The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for July 13, 2008

Texts: Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24/Matthew 13:1-9

Title: “Sow What?”  “Sow How?”

           There was a time not to long ago when I looked forward to the arrival of the monthly Edward Jones financial statement.  And why wouldn’t I? Each statement reported a respectable, if not generous, return on investment.  I was making money.  These days a statement revealing that I haven’t lost money is cause for celebration. 

              My plight from all I hear and read is widely shared. Perhaps some of you find yourselves in the same boat I’m in.  I don’t beat myself for I know there are good economic reasons---the mortgage lending crisis, rising price of oil, the falling value of the dollar---to explain why my investments aren’t performing. Yet ultimately I know that it was I who chose how and where to invest my money.  I selected the funds into which I would invest, and the amounts of money I would allocate to each of them.

              There are good choices and bad choices, opportunities to be embraced, obstacles to be avoided. As I reread the first nine verses of this morning’s Gospel lesson I was struck by some similarities I saw between those verses and the challenges we investors face in earning a return on our investment. Recall the lesson: “A certain [investor] went out to invest. And as he invested, some of his money fell on the path, and the bears came along and gobbled it.  Other money fell on rocky ground, risky ventures that produced whopping returns. But when word got out disclosing how insubstantial the ventures were, the money shriveled up overnight. Other money fell among thorns, unethical money managers who siphoned off large fees before it was even invested.  The investor would have been despondent were it not for the fact that some of that money fell on good ground, and it really took off.  His return on investment was thirty, sixty, even a hundred percent.”

              What Jesus’ sower working a field, and what the investor does in the markets are by their nature quite different, however, the competence, but also the diligence, displayed by the two are the most prominent factors in determining the results each might obtain. Just as there are inept investors today, there were certainly inept sowers in Jesus’ day. It is a given that there were sowers in the first century who were no more capable in their fields, then the novice investor looking to make some money in the stock market.

              If a person has no eye for the kind of ground that might be sufficiently fertile to produce a crop that person is likely to waste a lot of time, energy, and resources. Likewise a bankroll can disappear in a very brief time if a person has no eye for the kind of investment that might turn a profit.  An inept sower and the inept investor are likely to share adjoining rooms in the poor house.

              If a person who is working the field or investing her money is skilled and competent but carelessly fails to invest the time in determining when or where to plant, he or she is like the stock picker who blindly invests on a whim rather than on a well thought out strategy. Owing to his carelessness that sower or investor is likely to see little if any return for the efforts expended.

              If a person comes to the field or to her investing with a detached attitude, content to act or not as the mood dictates that person is likely to be dismayed when harvest time comes, or when the quarterly financial statement shows up in the mail.

              In his parable of the sower Jesus gives great attention to the waste incurred as a result of the sower’s action, waste the investor of today can incur if he or she like that ancient sower is inept, careless or too detached.     

              Jesus’ parable of the sower is about missed opportunities and sacrificed potential, the very things that confront us when we review our monthly or quarterly investment statements during the current economic downturn. Though Jesus doesn’t fault the sower in the parable for opportunities missed and potential sacrificed, the facts are the facts, only a portion of what the sower sowed found suitable ground in which to root.

              Jesus came into the world teaching, in very many cases in the form of a parable.  The parable employs some situation in daily life, some experience common to his audience, to communicate a life lesson with far-reaching implications.  The parable of the sower performs that function with great economy, Jesus using very few words to communicate a lesson whose relevance transcends the ages. 

            We who have been exposed to the sower parable from early age recognize that it is a parable about communication, the sower being the communicator.  The sower sends his seed, his message, into the world, but we learn that barely a fourth of what he communicates takes root and produces a return. 

            Now when Jesus originally taught the parable his disciples questioned if his audience would grasp its meaning. In order to satisfy his disciples Jesus uses the second half of the lesson I read to explain the parable point by point.

            His interpretation of the parable is clear enough.  It is a parable about the difficulty the sower, God or Jesus, has in communicating the “word of the kingdom, or gospel, to an unreceptive world. Or, returning to the investing analogy, it a parable about how difficult it is to make a profit in a bear market. Jesus has his eyes on the obstacles his message faces in the world, we have our eyes on the obstacles we face in, if not turning a profit on our investments, at least holding on to the assets we currently have. 

