. As a little boy he was smart and energetic. He felt trapped by the fence and longed to get out – especially when he heard the kids down the street playing baseball..." and other illustrations)The Parable of Environments
Ben Weir, the Presbyterian missionary who was for so long a hostage in Lebanon, speaks movingly about worshiping while in captivity. Every Saturday night, he saved a piece of bread from dinner, and on Sunday morning he would eat that piece of bread and feel moved by the sense of communing with God's people all over the world. Even in prison, he found a way to celebrate being in the presence of the Lord.The Sower, the Seed and the Soil
("My father was an avid baseball fan. I grew up in New York City and was able to see the greats play at the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field and Yankee Stadium. Many a Saturday was spent with my dad cheering on our favorite team. As much as I loved the game of baseball, alas, I was born female at a time when girls watched more than they played..." and another illustration)
Illustrated Resources from 2020 to 2022
Even in the Broken Places
I’m at Ft. Hood at the height of “the surge.” A young Sgt that I know well comes to my office, sits down, and with a straight face asks me for last rites. “Last rites?” “Yes, Sir, this war in my head is too much. I’m going to kill myself. I’ve already decided when, where, and how, so don’t try to talk me out of it.” Five days later, I walked through the doors of the largest mental health hospital in the south. It was Sunday after a chapel service, so I was in clericals. I rode the elevator up a few floors, stepped out, and knocked on the door. The door buzzed and opened. I greeted the guard, then asked a nurse at the nurse’s station where to find Sgt. V. I walked into a large open space with patient rooms lining the wall. As I walked through the common area, one of the patients rushed me. She was yelling, “Father! I knew it! I knew you’d come, I never doubted.” I waved off the concerned guard. The young woman threw her arms around my neck and started sobbing. I disobeyed all the church warnings… and I wrapped my arms around her while she cried. Her tears soaked my the whole shoulder of my shirt. When she stopped, she looked me directly in my eyes and asked me, “Father, will God forgive me?” “Forgive you for what?” “For taking a life in Iraq.” My heart broke… and I said what I believe are some of the holiest and intimate—and tragically underused—words in our prayer book: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent … … of and by his authority committed to me, I absolve you from all your sins: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We said Amen together. Then her eyes glossed over, and she turned around and skipped away as if the whole thing never happened...Protect Your Garden
A few days later, I’m leaving the center and was closing our front door when I caught him. This nasty ground hog is standing there on his hind legs, helping himself to the third pot of plants (having already helped himself to two others) I just stood there frozen in shock for a moment and the two of us locked eyes with this stare down. I realize now that this is when I lost my mind as I started yelling at the Ground hog “I’ve been blaming the poor deer and it’s been YOU” as I went lunging towards him. What did I plan on doing if I caught him? Well, I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. Of course he waddled away and jumped down one hole (which happened to be at the foot of the massive crucifix we have in front) to which I followed up with “Jesus isn’t going to save your furry butt.” In any event, I spent way too much time googling how to ground hog proof your garden, what can you do to discourage or make it difficult for them to finally searching out “okay how can I ‘take care of them’ -get rid of them permanently?” The most humane way, which this nasty animal has our office manager to thank for showing him mercy, was done by this company called “Fur Patrol” who for a ridiculous fee set traps for four days, caught them and “relocated them” – I say them because they ended up catching 3 ground hogs as well as 3 skunks about 5 weeks ago. They also found the “holes” and filled them in with concrete to prevent their friends and relatives returning...Sermon Starters (Proper 10A)(2020)
The great preacher George Buttrick was once flying on an airplane. As he sat there, he had a legal pad out on which he was furiously scribbling some notes for his sermon the coming Sunday. The man next to Buttrick inquired, “Say, what are you working on there, sir.” “My sermon for Sunday–I’m a Christian preacher.” “Oh,” the other man replied. “Well, I don’t like to get caught up in the complexities of religion. I like to keep it simple. You know, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ The Golden Rule. That’s my religion!” “I see,” Rev. Buttrick replied, “and what do you do for a living?” “I’m an astronomer. I teach astrophysics at a university.” “Ah, yes, astronomy,” Buttrick shot back. “Well, I don’t like to get caught up in the complexities of science. ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.’ That’s my astronomy. Who could ever need more than that, eh?”Love, Which We Call God, Is a Strange Attractor
