Words are what God uses to give you faith. "...faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God," writes the Apostle Paul. Words travel from the mouth of a preacher into your ears where they strike your eardrums and then hit your heart. The Word is scattered and sown in the soil of your heart. Today's parable is a parable for both preachers and hearers. It is a parable that keeps preachers preaching and hearers hearing. It is a parable that keeps preachers preaching even when they see so little by way of results. It is a parable that keeps the ears of those who hear the Word of God attuned to what Word says and does that they might receive it in faith and patience and so, in God's time, bear fruit.

The seed that the farmer recklessly scatters over the landscape is the Word of God. That Word gets four kinds of hearings when it is preached- a hardened hearing, a shallow hearing, a competitive hearing, and a faithful hearing. In light of these four kinds of hearing that the Word of Christ receives, it doesn't seem to make sense to disseminate the seed where everybody knows it has little likelihood of sprouting. Ought not the farmer be more careful and less generous with the precious seed? Ought not he have a county agent help him with soil testing? At the very least, ought not he go into the field and plow up the hard places and dig up the rocks. Ought not he spray his acreage with herbicides to get rid of the briars? Ought not he erect some scarecrows to frighten away the hungry birds? The sower does none of this. He simply plants the seed.

How sad that many in the church these days seem more interested in soil testing than seed sowing. One pastor writes "We conduct soil studies, but we don't scatter seed. We do demographic studies and sociological studies and cross-cultural studies and psychological studies to tell us what the needs and wants are, where the Word is most likely to take hold. And there are those who will measure the local soil and tell us precisely where and when and what to plant for maximum return and success. It may be good for gardening, but it is bad for the Gospel. Contrast this with the picture of the sower in our parable, who sows his seed with reckless abandon, broadcasting the death and resurrection of Jesus to the wind, letting it fall wherever it lands" (Cwirla). Keep this parable in mind the next time you are tempted to conclude that one of your friends or fellow students, one of your relatives or co-workers isn't ready to hear the Gospel yet!

The farmer goes into the field and he sows the seed. God has established His kingdom through the death and resurrection of His Son. His Word now announces that there is forgiveness of sins because Jesus Christ has answered for those sins with His own blood. He died in our place and He was buried in the tomb like a single grain of wheat is planted in the ground. On the third day, He sprouted up in resurrection victory fruitful with life and salvation for all who trust in Him. The Word that we preach is that Word of Jesus' death and resurrection. It is the Word of Him who was put to death for our sins and raised again for our justification. There's no other Word, no other Gospel that has the power to save you, to reconcile you to God and give you peace with Him forever. That Word is God's seed and it is a powerful, fertile, faith-producing Word. It is the Word of God Himself. And wherever it is planted in the broken soil of hearts that have been plowed open by God's law, it germinates and springs up in fruitful faith. You see this Word is God's Word. It is the power of God for salvation. It does not return to Him empty, but it achieves the purpose for which He sent it.

The sower sows this seed. Some of the seed falls on the wayside, those places packed down and made hard by traffic. Here the Word is preached but it is not received. The hardened hearing of the Word of God is that callused heart that says, "I have no need of Jesus, of His Baptism, His Words, of His body and blood." This is the hearing of a heart that has become bored with God's Word. The seed that falls on the wayside represents those who hear the Word with their ears but block it out of their hearts. The Word never really gets implanted and so it lies exposed on the pavement and is gobbled up by the devil just like hungry crows feast on spilled grain. God will force no one to listen to His Word. There comes a time when those who reject God's Word have that Word removed and withdrawn from them.

Martin Luther warned the people of his own day that the preaching of the Gospel is like a little rain shower that moves from one place to another. Where the Gospel is not received in faith it rushes on to be preached elsewhere. Where it is taken for granted, it is removed.

Then there is the Word that gets a shallow, surface hearing. This is the seed that is planted in the rocky soil-that thin layer of sandy soil that covers a base of hard rock. This represents those whose faith is grounded in feelings and not in the facts of redemption. These are those who get all excited about Jesus. They don't want to be bothered by doctrine and careful study of the Scriptures. They bubble over with enthusiasm but there is no depth, no substance to their faith. It is not watered by their Baptism. The emotion is soon spent and faith evaporates because it was not rooted in the gifts that Jesus gives in His Word, in Baptism, and with His body and blood. This is Christianity Lite and it has a short shelf life.

Some seed falls among the briar bushes. Jesus says "And the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity." Christ is preached and heard but there are so many clamoring voices competing with the words of Jesus that the sound of His voice gets silenced. There is the voice of anxiety: What shall I eat? What shall I wear? Where shall I live? The voice of anxiety is the devil's way of tempting you to believe that God cannot be trusted with your life and with your future. Satan wants you to believe that God can't or won't take care of you so you better take care of yourself even if that means that you do it at the expense of God and His Word. Then there are what Jesus calls "the riches and pleasures of life." In times of stress or sickness, satan would invite us to believe that God is against us. When things are going well, he tempts us to think that we don't need God, that we can get along just fine without Him. The temptation that comes from the riches and the pleasures of life is greed. Greed would make of God's good gifts, false gods that we end up trusting in the place of the one true and living Lord. And these false gods are greedy; they will demand that you give them what belongs to God alone. The end result is the same- a faith that is choked out and dies.

There is finally the good ground, the soil that receives the implanted Word by faith and trusting in that good news of Jesus Christ bears fruit with patience. Faith receives God's Word with patience. The hundredfold crop that Jesus speaks of is not produced overnight. The life that grows from the seed of God's Word is lived for the long haul. The harvest will come in the resurrection of the body to life everlasting. In the meantime, God tills and turns the soil of your life with His law. He plows under our pride and He breaks the hard ground of our stubborn hearts. He weeds out everything that would distract us from Him, every idol that would choke out the life of faith. He sows Christ in us as He plants His Word in our hearts and as He fertilizes and feeds your faith with His body and blood. "He who has hears to hear, let him ear." Amen.

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