               As Christ’s representatives to the world, the church faces the challenges the Lord faced when he was with us in the flesh. How do we communicate the gospel in such a way as to maximize our return on the investment we are making in time, talent, and treasure?   

             How do we as members of the body of Christ communicate the gospel? It is a question of method.  How? There is another question, however, that must come first.  Just as the sower had to decide what seed he would sow, the church must decide what message it wishes to communicate?  

               Do you ever watch congressional hearings?  Eight, ten, or more members of Congress seated behind this long and imposing bench in the hearing room, while seated before them are the witnesses invited, but frequently subpoenaed, to offer testimony.  The questioning is often hostile, the witness earning our sympathies even if they are not particularly sympathetic characters themselves.   

                In most cases the hearings open with a statement from the witness, the congressmen or women using the time allotted them to probe the statement with a barrage of questions. Amid the barrage even the best prepared and most confident witness often falters as he or she attempts to explain his or her statement. The persons may know what they want to say both inside and out, but the probing questions and critical comments to which they are subjected prod and jostle them out of their comfort zone. That which they wanted to communicate, testimony they had rehearsed countless times in private, or before coaches, often falls apart under scrutiny.

              Like that congressional witness, the church is called to give testimony, in our case testimony to the Good News of Jesus Christ. Worship is the time when the church gathers to rehearse its testimony.  Commonly the rehearsal is conducted according to the order laid out in the bulletin you were handed when you arrived. What you find there will not surprise any of you who worship here regularly, or who are visiting but regularly worship elsewhere. There are prayers, there are hymns, there is an affirmation of faith, there are lessons from Scripture, and there is a sermon based on one, or both, of the lessons. 

             The gospel is what the church seeks to communicate; the testimony God would have us sow in the world. We rehearse our testimony in prayer, hymn, Scripture and sermon, not so as to prepare ourselves for possible hostile cross examination, as the congressional witness might. We rehearse in order to insure that the testimony we are called to give becomes authentically our own, so authentically our own that if someone were to ask us, or even challenge us, concerning what we believe, or why we believe, we will be prepared to answer.

               The church has testimony to present to the world, but many of us have spent so little time learning it and rehearsing it, that any witness we might be prepared to offer isn’t really substantial. Just as the sower cannot expect a crop, or an investor cannot expect a profit, unless he or she knows the seed he is sowing, or the stock in which she is investing, so the church can expect little return on investment if the people of the church don’t know the gospel they are expected to share.

              It is time for all of us to spend more time on our communication, our testimony. Here is a suggestion.  Each week we provide a list of daily Bible readings in your bulletin. Take that list home with you and read the assigned lesson each day, bring the lesson into your prayers, discuss the lesson with your spouse or your child.  Try to apply what is taught there to you life.

                Sow what?  The church has been called to sow the gospel.  In order to sow, however, one must know the gospel.

               After we have addressed the “sow what” question we can move on to the “sow how” question. How do we “sow” the gospel in the world? Our friends in the advertising world might tell us that we have to place our name where the people are.  Those doorknob hangers many of us placed on doorknobs across Lakeview are a start. 

               Signage is important, while media announcements inform the public about worship opportunities and other church functions.  In this age of the internet an attractive and informative website is a must.   

              Our friends in advertising are constantly coming up with new and creative approaches for placing their clients’ names and products before the public. But any advertiser will tell you that no amount of advertising is as effective as the personal testimonial of a trusted acquaintance or friend when it comes to closing a sale.

              The best strategy for sowing the gospel is through those personal contacts we make in the course of daily living. Students of communication will tell you that for all the programs and strategies available to spread the gospel, none is as effective as a personal connection between one person and another. 

