Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009
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SEXAGESIMA

15 February Anno + Domini 2009

"The Sower and the Seed”

Luke 8:4-15

NOTE:  This sermon, based in large part on a sermon written by Rev. David H. Petersen (Redeemer, Fort Wayne), 
was read by Elder Larry Elliott in Pastor Messer's absence (no audio is available)

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The desire of the Father is that all men turn and be saved.  Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.  All men have been declared righteous by that wonderful sacrificial act.  And yet, despite that, not all go to heaven.  The Son did not come into the world to condemn the world.  He came into the world so that whoever believes in Him would not be condemned, but saved, spared the Father's Wrath which has been spent on Him.

Men condemn themselves.  For whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God, even Jesus, the only Name under heaven by which men are saved.  This is the condemnation: the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness.  Men love lies, false righteousness, and easy, pretend religious acts of charity.  Men love names of their own choosing and design, comfortable gods who look, act, and think like them.  Men love the cheating, non-satisfying pleasures of the devil.  All these they love rather than the Light, because their deeds are evil, because they fear the absolute, unconditional, exclusive embrace of Love Incarnate.  Many are called.  But few are chosen.

The Sower sows.  He sows with abandon and generosity, casting that life-giving seed into the most unlikely and unreceptive of places.  That is the call.  It is available for everyone.  He scatters this life-changing seed, His Holy Word, without regard for where it lands.  For He knows that it is needed by all men, even those who refuse Him.  Because of this it seems as though much is wasted.  In truth, there is no worthy soil for this seed.  It cannot grow in the evil, sin-turned hearts of men.  Nonetheless, He sows.  It is His to do with as He pleases.  It pleases Him to offer up His life for hateful, rebellious men who will reject Him.  Eve's crushing Seed, who sets men free, sows the seed of His absolving, liberating Word.  It pleases Him to offer salvation to all men without cost, that all men might have the Bread that feeds more than the body, seed that grows more than wheat for the harvest.

That is the call.  But still, few are chosen.  The Word goes out.  It never fails to do so.  And for the most part it is ignored, hated, and mocked.  But, where and when God pleases the Old Adam is drowned and shut out, the demons are driven away, and a new Man, a Christian, is born in an impossible place, in a man born of Adam, in a heart once corrupted, alive out of death, light in the darkness.  This seed, God's Word made Flesh to crush the devil, God's Word to reveal to men His heart of mercy, God's Word with power to speak into reality, this seed, accomplishes the impossible.

This is a mystery.  It is not commonly known or self-evident.  The Kingdom of heaven does not follow the rules of men.  It is a mystery, incomprehensible for our meager minds, a stumbling block to our foolish ideas about how things work, incapable of expression by our feeble vocabularies, it is a mystery that God loves us whom He should, and has every right to, hate.  He sows His seed, offers forgiveness and life, dies and rises in our place, simply because that is who He is.  We have not deserved it or earned it.  There is nothing in us.  It all comes from Him, who is the Sower and the Seed.

It is a mystery not only that does God not behave like us, for He sent His Son for us to murder in place of our own punishment, but it is also a mystery that God delivers this saving event through humble words.  The Church has no weapons, no marketing strategies, no clever jingles or fleshly appeals, no business sense at all.  It is not of this world; it does not operate by the principles of this world.  All the Church has is the Word.  Even the Sacraments in close scrutiny reveal that they are nothing more than the Word enfleshed in visible elements.  For it is not the bread and the wine, or the water, that give of themselves life and salvation, but it is the Word of Christ, Our Lord, His Promise, in, and connected to, those things.  We have the Word.  That is enough.  For this is the Word of power, of eternal significance, of Grace.  Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the Mouth of God, from every seed the Sower sows.  Here, He, the Word of God, is Bread for the believer, Bread that forgives and heals, unites and restores, cleanses and feeds.

That is why He sows His life-giving Seed, that abundant Word, without regard for the status, for the riches, for the intellect, for the past, for the ethnic make-up, or for the sins of those upon whom It falls.  He sows for man, for all men, for He loves them.  With outdated simplicity and clarity, in perfect abiding charity, He calls the world to repentance and faith.  For that is what the world He loves needs.  

The world, of course, laughs.  The devil seems to win.  He has more souls.  But still God sows.  God loves.  Thanks be to God, He doesn't keep score.  So that He has not quit, we know that the Word continues to go forth and it is we, the sinful beings upon whom the Word falls who like to keep score.  It is we who like to think that the Church needs to change its ways, to develop marketing strategies and become more popular with the world.    It is we who like to come up with gimmicks to try to get people into our Churches.  It is we who complain and grumble that our Church isn't as full as we would like it to be.  And, yet, it is we also who do not volunteer our service as we should to make that a reality.  But, it is not we who do the serving, and it is not we who bring people into the Church; it is solely by the Word.  The Word is the Seed that is sown; the Word is Jesus Christ.  He still casts His Seed upon us poor, miserable, doubting sinners.  He feeds, nourishes, and strengthens us through His Word.  And it is His Word alone upon which the Church continues to exist, and it is upon His Word alone that the Church will continue to exist until the Word Himself comes back in great glory on the Last Day.

And that is why we care not for the great many times when the Word is rejected and mocked.  That is what we expect.  And we rejoice and find comfort in those moments of miraculous intervention, when His Word moves among us and does what it says: when God makes alive a dead baby at the Baptismal font; when He rides into Our Sanctuary in the Flesh borne of Mary, crucified and raised from the dead, on lowly bread and wine, for His dear children, even us, to eat and to drink; when His Word goes out and of its own accord, by its own power and strength, creates and sustains faith in His elect.  For those who are painfully pruned by Him in suffering and bear the fruit of patience in confession are those whom He loves.

And without the world even noticing, or caring, the Word, the seed, has been cast.  It has - by the Grace of God - made a home for itself, in our unworthy hearts.  It has intervened.  It has borne the fruit of faith, provided Bread for the believer.  It has come to us to give us forgiveness, life, and salvation, even though we are those who reject the Word with our sins.  Even though we are not the good soil in which the Seed can grow, it is ours anyway through faith in Christ who is that good soil.

Dear friends, let us rejoice, as we look two weeks from now to beginning the holy and penitential season of Lent, that our Lord has cast the Seed into our hearts.  That Seed calls for us, as we begin this journey in a couple weeks, to truly examine ourselves, to see the truth of the parable, that we are the three examples our Lord gives - stony hearts, those along the path, and those who allow the thorns of earthly pleasures and life to take the Word and choke it out from us.  Let us truly examine ourselves and see that reality in us, for it is only then, my friends, that we can truly appreciate in deepest faith what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has accomplished for us.  I pray that we will begin that journey, even today, for He has created faith in our hearts, He has comforted and consoled us, redeemed and restored us, forgiven us and has, wonder of wonders, forgotten our sins.

His Word goes out and it does not return empty.  That's His promise; it doesn't fail.  It never has; it never will!  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting.  Amen.