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Thrown alongside

How can throwing the parable of the sower alongside our own lives challenge us and offer us hope (Matthew 13.1-9,18-23)?

Context

This is the first time that the word ‘parable’ appears in the Gospel of Matthew. It is interesting that it has taken 13 chapters to get to this point. And it is telling where and when it happens. The Greek word parabole, from which the English ‘parable’ derives, literally means ‘thrown alongside’. It is intriguing therefore that when Jesus tells so many parables (the whole of chapter 13 comprises either parables or discussion about their meaning) he is seated in a boat, near the seashore.

Visually we can think of the seashore as the place where the sea is thrown alongside the land – so it is perhaps therefore the ideal place for parables, Jesus’ most characteristic teaching, where a vibrant image of the Kingdom is thrown alongside the everyday life of those who are listening to the words. Just as the ebb and flow of the waves repeatedly covers and uncovers the ground on which we are standing, so that gradually we are soaked, refreshed and revived, so also with parables, as we allow them to wash over us again and again, we discover ourselves being changed and being given new eyes for seeing.

As we stand on the seashore listening to Jesus – we find ourselves placed on an important threshold. The seashore is the boundary between the settled everyday life of human beings, and the fearsome and unknown depths of the sea, which only God could control. Parables themselves characteristically set these two different ‘worlds’ alongside each other, inviting us – challenging us – to see each in the light of the other. Of course, the parable of the sower is itself a story about throwing: the seed and the soil are quite literally ‘thrown alongside’ each other.

Jesus’ parables offer us, but do not compel us, to see the events of ‘ordinary’ life, thrown alongside us, as signs of the Kingdom of God. There is a remarkable story featured in the latest edition of The Big Issue which is well worth drawing attention to. David Clarke, a 33-year-old economics writer who lives in Liverpool, had inherited a sizeable sum of money from his mother, a Quaker. Since he felt he had no personal need of it he decided to give it away. However, as well as offering substantial contributions to charities and organisations with which he is personally connected, he decided to set up a project called ‘Wealth Shared’ in which he recruited 12 ordinary people, selected at random, to make a joint decision on how £100,000 of the money should be shared. The aim is both to empower those who are the deciders (and perhaps change their lives through the new responsibility given to them) as well as offer ‘seeds’ to up to four ‘good causes’.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• The sower of the parable (in effect God, working through Jesus) is totally extravagant and profligate! Perhaps just as the son of another of Jesus’ parables is always referred to as ‘prodigal’, so also this parable should be called ‘the Parable of the Profligate Sower.’ The sower throws his seeds with abandon; on the path, on the rocks, among the weeds, rather than conserving his seed supply carefully for potentially productive soil. The modern hymn by the US hymn writer Tom Troeger, ‘A spendthrift lover is the Lord’ catches this wonderfully generous vision.
• There’s a well-known fable about a man who was browsing in a store when he made the shocking discovery that it was God who was behind the sales counter. So the man walked over and asked, ‘What are You selling?’ God replied, ‘What does your heart desire?’ The man said, ‘I would like to have happiness, peace of mind, and freedom from fear…for me and the whole world.’ God smiled and said, ‘I don’t sell fruit here. Only seeds.’
• ‘Only seeds.’ Pope Francis has rightly noticed that this parable is a story about hope. Without hope – the sower would not have bothered to sow his seeds. Although in the original parable the sower seems to be identified as God, Francis analogizes from that that he – and we – also profess our identity as people of hope, whenever we share our knowledge and insights and sow our own seeds. ‘The sower needs hope in order to sow. In other words what leads him to sow is the hope that the seed will bear fruit in the future. I do not hold on to the seeds. I sow them every day. I do not hold on to my skills and my knowledge. I share them and I keep working, giving …’ (Pope Francis, Lenten Reflections)
• It is actually not simple to make straightforward correlations with the different elements of the parable. Although the ‘seed’ appears to be the word of God, we are not just the different kinds of ‘soil’. We are also in some sense ‘what was sown’ (see 13:19,20,22,23) i.e. potentially the ‘seed’. Indeed, given the way that elsewhere in the Gospels (e.g. John 12.24) Jesus identifies himself with the seed that must die before it can bear fruit, there is an interconnection between the sower and the seed. Perhaps indeed it was the very profligacy of the sower that scandalised people – and led to his passion. For logical minds it can be irritating that ‘clear’ identifications don’t easily work out: but perhaps that leads us to the heart of this parable, which is, in some sense, a parable about parables. It is ‘thrown alongside’ us – and we are invited to make the connections, become part of the story ourselves and bear fruit.

 

Questions for discussion

• Is this indeed a story about hope, as Pope Francis suggests?
• What ‘seeds’ would you want to buy if you visited that ‘shop’ in the story? How would you help turn each of your seed purchases into fruit?
• In the context of today’s world, with what would you identify the different kinds of soil in the parable?
• Listen to ‘The Sower’s Song’ or watch it on video. It ends with the repetition of the phrase ‘and the sower leads us’. Where do you think the sower is leading us today? What ‘parables’ has God ‘thrown alongside us’ in our contemporary world that God is inviting us to become part of?

Dr Clare Amos is currently honorary director of lay discipleship in the Church of England Diocese in Europe. Until her retirement she worked in the areas of interfaith relations and theological education at the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Communion Office.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Have you ever taken an online personality quiz which asks you a series of yes or no questions? - each one leading to another, which then reveals which sort of person, Disney Princess, or Marvel Hero you’ll be in the future? Do you ever then go back to the start and try and rig it so the outcome is Iron Man? Or, admit it, Elsa?

Well, this week’s passage is a bit like one of those! But with seeds…and soil… slightly less glamorous, but way more profound. Read it back, and now imagine this stream of questions:

- Do you have the kingdom of God planted in your heart? Yes or No
- Are you overjoyed in knowing God’s word? Yes or No
- Do you let worry and greed overshadow your faith? Yes or No

If you answered "Yes": Are you ready to grow in that faith?

A firm foundation in faith, and a growing faith is vital at any stage of the year, or indeed our lives. But arguably more so with the many periods of transition young people face at this time of year! Are you transitioning into secondary school; your GCSE’s; sixth form; university; or a new job over this summer?

It can be tempting to let the weeds in when we move on to new environments, trying to choke what we know to be true. It can be easy to move into darkness to fit in. But Jesus calls us to stay true to our foundations, wherever we might go. That way we can truly take the next steps on our journey and grow in faith too.

What things do you need to prune away, and which things do you need more of, to help your growth in this time of change?

Natasia Bullock is director of Christian theatre company The B Tales.

 

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