The term “chaos theory” was coined back in the 1960s by a mathematician named Edward Lorenz who worked at MIT as a meteorologist. Lorenz was trying to use complicated mathematical formulas to develop models to predict the weather patterns and systems. During the course of his research, what seemed like an insignificant computer input decision, revealed the impact of unintended consequences. Lorenz had rounded off the number 0.506127 to 0.506, assuming that the difference of 0.000127 was so insignificant that its impact would be inconsequential. Lorenz turned out to be wrong. What appeared to be a tiny inconsequential number, turned out to have a significant impact. That tiny number, somewhere in the mere millionths of a difference in barometric pressure, capable of only an infinitesimal impact on wind speed, no bigger than a baby’s sneeze or the beat of a butterfly’s wings, that tiny change, at the beginning of a weather system turned out to be the difference between a blue sky and a monsoon. Lorenz coined the phrase: “Butterfly Effect” to describe this phenomenon. Today, quantum physicists use the butterfly effect to describe what happens when a small change in one place in a system can result in a ginormous difference in a later state. The mere flapping of a butterfly wing has a ripple effect which multiplies over time and changes weather patterns thousands of miles away...What Makes Us Ready to Receive the Word of God
“Shaggy dough.” When did I miss the lesson on how to recognize shaggy dough? I cannot convince myself that it is coming. For the longest time—so it seems—the flour and water stay skittish. Surely that is as much a culinary term as “shaggy.” They do not want to come together. Some of the flour enters the lump of dough, but mounds of it stick shyly to the sides of the bowl. With spatula in hand, I watch both clock and dish, ready to intervene, but the bread hook knows its business. The dough grows and gathers what is left of the flour, even from the sides of the bowl...God's Abundance
I know of one family whose father was physically and emotionally abusive to his children. One time, the young son of that family was called aside to talk to his parents. They asked him, “Do you know which of you children is our favorite?” Even though he was young at the time, that son knew that was a terrible thing to ask. But his mother demanded an answer, so he guessed one of his sisters. The mother was shocked. She said, “No. It’s you!” Then he was left with no idea what to do with this information since he would have much preferred to believe his parents loved all their children the same...The Abundance of God as an Invitation to Generosity
The sun is extraordinarily generous, giving huge parts of itself away every second. Scientists tell us that every second, inside the sun, the equivalent of 4 million elephants are being transformed into light, an irretrievable, one-time gift. The sun is giving itself away. If this generosity should halt, all energy would eventually lose its source and everything would die and become inert. We, and everything on our planet, live because of the generosity of the sun. In this generosity, the sun reflects the abundance of God, a largesse that invites us to also be generous, to have big-hearts, to risk more in giving ourselves away in self-sacrifice, to witness to God's abundance...Of Soils and Souls
Substitute “soul” for “soil” and the lesson becomes even easier to understand. The sower and the seed are constants. The soil is the variable. God and his word never waver. God constantly reaches out to us. He spreads his word far and wide. How we receive his word, how we nurture it… those are the variables that lead either to a life of fulfillment or a life of frustration. But there is a significant anomaly in this parable. Souls are not soils. They are not inert. Soil cannot choose to be barren. But souls can. Soils don’t make themselves a desert. But we can choose to make a desert of our souls. Unlike soils, souls have a will. They can choose to receive the word or reject it. They can choose to nurture the word or starve it. They can choose to bear fruit or turn to dust...
Illustrated Resources from 2017 to 2019
Relax and Pray
The obstacles in our lives can seem like thorns and sharp pebbles, but God will bring the harvest. This is powerfully illustrated by the Lord of the Rings. If you remember the novel or the movie, it follows Frodo the Hobbit - a halfling, three feet tall. Frodo has to take the Ring of Doom to the one place it can be destroyed. He struggles to get up the mountain and Samwise has to carry him the final stretch. Frodo arrives at the ledge where he can throw away the ring. He cannot do it. Samwise pleads, "Please Mister Frodo, throw it in the fire. Just let it go!" Of course he can't. In the end the ring has to be torn from him - along with his ring finger.Not Successful but Faithful
