Sexagesima

Sexagesima Isaiah 55:10-13 Hebrews 4:9-13 Luke 8:4-15 #170 FLC/ILC Pastor James Peterson 02/20/2022 Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The theme is this: God sows His Word all over the place. Admittedly, I am only starting to learn about farming. But I do know this. Corn and beans are planted in nice, neat rows. It's all about the bushel per acre. But then when I started learning about wheat, I realized that it isn't planted that way. It's scattered all over the place, and at harvest time, it gets mowed down like grass, separating the kernel from the chaff, and all that biblical language. I don't know, maybe the sower is planting wheat. Obviously God is the Sower in our story. And He sows the seed all over the place. His Word goes out all over the world, to believers and to unbelievers, to faithful and unfaithful, to the weak and the strong. God sends out His Word so abundantly that He even does what we would never do. He starts up the planter and throws seed on the interstate! He heads over to Colorado to plant seeds in the mountains. He starts up the engines and sows seeds in the desert. No rational farmer would do that, even if he owned the land. And yet this is what the church did even two years ago. None of us would have considered online church services. None of us would have considered Zoom Bible Studies. And yet, we showed the world how we worshipped. When I was at the Pastor's Conference last month, we talked about the mission opportunity of online church, that the church was willing to spread the Word of God like a sower sowing seeds all over the earth. But we also talked about the challenges that this new thing caused, that some people found different churches and left our congregations. That other people became too afraid to go back to church. That congregations and council meetings became tense and divisive, and that faith was not growing through suffering. This is why the Sower goes out to sow. Not that we are the path, or the rocks, or the thorns, or the good soil. We aren't just one of the soils. That kind of an idea leads to self-righteousness on the one hand (Hey, I'm the good soil) or to a feeling of unworthiness on the other (I can't get out of these thorns). This was the issue I always found with this text, that I would think I was the rocky soil, and start to identify myself that way. That I was now and always would be the rocky soil or the thorny soil. But it wasn't me, but the experiences I was going through. For it is the experiences and the sufferings that are the soil in our lives. That the Sower sows the Word into the world, all over the world, to all kinds of people. But those people are all dealing with different soils of suffering. Some are tempted by the devil, the world, or our own sinful nature. The Word that they received they then reject. This happens all the time, to all sorts of people. Others received the Word, but have no root, no foundation, nothing to keep them grounded. And eventually they wither away. Still others have heard the Word of God, but have found that there are other entertainments, that there are other more important values, and their faith does not grow but is choked out by the riches and the pleasures. My point is this: that at any one point in your life you could be any one of these soils. We aren't the good soil ourselves, like the Pharisees and the hypocrites thought. Nor are those who experience sufferings and doubts forever damned as the thorny or the rocky. Rather it is the soil of suffering you are at, and no matter what soil you find yourself for this tory, the Lord God still sows the seed all around you. The Sower goes out to sow. He sows the Old Testament reading to you that says that the Word goes out from God's mouth and it shall not return to Him empty. That God's Word accomplishes the reason that it was sent. I often speak about this, that I preach one sermon, but each one of you applies it to your own life a little differently. This is how the Holy Spirit accomplishes faith in you. The Lord sows even more today from the Epistle Reading, that there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. What a comfort in a context when we went without church a few years ago. What a joy that today we are here together in worship. What a blessing that we can be here and have rest for our souls. There is a sabbath rest for you even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of disappointment. Because the Lord God sows His Word all over the place. For now, we tell our neighbors about the Sower, that God sends the Word to us while we suffer. That maybe this year we are in the rocky soil, but next year we will be in the thorns. That at this moment, right now, we are in the good soil, hearing the Word, holding it fast in an honest and good heart, and bearing fruit with patience. But that no matter what we go through, the Word of God is always offered from this lectern and from this pulpit. That the Word of God is available to us unlike any other time in the history of the world. The Sower goes out to sow, even today, as we wait for a preacher, as we pray for a preacher. The Sower goes out to sow, into all the world, to all kinds of people, to bring sinners to repentance. The Sower goes out to sow, not having stopped sowing when He ascended into heaven, but still providing for Word and Sacrament in our midst and all across this country this weekend. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.