What are WE putting out there?

 

Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him 
that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told 

them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, 

some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky 

ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no 

depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they 

withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 

Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some 

thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” “Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears 

the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away 

what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky 

ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a 

person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on 

account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, 

this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the 

word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the 

word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another 

sixty, and in another thirty.”

I will skip to the punchline.

Regardless of what kind of soil, heart, mind, soul a person has, the Holy Spirit gives the Word, either 

by the reading or hearing of it, or by witnessing the Good News of Agape Love being lived in the 

world.  It is not as though the Holy Spirit decides that it is a wasted exercise on some, so that the 

Word is not given to them.  You can be as hard-headed and crusty as the path, but the Good News 

of Agape Love will find its way to you, regardless of whether or not it sinks in, grows or produces 

fruit.  You can be as rocky, inconsistent and flighty as you want to be, but the Holy Spirit will 

deliver the Good News of Agape Love to you, whether or not it has the chance to grow and 

produce fruit in your life.  You can have a thorny heart and be preoccupied with wealth and 

other things in the world all you want so that you ignore the plight of other human beings, but 

the Holy Spirit and the Good News of Agape Love will find you, giving you a chance to have 

it grow within you, come out of you and produce good fruit in the world.  God's Grace is 

universal, God's Love is universal and God's relentless effort to fill the world with Agape Love 

is universal.  

Now, if God does not give up on the seed depositories less like to produce, in the hopes that they 

will grow and flourish and produced good fruit in the world out of Agape Love, who are we to give 

up on them?  We are commissioned to be the hands, feet, hearts and mouths of God in this part of 

God's Kingdom, here and now.  The Holy Spirit moves us to live that Agape Love, which is producing 

good fruit in the lives of God's children.  If we do not do so, then we are being the kinds of soil that 

Jesus described in the parable.  I believe that Jesus is encouraging us to BECOME the good soil and 

produce the good fruit of the Kingdom, which is the Agape Love that will transform the world into a 

place in which all people have Shalom/eireinei.  

The Word is Agape Love.  The Word is Life.  The evil of empire produces selfishness, apathy, 

complacency and hatred.  Agape Love produces generosity, advocacy and community out of 

committed action on behalf of one another.  We are the hands, feet, hearts and mouths of God in 

the world as followers of Jesus.  Jesus' command to live Agape Love in the world IS faithfulness 

to God when we heed that command and bear good fruit that sustains and encourages life, life 

abundant and life forever.