About a week ago, Police Officer Nate was working an overtime shift when he was directed to respond to an emergency call. He arrived to discover that an elderly man had collapsed and stopped breathing. The cop happened to be just around the block and was able to arrive in just a few seconds where he was able to perform CPR on the man until the fire department and emergency squad responded. A few days later, while on patrol again, he was called back to Police headquarters for an unknown reason. When he walked into the station lobby, a younger man was standing there waiting for Officer Nate. It turned out that this man’s father was the one that Officer Nate had done CPR on and he just came by the station hoping to thank the man who had saved his father's life. Officer Nate was happy and excited, and went forward to shake his hand just as the man explained that his father passed away the very next day. Officer Nate, said that as he apologized for being excited to meet the son of the man he saved only to learn he died the next day - the guy said to him "No, I appreciate you so much. Because you brought my dad back and I was able to fly in from Florida to say goodbye to him one last time before he passed."...Sowing the Seed
When I was in college, I worked on a tobacco farm in eastern North Carolina. It was in the early days of mechanized tobacco harvesting, and we worked on a contraption pulled by a tractor through the field. Four people sat on low seats a few inches from the ground. We “picked” the leaves off the plants and put them in a conveyer belt system that carried them to a platform about 10 feet in the air where the “stringers” tied the leaves onto the tobacco sticks to be hung in the barn for curing. One day, the harvester was malfunctioning. The conveyer system wasn’t working properly and leaves were dropping out behind us. We kept stopping and starting while trying to fix the machine. There was a precocious 6-year-old boy watching us work. He observed our troubles for a while and then walked up to the farmer and said, “Well, you can’t elevate’em all, can you Mr. Virgil.”What Stories Do to Us
Katty now knows the day and the place where part of her ceased to live. It was fifteen years ago when she was five years old. She was in her bedroom when, in the living room outside, her parents were berating her older sister Marivic because she got only a passing grade in three subjects. Why was Marivic not like Tonette, her older sister, who was their pride always getting the first honor in her class? They shouted, "Maybe you are not our child at all!" her father had said.The Indiscriminate Farmer
In the year 2000, Paramount released a movie called “What Women Want” which starred Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt and Marisa Tomei. The premise of the movie was that, after a chauvinistic advertising executive gets electrocuted in a bathroom accident, he is suddenly able to hear the thoughts of nearby women. Unsurprisingly, he initially uses that power to take advantage of those women. However, over the course of the movie his ability to read the minds of women gradually changes him and he becomes a better person...Planting in the Soul
Every moment and every event of every person’s life on earth plants something in her or his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men and women. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love.Dr. Ayaz Virji and the People of Dawson, Minnesota
The Washington Post carried a story today, by Stephanie McCrummen, about a Muslim doctor and his family who have been living in Dawson Minnesota for five years now. Ayaz Virji, 42 years old, and his wife Musarrat had been charmed by the welcome the town gave them three years before, when they were looking for a place to raise their three children, a place where Ayaz could practice what he calls dignified medicine. They were the first Muslims ever to live in Dawson.The Wisdom to Survive
I’m reminded of a few lines from Wendell Berry’s “A Vision” and leave them here as hope and benediction, a new lens through which to see our parable: If we will have the wisdom to survive, To stand like slow growing trees on a ruined place, Renewing, enriching it, If we will make our seasons welcome here, Asking not too much of earth or heaven, Then a long time after we are dead The lives our lives prepare will live here, Their houses strongly placed upon the valley sides, Fields and gardens rich in the windows.How Can You Not See It?
People often encounter the same experience in different ways. Discussions on social media illustrated this starkly in the spring of 2015, when millions argued over “The Dress.” Many saw a two-tone dress of indigo and black material. Almost as many saw instead a dress that was white and gold. Because the photo was poor, the viewer’s brain had to supply important information about light and shadow. Those who assumed the photo was taken in bright light saw a dress of indigo and black. Those who assumed low light saw a dress of white and gold. So deeply do we rely on our brain’s ability to supply information in this way that those who saw the dress one way found it very difficult to perceive it in the other.Spare Not the Seed
I just finished reading a remarkable new autobiography: Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren. Hope is a college professor, a research botanist. She’s also a mighty fine writer. She’s writing, here, about seeds: “A seed knows how to wait. Most seeds wait for at least a year before starting to grow; a cherry seed can wait for a hundred years with no problem. What exactly each seed is waiting for is known only to that seed. Some unique trigger-combination of temperature – moisture – light and many other things is required to convince a seed to jump off the deep end and take its chance — to take its one and only chance to grow.
