Reflection by The Ven. Dr. Deborah Broome

Sowing seeds, preparing the ground, celebrating a harvest                      

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you have ears, hear!”

“Hear, then, the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”                      Matthew 13:1-9. 18-23

It’s Matariki!  A time of remembering the past, celebrating the present, and planning for the future.  A time to gather the harvest, take stock of the ground from which we’ve come, the ground that has nurtured our crops and ourselves, and prepare for the season ahead.  And we have a reading about sowing and harvest, new life, fruitfulness and growth.  (Yay for the Lectionary!)

The sower scatters seed generously, anywhere and everywhere, even in the unlikeliest of places.  This is God’s work – it’s not an achievement we can pat ourselves on the back for.  That’s partly why Jesus told this parable to the early disciples – so they could recognise the gift they had been given, the gift of the seed scattered with such generosity, and ask themselves how they were responding to this.

That’s why it’s important to accept Matariki’s invitation to gratitude, to remembering and celebrating what we’ve already been given: the gifts of creation, the people who’ve nurtured us, the faithful who have gone before us, and above all, God's grace in Christ.  The harvest always begins with a gift – what gift are you most thankful for?

It’s tempting to hear Jesus’ parable as a quiz: which kind of soil am I?   But it’s not about each of us putting ourselves – or still worse, other people – into different categories: “I’m the path, that the seed fell on and got eaten by birds” “He’s the rocky soil,” and leaving ourselves, or others, there.  It’s a chance to recognise that all of us, at different times in our lives, have been all of the different types of soil.  Where are you at the moment?  Where have you been this past year?  Maybe that’s a question about how well we’ve been listening to God.

When I hear this parable the thought I keep coming back to is this: we’re not fixed, each of us isn't only one type of soil – so what will help us develop into the good soil?  The good soil isn’t necessarily the most talented soil – it’s soil that’s receptive.  Soil where there’s openness, patience, and perseverance.  How can we help each other to be that sort of soil, ground capable of bringing forth a generous harvest?   

Nothing is static, we don’t have to be one kind of soil all our life.  We can tell this story to speak of our own hopefulness that each one of us will be good soil, fruitful soil, soil that listens and responds to the seeds of the gospel and makes it part of our lives.   And when we do that, it can encourage us to keep looking out for, and to keep on celebrating, the fruit that our lives have already borne.  That’s seems a good way to keep Matariki: to celebrate the fruit of this year.  Maybe we could get into the habit of finishing each day noticing and giving thanks for the fruit of that day, for the good things that have happened because we were together with God in a place, or a conversation. 

The end of the parable is a picture of a flourishing life: seed from the sower generating bread for the eater,  a life characterised by aroha, rongo, and hari, by love, peace, and joy.  What might that look like, in your context?

Picture credit: Paz Arando, Unsplash