Our Blessedly Inefficient God--July 17, 2023

Our Blessedly Inefficient God--July 17, 2023

"Jesus told them many things in parables, saying: 'Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the 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 not root, they withered away. Other sees feel 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.  Let anyone with ears listen!" [Matthew 13:3-9]

For whatever else this story is about, it means that God is more interested in growing something good than in maximizing profits and efficiency.  Or to put it the other way around, God is willing to put up with looking ineffective for the sake of increasing life in the world.  God's commitment to nurturing seeds that will grow somewhere is stronger than God's need to "maximize productivity."

This parable, which many of us heard in worship this past Sunday, presents us with farm worker who has to know that his approach of scattering grain seeds everywhere is going to look wasteful.  He has to know that the seeds that land on the path are likely to get snatched up by the birds, that the thorns and thistles will starve out any seeds that land among them, and that the stony ground won't produce a good crop, either.  And yet, he's more interested in getting something to grow than he is with maximizing his labor-to-profit ratio.  He's willing to go to the length of broadcasting seed everywhere, even if that means knowing some will not provide a return on the investment.  Those with more miserly business sensibilities might say, "You're losing money there," or "You're not getting as much final profit as you could if you only planted seeds where you know there's good soil."  But the farm worker seems to know full well what he's doing... and is willing to take that risk.

Now, I'm not really in a position to know whether this technique for planting a field was standard in Jesus' culture and time, or whether it is supposed to be striking and unusual.  What I do think is clear is that Jesus chose this kind of image to describe how God's "kingdom" operates--that is, how God runs the universe.  And Jesus insists that God is willing to bear with the reality that some of God's effort in the world will be met with rejection or disappointment... and yet God goes through with giving abundantly (even recklessly) in all directions, anyway.  God is willing to deal with the inefficiency.  God is willing to accept the apparent waste of effort. God is willing to put up with the lackluster response we humans sometimes (often!) give back in response to God's gracious word to us.  And that is all because God loves.

If we want to embody God's kind of love in the world, it's going to mean that kind of willingness to risk that our efforts won't turn out, don't yield the response we want, or might not produce the results we want.  It means the willingness to put good into the world, anyway, even if others don't receive it.  And it means the deliberate choice to plant seeds with the full, open-eyed awareness that we do not have control over what will come from our attempt.  We can make the effort, but we can't guarantee others will see or appreciate it.  We can scatter God's good word around to everyone, but we can't compel every listener to take it to heart.  And yet we do it anyway, because that vulnerability itself is a piece of what makes love love.

In the end, this story isn't so much about how to avoid being a bad kind of soil or how to make yourself into a good kind of soil--it's about the lengths God is willing to go to, even in the face of rejection and disappointment, to keep on bringing life among us.  If we are going to live this story, then maybe today is a day to make the additional effort or take the risk of giving a second try to something that seemed fruitless.  Maybe today's a day to love people without worrying about whether they will return the favor or repay you.  Maybe today's a day to let go of the need to look "successful" in anybody else's eyes, and instead to risk putting good into the world regardless of how anybody else judges it or responds to it.  Maybe today's a day to reflect the character of our blessedly inefficient God.

What could that look like today?

Lord Jesus, spur us on to take the risks of giving your good word everywhere.