Illustrated Resources from 2011 to 2016
God, the Crazy Farmer
("My last call took our family to the suburbs of Boston, right along the Interstate I-95 corridor. And I mean literally right along it. You could see the highway from the church's front door. Everyday when I took the dog on a walk, I would walk underneath the highway. Now, highway overpasses are forsaken places--with their fair share of graffiti, broken glass, and litter, and the smell of car exhaust wafting down from the highway above. And yet, even there, in the cracked concrete overpass, life takes root...")Life in the Spirit (Week 2)
("The life of Venerable Matt Talbot shows how humility leads to productivity. When he was twelve he got a job helping a wine merchant. He started 'sampling the wares' and within a year became addicted. He lost that job, but got another one at a whiskey store. He spent most or all of his wages in pubs. Running up debts, he pawned his possessions including shirts and boots...")Proper 9A (2011)
("A young graduate, asked to tell of the person who had made the greatest impact on him as he went through school, said without hesitation 'the janitor'. A pause, and then the interviewer pushed the question: 'Are you sure? It was not a teacher, or a principal, or some other leader?'... ")Parable of the Sower
("A story tells of someone at an airport overhearing a conversation between an elderly man and his daughter. After the usual emotional farewells, and pronouncement of love etc. he hears the man say 'I wish you enough' and in response the daughter repeats the phrase and leaves. The elderly man was obviously very upset, but the man draws him into conversation and asks about the phrase he heard...")The Parabler
("Shouldn't this parable be called the Stupid Farmer – all the silly places he throws the seed! And of course, if anyone is a fool in the story, it is God. He's the reckless, wasteful one. He's the one who tells us to speak, to go to every nation, to cover the world with the Word. And he doesn't seem to care whether anyone is listening or not..." and discussion of Venus de Milo statue)God's Word Yields 'A Hundred, Sixty or Thirty Fold
["Right through my teenaged years and through my early twenties, my grandfather kept a Victory Garden behind our home. In midsummer, when he took his midday break, he would carry a picnic basket to the kitchen doors and back porches of our block with the riches of his harvest, various kinds of greens (lettuce, escarole, Swiss chard, sometimes dandelion), zucchini, occasionally delicate zucchini flowers to be breaded and sautéed, eggplant—the queen of vegetables—varieties of beans, peppers and tomatoes..."]Quiet Miracle
You never know. One day a pastor in in a small town got a call from a funeral director. A man named Vic had died. He was 95, no children. All ministers get these calls from time to time. He planned for a small funeral, a few folks. I can hear the funeral director talking to him: “Low key, there isn’t much family but they just thought there should be something.” So he prepares a few readings, a brief meditation. Imagine his surprise when he got to the funeral home and couldn’t find a place to park within a block of the place. Imagine him wondering what was going on when he saw all the out of state license plates, when he saw the line at the door and went around to the side, when he discovered the funeral director rushing around, setting up chairs. Imagine him standing up to speak in a room warmed by packed bodies, with the side room full as well. And finally, listening as person after person got up to speak, learning that the man was a legend in Alcoholics Anonymous. Sober for 55 years, his gentle testimony influenced thousands of people. He took produce from his farm and fed people in need. He paid people's tuition at school. Everywhere he went he touched people with generous, humble service. You never know...Sowing Seeds
("Who's heard of the Pareto Principle? I'm sure you have but maybe not by that name. In the early 1900's, Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, observed that 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the people and 80% of a country's wealth was held by 20% of the people. Pareto even applied this to his garden where he found that 80% of his peas came from 20% of his peapods. This has become known as the 80/20 principle...")An Outrageous Indulgence
("George Swanson Starling spent most of his adult life in Harlem, working as a train porter, but the Black American had been raised in the racially segregated South, picking fruit for pennies an hour in Florida groves. Like many of us, George had envisioned a very different life than the one he got. Isabel Wilkerson writes in her Pulitzer-prize winning The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration:...")Sowing the Word of God
In 1888 Vincent van Gogh painted 'The Sower', an important work in the history of art, and surely a scene related to our story here in Matthew. One sees the sower, practiced in the art of sowing, deliberately planting the seed in the soil. For van Gogh the color yellow symbolized faith, triumph and love. The color blue represented the divine – and so he combines these colors so they seem to move together, showing the relationship of all living things...What Kind of Sower?