               We have the misfortunate as a church and as a denomination that the majority of us found our way into the church by no personal decision of our own.  We were baptized as infants or at a very young age and passed through our early Christian formation into adult participation in the church without a specific invitation to participate in the life of the church.  Because we have not received such an invitation we have never envisioned ourselves in the role of an invitee. We became Christians by accident of birth rather than by conviction. We have cultivated certain habits as Christian in worship and outlook.

               Our Christian habits do not impress the world; the business of the church is to display its convictions. So what shall we put on display?  We at Lakeview are engaged in a process of sorting that out, challenging ourselves to identify the vision and mission that mobilizes us to action. The results of some of that effort are outlined in the bulletin insert you were handed this morning.

               The sower went out, and if you look at it one way wasted a lot of time, squandered a lot of seed, but he kept plugging along because he knew the value of what he was sowing, and he knew how to sow.

               That is not to say, however, that knowing what he was sowing and to how to sow insured him of success wherever he went. Much seed did not, in fact, germinate, as we discovered, but from the results he did achieve he derived encouragement to continue his labor.

                Sow what?  Sow how?  What are we to sow and how?  Two unavoidable questions for any church serious about ministry.  To know “what” we know, however, is the essential first step that must be taken before we consider the “how” of communication.  If we know sufficiently know the what we wish to communicate, God can be counted upon to help us with the how. May the Holy Spirit guide our efforts. AMEN.

               [Our prayers this morning will consist of a series of prayer petitions, each section ending with the words, “Lord, in your mercy,” to which the congregation will respond, “Hear our prayer”]

              Let us pray

             Lord, we come to you praying for wisdom to put first things first. We recite the “great commandment,” “You shall love the Lord your God with all heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself,” yet the first things in our lives, the things to which we devote the majority of our time and energies, are not the priorities the great commandment establishes.  Instead we commit ourselves to lesser things, chasing personal visions that promise much but deliver little. Lord, in your mercy….

             Lord, the sower went out into the field to sow, but the seed fell upon rock, or it found little soil in which to root.  Even now you are sowing in our midst, by means of Holy Scripture, the prayers, the hymns, and the sermon opening our lives to your restorative powers.  Heavenly Father, into new openings in our lives you sow the seeds of righteousness and hope. May new growth spring from these lives of ours that in our lives the world may witness signs of your kingdom taking shape. Lord, in your mercy…

                O Christ, our Lord, we pray for the church you founded and charged to be the mediator of your grace.  May your ministers, and all who speak and serve in your name, be faithful.  May they preach, teach, and counsel with integrity, demonstrating in their personal lives an abiding and deep commitment to the ministries they were ordained to undertake. We pray for churches suffering division, churches where conflict rather ministry set the agendas being served.  Lord in your mercy…

                O lord, we pray for our nation, and those we have elected to lead us.  We pray for our President, his cabinet, and all who advise him. We pray for the members of Congress.  We pray for the Supreme Court and other members of the federal judiciary.  We pray for our governor and our state legislators.  We pray for our mayor and the city council.  May our leaders serve with clarity of purpose and unswerving commitment, the public good rather than private advantage their motivation. Lord in your mercy…

              O Lord, our God, hear the cries of the grieving as they mourn the loss of loved ones.  Grant strength to those who are living through the soul’s dark night.  Where desperation has made the heart impenetrable, and death seems preferable to life, there be to deliver and restore. Lord in your mercy…        

              Lord of creation, we confess that we have not been faithful stewards of the earth’s resources.  We who make our ownership claims to what is rightfully yours, continue to treat the resources of the earth as we choose, ignoring our responsibility to conserve for future generations.  Forgive our selfish ways.  Lord, in your mercy…      

              O Christ, Prince of Peace, we pray for peace.  Nations have shown great innovation in designing and building weapons of war, but have displayed little of that innovation in creating strategies for peace. Even as we watch with dismay as nations boast new weapons, we know that the people of the world hunger for the end of conflict.  May those aspirations be fulfilled.  Lord, in your mercy…

              Lord, we pray your blessings on those who have special needs.  We pray for healing on behalf of Rudy, Shane, Pam, Mary Ann, Joyce…..

Lord in your mercy….   

              O Christ, in reverent praise we gather praying as your church the prayer you taught us…