Pentecost 8                                     Matt. 13:1-9, 18-23                                        

                                                       “Wasteful Farming”

I once knew a man named Charley.  He was an elderly disabled man living in a nursing home.  There are, of course, many many Charley’s living in nursing home, so something had to be special about this Charley to have him stick in my memory all these years.  Well, Charley was a wasteful farmer – a sower, if you will – but in his wasteful sowing Charlie may have done more for spreading God’s love than anyone else I know.

Charley had had a massive stroke some years before.  While the stroke didn’t kill him, it did leave him completely paralyzed on one side.  That paralysis made it impossible for Charley to care for himself and he wound up in this nursing home.

Charley spent his days sitting in a wheelchair in a public area of the nursing home.  He would smile his stroke broken little smile and greet everyone as they came up the hall.  Charley did something more though.  Charley handed anyone who would accept it, a 3X5 card on which was printed:

 “’Serve the Lord with gladness,’

        (Ps.100:2) 

     and share Jesus’ Love.

     Be a Charley’s Angel. 

Take this card and let it remind you to do

something kind for a stranger today. 

Then leave this card where the person will find it.”

Some people took the card and stuck it in their pockets.  Some took it and dropped it in the trash on the way up the hall.  Some refused and appeared annoyed at the interruption of their lives.  But some people accepted the card with joy and followed the instructions.   I know this because one day months after I’d met Charley a story appeared in the local newspaper about Charley’s Angels and the impact Charley was having.  The story listed some of those who had been good soil for Charley’s wasteful ministry and the acts of kindness they had done.

I asked Charley once why he would spend the meager allowance a nursing home resident was allowed on something that actually had relatively little gain, for even Charley knew that only a very few people followed through.  Charley’s response was that if he could feel that even a few people experienced God’s love for them, then he felt that his continued existence on this earth was justified.

As a result of that story a church group took on the project of keeping Charley well supplied with cards and the last time I saw Charley he was still sitting in that chair with his twisted little smile handing out cards that said, (Refer to top).

...........................................

This gives us a very contemporary human picture of the “Wasteful Farming” God does as presented in Jesus parable.  God throws out the seeds of His love in Jesus without thought for where it will land, or how it will be received and utilized.

Some of His love will no doubt land with a person who rejects God’s grace right away. 

Some of His love will land with a person who accepts God’s grace but before anyone can come along and press it into them, the person is distracted by events all around and the devil snatches the thought of God’s love away. 

Some of His love will land with a person who is an enthusiastic receiver, but never allows grace to really germinate within him.  This person is constantly exploring, seeking, but never settling in to any faith group.  When being a believer gets a bit difficult, he’s off to another religion and the grace dries up.

Some of His love will land with a person who means well, but lets his schedule dictate his life, and there is no room on the schedule for the Word of God.  This person never allows the Holy Spirit to establish strong roots of faith and when troubles come or the temptations of this world attract, faith is choked out.

Some of His love will land with a person who is open and prepared to receive.  This person, not only receives God’s grace gladly, but commits to growing in it.  As a result, the person bears much more fruit – spreads more grace and love - than was originally received.

This last person becomes a disciple, a member of the body of Christ, the true sower.  As a member of that body, the disciple broadcasts seed just as wastefully as God.  The disciple gives love to those most in need without thought for what will be gained.  Others may or may not be attracted to the disciple’s church and increase the membership because of the love shown them, but that doesn’t matter, because according to God’s agribusiness, it is the sowing that the disciple is to be concerned with, not success or failure.  

The fruit of the seed that falls on good ground is also the continued spreading of the Gospel.  A good strong plant doesn’t worry about what other plants think of it.  It produces the best fruit it can and leaves the rest to God.  We simply tell what God has done for us and allow the Spirit to work in the heart of the person.  We don’t have to have immediate results.  It may take the hearing of other people’s words or a crisis to cause that seed to germinate and grow.  Our job is to just sow the seed as generously and wastefully as God did for us, and to keep doing so as long as we live.  We never know, we may even be what nudges to life the long dormant seed sown by another.

It was reported that researchers in Jerusalem have managed to germinate a seed found in the archeological excavation of the ancient fortress of Massada.  The seed is thought to have been at least 2000 years old.  From that seed they grew a baby date palm tree.  And the value of that seed goes beyond just growing a plant from a 2000 year old seed.  Leaves of the date palm have been shared with DNA specialists who hope to find medicinal elements that have been bred out of modern palms.  So the palm from that 2000 year old seed may produce more palms that will yield a medicine that will bringing relief or healing to untold people.

We never know what greater good may come from the seeds that seem to have been part of the wasteful farming of God’s grace.  By being a sower we may start something growing we never expected or hoped for, but which will have wonderful fruit.

Rick Warren, the “church growth” writer of The Purpose Driven Church, says that “the fruit of a believer is another believer”.  Now while, I think there are different kinds of fruit and God calls us to also bear the fruit of caring for people’s needs, speaking out for the poor and oppressed, working for peace and justice also, we are called to take every opportunity to spread the seed of the Good News of Jesus Christ wherever we are.

We can’t know or control how much of the seed of God’s grace will fall on good soil.  We can guess that much will be wasted, but we need to continue our wasteful farming for Jesus sake and our own.  For, like Charley, even if only a few people experience God’s love because of what we do with our meager resources, we can feel that our lives and the seed planted in us has been justified.  Be one of Charley’s Angels and sow seeds of God’s love today.  Amen.