("Just this week a report came out in the media about the singer Lily Allen, who got married in her local parish church recently. Her young life has been, to outward observers, a bit of a mess, a wild life. Many people assumed that when she opted for a church wedding it was just for the pretty setting, but that turned out not to be the case at all...")A Surprising Look at the Sower
("Usually when you see the work of American Regionalist artist Thomas Hart Benton, you will see scenes of American life and landscape. But in 1942, Benton created eight paintings on the dangers of the brutal totalitarian governments of the Axis powers. His work The Sowersshows three hulking figures sowing skulls. The figures sow with the expectation that more skulls will grow from these 'seeds'...)The Good Soil of Suffering
David Artley is the well-respected, suspender-wearing Kalamazoo County resource-development director, known for his ability to raise funds and secure government grants. But Thursday, Artley showed a more personal side, one he rarely reveals publicly. In front of more than 250 people at the annual Nehemiah Assembly, Artley told the story of how he was abused as a child while growing up in Detroit and how it stole away his childhood. As an adult, he found himself divorced twice and an alcoholic, living in a cardboard box without any place to go. Now, Artley, 66, who has been sober for decades and recently bought a condominium, told the gatherers that helping people find housing is his passion. David Artley’s passion to find housing for homeless people is a perfect example of good soil. The seed of God’s Love found good soil in David’s life and is increasing it a hundredfold. And I think his whole life is good soil, including the abused child who ended up homeless as young adult. The good soil began being cultivated when the 8 year-old David told his mother that his cousin was sexually abusing him, and instead of helping him she called him a liar and severely beat him with a stick. That’s where the good soil began to be turned for the seed of God’s love...Ms. Good Soil
["In Monty Python's uneven and (wonderfully) irreverent The Life of Brian, the filmmakers mocked how we misinterpret and muddle Jesus' message. For example, take Jesus' 'Sermon on the Mount'. In the film there was something completely different from what Jesus proclaimed and what the distant crowd heard. As Jesus spoke, way, way, way in the back, a voice asked: What did Jesus just say? I think it was, 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'...")Snailed
["Echoing the agrarian concerns of Matthew 13, was the cilantro's demise because of: Birds eating the tender leaves? Rocky ground preventing healthy growth? Each day's scorching sun (an issue here in California's Central Valley)? The presence of thorns? No times four. My wife, after observing the cilantro's failure, simply stated, 'Snails'..."]A Blessing with Roots
("Tug at this blessing and you will find, it is a thing with roots. This is a blessing that has gone deep into good soil, into the sacred dark, into the luminous hidden. It has been months since the ground gathered the seed of this blessing into itself, years since the earth enfolded it. Sometimes that's how long a blessing takes...")The Sower
("So, friends, every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands...")The Abundance of God As An Invitation to Generosity
("Scientists tell us that every second, inside the sun, the equivalent of 4 million elephants are being transformed into light, an irretrievable, one-time gift. The sun is giving itself away. If this generosity should halt, all energy would eventually lose its source and everything would die and become inert...")Of Seeds and Souls
Substitute “soul” for “soil” and the lesson becomes even easier to understand. Souls are not soils. They are not inert. Soil cannot choose to be barren. But souls can. Soils don’t make themselves a desert. But we can choose to make a desert of our souls. Unlike soils, souls have a will. They can choose to receive the word or reject it. They can choose to nurture the word or starve it. They can choose to bear fruit or turn to dust...The Parable of the Soil
("One of the most important vestiges in the church's farm system is summer camp. How many of you here this morning ever went to church camp? My favorite church camp song? Deep and Wide. But almost any 'camp song' you pick is a motion song. In other words, it comes with all sorts of hand and body motions...")Sowing the Seed
("Fred Craddock tells the following story: 'I was called back to Oklahoma while in Atlanta. The voice on the phone just began by saying, "Ray died." He was a friend of mine in a little church where I had served. It had been years and years and years. We were good friends. "Ray wanted you to come and have his funeral, if you could." "I'll come," I said....")
Illustrated Resources from 2008 to 2010
Response to the Good News
("The good ground of response to the seed of the gospel is beautifully demonstrated in the experience of Helen Keller...")Letting Go, Letting God: Holding Out in Seedingly Stony Places
("Stephen Mitchell implies, in another of our Words for Meditation, the sower may even be drawn to the “’seedingly stony” places – where it is hardest to hold out! After all rocks and stones are who we are – the third rock from the sun – and especially in Nevada!...")Power of the Seed
("There was, however, one man who saw things differently. His name was Norman Borlaug. He went to India not with a shipload of food but with a seed called Sonora 64...")How Grows It?
("Harley was in the Navy in World War II. Like a lot of young men he had trouble making the transition to civilian life. He became one of those human tumbleweeds, drifting from bar to bar and from jail to jail...")Preparing a Place
"About five years ago I decided to make a concerted effort to explore the spiritual disciplines associated with Saint Benedict by becoming an oblate of the Order. Since that time I have tried to prepare a place for the reception of the Sower's seed in a variety of ways..."Proper 10A (2008)
The first weekend of June, I had the joy and the privilege to speak at a rather large youth conference on the theme of leadership - actually the theme was Giving Opportunities for Leadership Development. That night after I spoke, I had countless youth come up and tell me how what I had said influenced them and most of them thanked me for being a woman in ministry because most of them had never seen a woman pastor before and they thought that was really cool! And I appreciated their comments and took their strong words of affirmation to heart, but deep down inside I still wondered how my message was received by those who didn't believe in God. Then just this past week, I received thank you letters from a group of the youth who attended that conference and I was amazed at some of the things people said, but there was one letter that caught my attention, and part of it read: "You know I am not a religious person . . . or was not, but now you've got me wondering . . ." And that comment made it even more worthwhile!...The Rush To Judgment
