The Unpredictable Promised Harvest

Predictability, that's how we tend to like things in our lives. We want our car to start when we turn the key. We want our refrigerator to keep our food cold and our freezer to keep it colder. We expect it to be hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and cooler in the spring and fall. We expect that four-letter "W" word to be around all the time. Consistent. Reliable. Predictable.

That's what makes Jesus' parable in today's Gospel so maddeningly frustrating ... and at the same time wonderfully exhilarating! It's just not predictable. A farmer goes out to sow his seed, but he doesn't know what's going to grow or where or how. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. He just scatters the seed. We think how terribly wasteful and inefficient this is. We are the kind of people who pull out the tape measure to make sure we plant our cucumbers at ½ inch depth, our peppers 18 inches apart, and our tomatoes around May 31. We dig furrows, plant the seed, and put the little stakes at the end of each row -- all to maximize our garden's potential. Then, because it's Wyoming, we are pleasantly surprised when anything grows!

Even with all that care and precision, we still have no idea how well our plants will grow. We do the work and let God do the rest. It is all very unpredictable.

And that's exactly what Jesus is teaching us today. The seed of God's Word is wonderfully, maddeningly unpredictable. You can sow it, plant it or scatter it, but you don't know whether that Word is going to take root and grow or not. You don't know which seeds will be snatched or baked or choked ... or which will produce an abundant harvest.

The Sower was reckless with his Seed, letting it fall where it may. And this is exactly what Jesus is doing as he scatters the seed of his Word to the "large crowds" that listened to him teach from the boat. Jesus scattered this seed to anyone within earshot -- the devout, the curious, the super-religious, the seekers, the skeptics, the Jewish opposition, the tax collectors, and sinners. He scattered the seed liberally -- not only to those whom he thinks will give the greatest return on the investment or on those who meet the proper demographics -- but to all.

Jesus is teaching us to do exactly the same thing. We scatter the seed of his Word in as many ways, in as many places, to as many different people as we can. We scatter his seed to the big homes next to the golf course, the neighborhoods around the church, throughout Casper, and the communities of Bar Nunn, Mills, and Evansville. We hang flyers on doors and post reels on social media. We share God's Word on our webpage, YouTube, email, from the pulpit in church, and with adult instruction classes in people's homes. We share the Word with young families, the single mom, the widowed grandfather, the lonely teenager, the overwhelmed college student, the alcoholic businessman, the depressed housewife, and the cute little kids.

But there is no predictability when or how or with whom the gospel seed grows. That's why we try to scatter the seed in so many ways. All God asks and expects us to do is scatter the seed and support the scattering with our time, effort, prayers, and offerings. He will bless the harvest.

We plant the seeds, but some of the soil is hard. It isn't allowed to take root. These are the hearts (our hearts) that are stubborn and resistant, feeling no need to repent, no hunger or thirst for God's Word, and does not allow for conversion and change. If someone does not want God's gospel -- his free and unconditional forgiveness, his deliverance from death and the Devil, and his reconciliation with the holy God -- the Lord of the harvest does not force the gospel to stay but allows the seed to be snatched away. A Gideon's Bible in every hotel room and a church on every corner doesn't bother Satan if he can keep snatching the gospel from hard and stubborn hearts.

Some of the seeds we sow will fall on ground cluttered with rocks and stones. Here the seed springs up quickly but cannot stand the heat. Satan loves a faith that is based on feelings, emotions, and convenience, rather than digging deep roots into Christ's gospel. It's a quick and easy faith of compromise, convenience, and mediocrity that cannot stand strong with the heat of challenges and conflicts, persecution and pain.

Some of the seeds we scatter will fall on ground with weeds so there is competition. Competition with the difficulties at work, the struggles at home, the hurt feelings with friends, the worries and concerns of life, the vacationing and sleeping in, or the lusts of the flesh and the pleasures of the world. All these will choke the Word of God from growing in hearts and transforming lives.

Totally unpredictable.

Instead of predictability, we have something better -- we have God's promise through his prophet, "Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return there unless they first water the earth, make it give birth, and cause it to sprout, so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, in the same way my word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty. Rather, it will accomplish whatever I please, and it will succeed in the purpose for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:10-11). God's Word works. It will either be rejected or accepted. It will either be discounted or believed. It will either harden or convert. It will either create enemies or create saints.

This is good! When things are in our hands, we can never be sure of the outcome. When we're on our own, what can we do? What can we accomplish? I can't even make my garden grow, let alone produce a harvest for God!

