Matthew 13 1-9 (2)
8th Sunday a. Pentecost
Matthew 13:1-9
July 14th, 2002
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Intro: There is a famous children’s story written by Frances Hodgson Burnett about a sour, self-absorbed little girl. Her name is Mary. As she is plays in the dirt making a fantasy garden other children gather around her and tease her by chanting – Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockleshells and marigolds all in a row. So goes the children’s nursery rhyme.
The children’s chant brings up the question I want to ask you today. How does your garden grow? Now I am not asking you about how you plant crops, prepare the soil, plant the seed or take in the harvest. Rather, how is it that your garden of faith grows. Our Lord Jesus, in the Parable of the Sower, speaks of human beings as soil where the Lord plants the seed of His Word. The result is faith, which springs up in people that He has called and they bear the fruit of God’s Spirit.
I. The Lord Sends Sowers
A. From the Fall to the Present
From the beginning the Lord has sent sowers into the world to preach His Word. They were sent into God’s creation, a creation, as the apostle Paul wrote in our epistle lesson, “subjected to frustration and that eagerly awaits liberation from it’s bondage and decay – all this being the result of human sinfulness. From the Garden of Eden until now, He has sent His prophets, apostles and pastors to announce the promise and it’s fulfillment - that the Lord has redeemed man and creation. Now the children of God and creation look forward to its completion when Christ comes again. The Lord sends sowers. By His grace He has sent them to us here at Immanuel for 155 years in our pastors, teachers, and faithful witnesses of our congregation.
B. He Has Brought Forth a Bountiful Harvest
As a result of God’s Word being proclaimed among us the Lord has brought forth a bountiful harvest from Immanuel. It is evident in your lives – what you have done and what you continue to do. We see it in your support of the Lutheran Laymen’s League, which spreads the Gospel though out the world in Lutheran Hour Ministries. We see it your Ladies Aid and it’s ministries of love to the less fortunate. We see it in your dedication to providing Christian education by maintaining your school. We see the Lord working through you in your congregational service and your love towards each other. In all these things we see the Lord working through Immanuel to sow the seed of God’s Word in this fallen world so that other people may hear and believe in Jesus as their Savior.
II. The Lord Continues to Plant in Us
A. His Work Has Not Been Completed in Us
It is important to remember that while we know that the Lord is working through us to save the lost, he also continues to work on us and in us for our salvation.
1. Temptation of Pride
When Christians hear the Parable of the Sower they often face temptation. It is so easy to think about other people when we hear about the various soil conditions, or should we say heart conditions, the Seed of God’s Word falls upon. We may be tempted to look at other people as we consider hearts as hard as the hard path, or shallow as the rocky soil, or filled with the thorns of temptation that crowd out the life giving, faith creating Word of God. We may believe that since we have faith we are like the good soil that receives and believes. We are, but in this life our hearts also contain the other, not so desirable types of soil.
2. Our Soil Conditions
A. Hard Hearted.
Our hearts are sometimes like the hard path. The Word of God seems to be impervious to our lives. We suffer from the hardness of stubbornness that does not do what the Word of God clearly proclaims. We are hearers of the word and not doers. We suffer from the hardness of apathy when we are confronted by the Word of God, but just don’t care about it’s relevance in our lives. We suffer form the hardness of disinterest when we neglect reading God’s word. Often our Bibles gather dust.
B. We are Shallow.
Our hearts are sometimes like the shallow, rocky path. Sometimes we are enthusiastic in our faith. We live in the splendor of what God has given us. Then problems come. Our faith may be severely tested when we or our loved ones become sick and die. We may doubt that God is truly for us and will never forsake us. We may wonder - God do you really love us.
Our shallowness is shown when we get excited about different programs, evangelism or mission work. Then when it comes time to donate money or time our excitement fades and we leave the work to someone else. Things always sound better as ideas, but acting on them is work. At times the soil of our hearts is quite shallow.
C. We are Thorny.
Our hearts are sometimes like the thorny ground. We desire the wealth, prosperity and pleasure that this world offers. To get them, we may be tempted to lead two different lives. One is Christian and the other is secular. We may go to great lengths to keep these lives separate. It’s like the man who says - “Work is work with its own set of rules and morals. The number one rule is to succeed, no matter what it takes”. And then he says - “church is church, where we act like Christians, or at least try to”. The thorns of our desires pierce us with grief because faith is crowded.
IV. The Good Soil.
What about the good soil of our hearts? Where does it come from? How does your garden grow? We may be tempted to believe that we have something to do with the process of preparing our own hearts to be good soil. We may believe that is moral living and religious behavior predispose us to God’s favor and make us receptive to His Word. But just as soil is incapable of making itself good we too are incapable to make ourselves ready to receive God’s word and believe. Ezekiel wrote (11:19) “I will give them one heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. It is by God’s grace alone that we believe. When Peter made his confession that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus replied that that is was not flesh and blood but the Father in heaven that had revealed this to him. Jesus told His disciples that no one can come to Him unless the Father grants it. Certainly we suffer from hard, shallow, and thorn infested hearts. It is into these hearts and under these conditions that God sews His seed. It is with soil like this that He creates the miracle of good soil that gives root to faith that believes in and trusts in Christ. How does God make life spring up out of hearts like ours? It is by the power of His holy Word and by His Holy Spirit.
B. Is Chosen.
He chose the soil of your hearts as the place to plant His most treasured seed. That seed was Christ, the faithful sower, made you into good soil by walking down the hard path to the cross. It is at the cross that he suffered for your hard heartedness and shallowness. It is at the cross where he wore the thorns of your desires as a crown. At the cross Christ died for you. Then the Sower, Christ was sown in the ground like seed and rose to life as the first fruit of the grave. The good soil of your hearts comes from His empty tomb. His Word germinated within your heart and faith sprouted. He watered the seed of your faith with the waters of your Holy Baptism. Slowly you grew and you developed in the light of His Word. Your soil conditions are good. Through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit you bear the sweet fruits of faith and love for your neighbor. You will bring forth a tremendous harvest
Conclusion: How does your garden of faith flourish and grow? Isaiah tells us as we read from the Old Testament earlier – “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven…and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my Word that goes out of My mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” As God calls forth the seed to grow from the ground he calls faith to grow in you from the seed of His Holy Word.