When there is no center to our moral universe all is at risk. Yeats, the poet, put it this way: 'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity...Preaching Helps (Proper 10A)(2011)
("In preaching on Mark's version of the Parable of the Sower, Tom Long claimed that Jesus preached in these confusing parables in order to make people deeper thinkers about what the gospel is all about....")Parables
("William Willimon recounts an incident when he was a young preacher complaining to an older pastor about the problem of needy or transient people showing up at the church and asking for a hand out. He proudly told the older pastor that he felt a responsibility not to waste the church's money...")Getting Grounded
(She talks about her prayer life during an upcoming Benedictine retreat. See also Daniel Deffinbaugh's comments on the same topic above.)Sowing Abundantly
("Hope Morgan Ward, the United Methodist Bishop of Mississippi, was the guest Bible Study leader and preacher at our recent Annual Conference session. Her daddy was a Carolina farmer. She said he valued careful planting practices, using quality seeds, and working in good soil..." and other illustrations)
Illustrated Resources from the Archives
Of Seed and Soil: The Parable of the Sower
("My uncle told me that for years after my grandfather's death, people would come to the farm and ask to fill their pick-up trucks with the rich soil from the floor of the stalls in the barn. This is because any gardener worth his tomatoes knows that the most important factor in reaping a good harvest is not the quality of the seed or even the weather conditions...")And the Seed Will Grow
("Some years ago my wife and I decided to plant a prairie in some open land near our house. We put in the various kinds of grass seed and wildflowers that grow in prairies and eagerly waited for results. The first year we had nothing but a fine crop of weeds...")Out of Our Minds: Blooming Where We Are Planted!
("Tom Roberts, editor of National Catholic Reporter, invites is to learn from our gardening – the very task of tending the earth God gives us in the beginning. Hear how he uses "nonchalance" in ways we speak of God's grace in our lives...")Relentless Mercy
("A recently published book titled Triumph describes how Jesus' teaching has taken root during two thousand years of history. H.W. Crocker gives it that title not because the human beings who make up the Church are so glorious, but because God's grace has done marvelous things...")The Sower
("Ye sons of earth prepare the plough, Break up your fallow ground; The sower is gone forth to sow, And scatter blessings round. The seed that finds a stony soil Shoots forth a hasty blade; But ill repays the sower’s toil, Soon wither’d, scorch’d, and dead...")Generous Sowing
("In ancient Egyptian tombs, archaeologists have found grains of wheat and corn still viable after thousands of years. Seeds can wait years for the right conditions to germinate. When that moment comes, they spring forth in seemingly impossible places...")Seeds of Greatness
("Who was Albert Einstein's math teacher? Or athlete Sonia O'Sullivan's coach? Bono's music tutor? or Pope John Paul's religion teacher? Answer: we don't know - but we are eternally grateful...")Precious Seed
("Sir James Simpson was a Scottish doctor in the nineteenth century who was also a courageous scientific pioneer. In fact, his own experiments cost him his life....")A Farmers's Parable: The Sower and The Seed
("in the world of advertising, there is a theory that divides people into different groups based on their supposed lifestyles. According to one theory of classification two of these groups are the 'belongers' and the 'achievers'...")Good Listening
("What does it mean to be a good listener? In the first place, a good listener is open to the Word of God. As the minister prepares himself to preach the Word, so the listeners must prepare themselves to receive it...")The Different Ways of Responding to the Gospel
("Recently a drug manufacturer announced the study results of a new wonder drug for migraine headache sufferers. The research showed that within one hour of taking the drug a whopping 70 percent of the test patients had little or no pain...")Ordinary 15A (2005)
("Once upon a time there were two commodity brokers. One of them dashed on to the floor of the exchange and cornered the other. 'Sell!' he shouted. 'Sell'...")Ordinary 15A (1999)
("Once upon a time a couple of years ago an investment broker had a splendid idea - that the internet would in a few years be a huge success. He decided he would advise his clients to invest in aol.com, etc...")The Generosity of God
("Anne Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek describes this as the fecundity of God. She watched the egg case of the Praying Mantis open and thousands of small insects come forth. God’s wastefully generosity stands in contrast to our careful distribution of what we consider to be ours...")Living Parables
("there was this farmer who who was getting up in years and found it difficult to turn the hard Tennessee clay in order to sow his garden. The old man wrote a letter to his son who is in prison and mentioned his predicament. 'Dear Bubba, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot...")Proper 10A (2002)
("Archbishop Tom Morgan spoke to us one evening. He had told me earlier that he didn't know what he would say to us since we would have just concluded the election of the Bishop and a full and tiring day. He began to tell us about the Anglican experience of the last few years...")Don't Drill that Seed
("Harvard University has the largest endowment in the world. Billions of dollars! They hire four investment firms to invest one fourth of this endowment. Each year, they fire the firm with the worst record and hire a new one in its place..." and other illustrations)God the Reckless
("I read an article the other day entitled Why Your Dog Pretends to Like You. It turns out that dogs evolved from wolves about 100,000 years ago. Some mutated genes enabled them to mimic human emotions closely enough to encourage us to think they liked us...")Don't Weed! Make Sapce to Deal Inclusively...
