Sexagesima + Second Sunday Before Lent

Luke 8:4-15

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The topic recently arose in our home about planting tomato seeds for a bountiful harvest this summer. The snow and cold made us question if it’s too soon, yet sowing seeds must begin early and in a controlled environment. The plant must take in the good nutrients only good soil may provide; the seed must sprout forth into a strong and fortified plant that will be able to sustain life outside the controlled climate of the home. Once outside, the plant will often appear helpless against the birds of the air or the squirrels that constantly patrol the parameter. It will be a battle for life and death.

The Gospel we heard today is another parable meant to reveal the profound truths of the faith using analogies that should be familiar to the disciples. Yet, even they asked Jesus, “What does this parable mean?”

Many today probably join the disciples in asking, “What does Jesus mean?”

Why? Because many of us no longer sow seeds or farm as the generations of our families before us did. These once necessary and challenging tasks for survival are simply lost on many of us.

Just as the Landowner last week was God, the Sower is Christ Himself, and the seed is the Word He preaches. The parable provides an image of the Church and how the preached Gospel is received in various ways, yet it brings forth the fruit of faith in very few hearts.

Thus, Jesus presents a parable with four types of soil and four types of reception of the seed, which, as mentioned previously, is the Word of God.

The first type of soil is the bare road; seeds sowed or tossed freely upon this road fall and yield no reward. In fact, they do not even have the opportunity to implant themselves. Instead, the birds of the air come down as seagulls looking to feast upon breadcrumbs scattered along a body of water. They are little devils who swoop down to snatch the Word of God that has entered your ears before it will ever even reach your heart.

How so, the Christian asks? This endeavor of these devils does not even wait for you to depart these doors either. Instead, the temptations already exist that would prevent the seed from penetrating your ears. There can be a temptation to converse with your neighbor during the Divine Service if a thought occurs; it’s not just children who chatter in church. Even the bulletin and its announcements can keep you from hearing the sermon if tempted. There are plenty of ways for the little devils of the world to snatch away the Word God is trying to sow into your ears.

Well, at least with the rocks, the seed has a chance, right? Some individuals hear the Word of God and receive it with great eagerness and joy. But with just the right balance of carelessness and temptation, the seeds never take root—the rocky soil leads to a quick death.

This is a scary situation. How many congregations have young people brought up in the Church but no longer possess faith? The seed was planted in a safe environment, in the Church, but they fell away when temptation approached outside the home.

As noted above, life is not a question of “if” temptation comes but when it comes. Before His arrest on the Mount of Olives, Jesus said to His disciples, “Pray not to come into temptation " (Luke 22:46). Yet, we all succumb to temptation, just as the disciples fell asleep while the Lord prayed.

For some, the temptations of life lie in the people they associate with, their friends and co-workers, or the doctrines of false churches that allure them. What lacks for seed sowed upon the rocks is proper and sustaining nutrients for man's life - what is required and needed is the water of life found in the daily drowning and rising of Holy Baptism.

But the person who has entered temptation has turned away from this life-giving water; they are like Judas, who believed for a little while but fell away and succumbed to the temptations of the world.

Judas is a good segue to the third type of soil, the soil of thorns. Judas believed for a little while before turning to his heart's desires; one of the causes of his fall and death was his desire for riches and pleasure.

You see, the soil of rock is of no benefit, as is the soil of thorns. We learn in verse twelve of our Gospel that seeds sown in either of these settings will survive “for a time,” but death is inevitable apart from good soil.

Over time, the thorns will literally suffocate and impede any plant growth you wish to grow.

Here is an image of competing worldviews. Children are prepared throughout their youth, but as they depart home and enter the uncontrolled environment of the world or a college campus, the cares and pleasures of this world and the desire for riches lead them astray and choke the very life of God from their veins.

Saint John wrote in his first epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

This is not easy though, is it? You, too, come to church but once a week and then depart into the world and are expected not to be conformed by your surroundings.

For this, I believe it is essential to go back to the conclusion of the first section of the Gospel when Jesus says, “‘But other [seed] fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.’ When He had said these things He cried, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’”

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

To be one who “hears” is to be a catechumen - the word catechumen derives from the Greek as “one under instruction” and often refers to a young person or adult participating in the ongoing instruction of the Christian faith. Paul writes in Romans, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

Therefore, the process of tending to the soil of one’s heart, to be confirmed in the Christian faith, and being brought into eternal life begins and ends with the intentional and continual hearing of God’s Word, the seed of the Sower.

And yet, as we learn from the Gospel, not everyone who receives the seed will remain in the Sower. This is often a mystery to us, but it also reveals why the Sower sows indiscriminately; He casts His net wide. His aim is for His seed to reach every highway, every crevice, every thorn-infested portion of the earth, and every tilled acre of soil prepared for the spring season of planting - His aim is for His seed to take root and to grow, sometimes in the most mysterious of ways.

When Jesus called His first disciples, He did not tell them to lower their nets into the best-known fishing holes but to go to the deep waters, the most unlikely of places. That is where you will catch men, and you will catch them alive. Dear brothers and sisters that is what this Word does: it rescues, nourishes, conforms you, forgives, and provides the nutrients for life.

Throughout the sermon today, I’ve referenced children often, and for good reason…

My children often remind me, “Daddy, you are a child too!” This is followed up with, “You are a child of God.” Yes, I am, and that is the correct way to view our relationship with God; we are all His children. As His children, we are hearers of His Word; we are catechumens, and our time hearing and learning the Word stretches beyond being a newborn, infant, or adolescent. It includes all of you.

My friends, the season of Lent is upon us, and with it will come the rigors of the penitential season. Much like life, the season will expose you to the elements of the world. You will be faced with the aspects of life that assault your faith, that lead you into temptation, tribulation, and despair. Still, ultimately, you are invited back into the house of God where the Sower awaits with His seed - tilling the soil of your hearts and preparing you for the harvest to come in the resurrection of life everlasting. +INJ+

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI