Fall Stewardship 2: In

Exod 16.11—19, Psalm 8, Romans 12:1—8, Matthew 13:1—9

Can you see yourself as good soil?

I guess I should should back up a bit.

Last week I began talking about this word, “stewardship,” and how despite the way it typically gets used in church settings, that it’s really about love. And that stewardship is only about love — and the way that love works in the real world. Because love is not just an abstract idea that floats around in heaven, but love has a flow of real world consequences in our lives. And that it always moves in the same direction: Down, In, and Out.¹ Down from God — into our hearts, our lives, our households — and then out into the world for the sake of our neighbors.

Last week, I really wanted us to remember that it begins with God…that everything there is belongs to God…that love comes down.

Today, I want to talk about how love moves in. And the way that I think about it is like it gets planted.

Jesus told (and then explained) a parable. It goes like this:

• farmer sows seeds
• some seeds land right on the path, birds eat ‘em up
• some seeds land on rocky ground, spring up, whither fast, no depth
• some seeds land among thorns, are overwhelmed
• some seeds land on good soil; they grow way beyond how they started

…God sows love in our hearts. God invests in our lives…

If your life was the parable, which parts would you remember? Which parts would you talk about? If you’re like most Americans, and especially if you were raised Lutheran, you’re not likely to talk a lot about the wealth of the fruit that grew in the good soil. We really like to emphasize the rocky soil, and the thorns:

A pastor² tells the story of a couple who agreed to meet to talk about giving to a church campaign — but they warned the pastor that they were not wealthy. When he met with them in their farmhouse they reported that their assets came to a few hundred thousand dollars. As they spoke about their wise use of resources with the pastor, they kept remembering other assets that had, “…a small piece of land here, an investment in a grain elevator there, a loan due to them…” over there. The pastor kept writing all of these things down in his notebook. The totals passed $700k, then $800k, then $900k, until suddenly the wife slammed her book shut and walked away from the table. When she had cooled down, she explained, “I don’t like this at all. If we keep on like this, the next thing you know is that we’re going to be millionaires! And, we’re not that kind of people!”

We sometimes find ourselves in a strange relationship with the gifts that we have received. While most of us aspire to be comfortable in our material wealth, and maybe even aspire to be rich, very few of us want to be called “rich.” I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard that start with “…we didn’t have a lot of money when we were growing up…”

I get that rags to riches is part of the American dream, and that we like to remember how we’ve overcome hardships all throughout our lives — and of course, we have! I do not doubt your hardships — they’re real. But at a certain point, we also have to recognize how incredibly rich our soil is.

This is why I love this parable to talk about stewarding God’s love. First of all, it’s a reminder that our gifts are planted in us by God. The seeds in the parable start with God. Good chooses them. We don’t really choose the gifts that we’re given, do we? God plants them in us. But here’s what else I know about the parable:

The rocks, the thorns, the good soil…that’s our life — each of us. It’s not that you are the rocks, and someone else is the thorns growing in your way. It’s that each of us struggles with rocky soil. Each of us struggles with thorns overwhelming us. And each of us is also good soil.

Look, you are a particular kind of person — in fact — there is no one else like you. And you could take that to mean that you aren’t the kind of person that God invests in…that God certainly would want to plant important seeds in much holier ground. But what is certainly true is that God has made you who you are for a very particular reason. And God has planted in you seeds that are meant to bear fruit.

Do you know the gifts that have been planted in you?

Despite all the rocky ground in yourself that you deal with…and despite the weeds and thorns that grow up around you and frustrate you…

Can you see yourself as good soil?

Can you see that God has planted gifts in you for a reason?

---

Just like seeds sown in the ground…we may have no clue about what fruit God is hoping we’ll produce…until it grows. And without fail, the good things that God will do with us, the love that God grows within us, always comes as a surprise. You are never too young nor too old for this surprise.

If you’ve ever had this experience of finding surprising gifts growing inside of you, I hope you share your story from time to time. At the very least, you’ll make someone laugh…and maybe you’ll even inspire them.

I can tell you that my journey through campus ministry to seminary and eventually into this pulpit has been one surprise after another for a shy kid who was once studying to be a forest ranger. (True story.) (Maybe that’s why I like the Parable of the Good Soil so much…)

If, on the other hand, you’re in a season of your life in which you are staring at the soil, unsure, and waiting to see what might grow next, I hope you’ll share that part of your journey, too.

In a couple weeks, I’m going to focus on the Out — how the love that God has planted in us moves out into the world for the sake of our neighbor. And as we really catch this as individuals and as a congregation we are going to be surprised by how much of God’s gifts are directed out, towards the neighbors we encounter in our daily lives. But in the meantime, if you want to explore what God might have planted within you, I invite you to get involved with something new in our church community.

And if you need some ideas…I’ve got some:

• ushers, communion assistants, lectors, greeters
• property work
• youth / AAA adult
• digital disciple
• driver

… and some kind of training for each…fill out the blue card…I would love to have a conversation with you about what God might be doing in your life next.

But whether you are using your gifts in one of these areas or somewhere completely different, here’s the thing about God’s gifts: they’re God’s. They come down to us from God. They find a home in us, because God has planted them there. And in each of us, there is good soil. There is a surprising way for God to use us, to do something with us, despite the rocky ground and the thorns around us. A surprising way for us to grow, to bear fruit, and to share more love than we ever thought possible.