David Ranson is an Australian Catholic priest. In a recent article in the publication Eremos, on reconciliation, Ranson records a comment by the Buddhist Dalai Lama. When asked did he hate the Chinese, the Dalai Lama replied ‘no’. ‘He remarked that the Chinese were indeed dominant and that he had no possibility of overthrowing them by might. Were he to hate them therefore no change would occur in the Chinese. But change would certainly occur within him. His own heart would become more tense, bitter and rigid. The only way forward then was to let go of the hateful feelings that might arise. In the space that ensued perhaps there was a greater possibility for peace’...Soil and Mirrors
("In Buddhism, when a man is ordained priest, he is given gifts for the journey, one of them a bowl with which to beg for food and also, when empty and clean, to strike as a gong to lead him into silence...")Fertility Facts
("There are times when someone speaks to me that they may as well be talking to a wall. For whatever reason, I do not hear what they are saying. The seed is falling on the path. There are times when an idea comes to which I latch right on with enthusiasm but there is no follow-through...")Soon May it Come
("I live here in Galilee -- in an insignificant little village called Nazareth. We are all peasants here. It's very difficult to scratch a living around here -- our land isn't of the best. That was taken over years ago by the local bigwig in Sepphoris, the neighbouring town. I'm one of the lucky ones - I've got my ancestral plot still...")The Sower and the Seeds
("Now, I have to make this a contemporary story. I have to tell it in my language, my culture, my century. Jesus said, "I am sitting in the middle of winter time, January or February, and I was reading my Burpee Seed Catalogue. I often read the Burpee Seed Catalogue and look for good ideas for gardening...")A Seedy Sermon
"a few weeks ago, my wife and I rented The Aviator, which is the story of mega-millionaire Howard Hughes. Early in his career, Hughes decided to produce and ultimately direct an epic movie about Royal Air Force fighter pilots in World War I. The movie was called Hell's Angels. To make that movie, he assembled the largest private air force in the world..." and another illustrationThe Parable of the Sower
["William Farmer, who was one of the foremost New Testament scholars in the world, once said, 'A parable is a simple story, using concrete imagery, to make a single point'. Simple as that: 'A parable is a simple story, using concrete imagery, to make a single point'. Parables are not intended to be allegories (where one thing represents another). They're not to be interpreted metaphorically. They're not similes, or analogies, or paradigms, or riddles..."]Proper 10A (2002)
there was a ten-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a horrible car accident. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move. “Sensei,” the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?” “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the Sensei replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. “No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue.” Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake; he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and the sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind: “Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?” “You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”...Ordinary 15A (2002)
"One of my brother Jesuits is a cardiologist, a specialist heart doctor. In fact, he is probably the most respected specialist heart doctor in his country. After a stellar academic career, he became at 33 the youngest professor of cardiology in his country's history..."I Ain't No Farmer, But
("I will never forget my first experience at planting tobacco. If you've never planted tobacco you probably have never seen a tobacco setter. A tobacco setter is a contraption that in a way resembles a - well - Come to think of it - it doesn't resemble anything!...")Proper 10A (2002)
("A story is told about the writer of the once highly acclaimed book Moderate Drinking: The New Option for Problem Drinkers. Audrey Kishline, author of that book, fell off the moderate drinking wagon herself and took up the bottle again in earnest...")Sowing the Mysterious Seed
("At any rate, I tried to break out of the typical indifference to my neighbor mode one day as I was walking to the Lightstreet post office. It seems that whenever I am walking to the post office, this one gentleman would be returning from the post office. He walks rather rapidly so if you are going to say anything to him, you need to be quick about it...")The Seed Within Us
("Who in your life is determined to have life and grow against tremendous odds? Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Ralph Abernathy, the Freedom Riders of the civil rights era, the Pullman porters who formed a union, many nameless people who suffered indignation on a daily basis...")Get a Grip
("A man once came to Buddha with an offering of flowers in his hands. Buddha looked up at him and said 'Drop it!' The man couldn't believe he was being asked to drop the flowers. Then it occurred to him that perhaps Buddha was asking him to drop the flowers that he had in his left hand...")The Reckless Sower
("Fred Craddock tells a story about the time he got a phone call from a woman whose father had died. She had been a teenager in one of the churches he had served as pastor twenty years before, and he would have sworn that if there was ever a person who never heard a word he said, that teenage girl was it...")Planting Good Seeds
("Joyce Rupp writes that many people are always thinking they will be happy 'when'. She states, 'Today I am going to put aside my', 'When this happens' and my 'If only this could be' and my 'When things get better' and my 'As soon as I have this'..." and other quotes)How Does Your Garden Grow?