But in God's hands -- his creating hands, his nail-pierced hands, his faith-instilling hands -- then we can be sure. Absolutely sure. Those hands, once pierced and fastened to the cross but now raised from the dead, are the hands that have defeated all our enemies and chase away the Evil One. Those are the hands that have taken the weeds and doubts of sin and pulled them up by the roots and forgiven them. Those are the hands that shield us from the burning persecution of Satan and shade us by his grace and care.

These are the hands that take your hard, rocky, weed-infested soil and turns it over through the cultivating of his holy, inspired Word -- his Law and Gospel. The Law prepares the soil of the heart for the seed of the Gospel. The Law points out the rocks, weeds, and hard soil. It causes you to repent of those rocks, weeds, and hardness. It breaks up the rocks, pulls the weeds, and softens your hard heart.

Then the Gospel cultivates your soil. You drink deeply of the water of your Baptism through repentance and absolution. You are nourished with the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper. You are blessed with his benediction and grace. You are fertilized with all the nutrients you need to grow your faith through God's holy Scriptures.

God, the ultimate Sower and the Lord of the harvest, will bring about the harvest he desires. What does this harvest look like? It's not simply a full sanctuary, increased Bible study attendance, and a budget in the black. It's a marvelously, miraculously, maddeningly unpredictable harvest 30, 60, 100 times what was sown. (If you've ever planted anything, you know how astronomically amazing those harvest numbers are.) This harvest displays itself in your life by worshiping weekly, praying constantly, studying daily, speaking truthfully, helping faithfully, serving consistently, loving unconditionally, and forgiving repeatedly. It's not often the big and spectacular that is accomplished, but rather the ordinary and mundane. It's hearing, understanding, and living the Word in your life, in your family, at your job, at your school, and with your friends. Producing fruit. Living as Christ. Loving as you have been loved. Forgiving as you have been forgiven. Serving as you have been served. These are the fruits of faith that are pleasing to the Sower.

Let me tell you a story of how God works this in real life. Several years ago, I received an email in the spring asking if our church had a class on the basics of the Bible. The writer of the email said she had gone to a WELS church with a friend, was impressed, and wanted to learn more about the Bible. She had received flyers on her door in Racine from us in the past. She checked out the church on our webpage and even watched a few of my sermons. So, she joined the Bible Inquirer's Class I had just started. There wasn't really any intention of leaving her church and joining our Lutheran Church. But then God's Word began to dig roots, grow, and flourish. She found the truth of God's Word and the free forgiveness in Christ she had been missing her whole life. The Holy Spirit moved her to join our congregation that summer.

But the story doesn't end there. While God's Word began to blossom and change her life, the Word also began to germinate within her two daughters. Her 9-year-old daughter would play with their 7-year-old neighbor, Gracie. After coming in to get dressed for church one day, her daughter said, "Gracie has never heard of God and Jesus and stuff ... so I told her about it."

A few weeks later, Mom was folding laundry in her bedroom and noticed that her daughter and Gracie were sitting on the backsteps. Her daughter had out her Children's Bible and was reading Gracie the story of Adam and Eve, and Gracie looked incredibly taken by the story! Mom said that was even more amazing was that her daughter absolutely, positively, hates reading and will do just about anything to avoid it. And there she was, all on her own (with the help of the Holy Spirit, of course), reading the Bible to the neighbor girl. And enjoying it!

Over the course of the summer, her two daughters read Gracie over 50 pages of the Bible. Then they both told their mom, "You know, Mom, the Bible is actually really interesting!"

Then her 9-year-old explained that she had gotten out her old first communion dress and dressed Gracie in it. Then she got some water and baptized her!

What an unpredictable but promised harvest! All from scattering the seed with a door hanger, a friendly invitation to church, and a webpage. Then the seed of the Word beginning to take root in Bible Class, maturing into membership, and blossoming in a family and a neighborhood.

What is God going to accomplish in you and through you? I don't know. But I want you to eager to see the field ripe for harvest. God has planted his seed deep into your heart for a purpose, and he will see it through to completion. Let the Word take root in your heart. Continue to recklessly scatter the seed. Preach the Word and plant it home. Know that you have God's promise that his Word will produce a harvest. Not always the same harvest. Not always the harvest we're looking for or praying for. But it will be a marvelous, miraculous, maddeningly unpredictable, promised harvest. In you and through you. Good seed sprouting in good soil. Amen.