("This morning I want to start with a short quiz. True or False? Grass seeds can't be planted in hot weather? False. It just takes more work to keep the ground damp...")What Kind Of Soil Are You?
("I read about a primitive tribe deep in the south American jungles. Anthropologists learned the most important role within the tribe was the "keeper of the flame." Since fire is so precious and it takes such effort to recreate, one member is entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the flame alive...")The Parable of the Soil
We make judgements in life too quickly. Carl Michalson in The Witness of Radical Faith (Abingdon Press) has a cute story about jumping to conclusions. He says: When my daughter was very small, she came in with a tear in her pants. My wife was annoyed with her. I have a patient wife, but my daughter had done this so often that at last my wife said, "Now you go into your room, take off those pants, and sew up that tear." The poor kid had never had a needle in her hand in her life. A little while later my wife saw the pants in the middle of the bedroom floor. She went in and looked around and there was no little girl. But she saw the light on down in the basement. She went to the basement door and called down, "Are you down there running around with your pants off ?" A big voice came back, "No, lady, I'm just reading the gas meter."The Soil in the Kingdom of God
One picture is of a little boy running into the living room all excited about learning to ride his two wheeled bicycle. He is bubbling with enthusiasm , with joy, with some (for him) tremendous piece of news. His mother smiles and says, "that's wonderful" and celebrates the good news with the child. She, in fact, shares some of the excitement. However, his father, sitting in a chair reading something, seems worried and preoccupied. He only hears garbled and incoherent sounds from the boy. One could say that the mother had the ears to hear and was able to celebrate with the child and enter into the joy of the moment. The father, on the other had wasn't able to hear because of preoccupations, and other concerns crowding into his life, and so was unable to share the experience.What Kind of Soil?
I was taken this week with a little piece by Sid Milton called What Money Can't Buy: A bed but not sleep. Books but not brains. Food but not appetite. Finery but not beauty. A house but not a home. Medicine but not health. Luxuries but not culture. Amusement but not happiness. A crucifix but not a Saviour. A church pew but not heaven.Life Is Not Always Fair
("Some years ago, a boy in a small Florida town heard that the Russians were our enemies. He began to wonder about the Russian children, finding it hard to believe that they were his enemies. He wrote a short note: 'Dear comrade in Russia. I am seven years old and I believe that we can live in peace...")The Parable of the Seeds
("I recently saw "Batman Begins", full of questions about the nature of justice and revenge. One line in the movie stood out for me, something like this: 'It is not what's underneath that counts, it's what I do that shows who I am'....)Seeds of Needs
"Anna Hovde began with her reading a cover story about the AIDS epidemic in Africa, after a typical day at home. –which led to her contacting an aid organization called People to People, which led visiting Ethiopia to volunteer..."Proper 10A (2005)
one of the characters whose life-style would find itself addressed by today’s Gospel lesson is George Eliot’s, Silas Marner. Silas found himself betrayed by a friend and unjustly condemned by a church court. Angrily, he decided there was no God, and resettled as an unknown stranger is another town...Sowing
("It is a story about my Grandfather, Grandpa Spachtholz, and my brother. Grandpa loved to garden. He grew up in Germany and worked in a greenhouse, but when he came to America, the job he got was working for the telephone company because he knew tools...")Proper 10A (2005)
("Bonhoeffer once said: 'God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother/sister, in the mouth of a man/ woman. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him/her...")
Currently Unavailable
Sowing the Seeds
("Think for a minute: who was Michael Jordan's grade school coach? Who was Billy Graham's junior high Sunday School teacher? Who was Albert Einstein's third grade math teacher? Who gave Eric Clapton guitar lessons? Who got Bill Gates interested in technology? Who plants the seeds of future greatness? It could be anybody. It could be us..." and other illustrations)What Kind of Soil?
I was taken this week with a little piece by Sid Milton called What Money Can't Buy: A bed but not sleep. Books but not brains. Food but not appetite. Finery but not beauty. A house but not a home. Medicine but not health. Luxuries but not culture. Amusement but not happiness. A crucifix but not a Saviour. A church pew but not heaven.Proper 10A (2005)
"one of the characters whose life-style would find itself addressed by today’s Gospel lesson is George Eliot’s, Silas Marner. Silas found himself betrayed by a friend and unjustly condemned by a church court. Angrily, he decided there was no God, and resettled as an unknown stranger is another town..."