Over the past several weeks I’ve been away more than usual—particularly on Sundays—and have been doing a lot of things that give me a real sense of gratitude.
I spent the first weekend in March in Chicago, preaching at a funeral for a friend and mentor I dearly loved.
I spent part of the following week in Montreat, NC for a conference called The Porch Gathering—a time of storytelling and music, in beautiful surroundings, and I stayed with two great old friends.
And last week, I was on vacation with my family, playing on the beach, enjoying boat rides and sunsets and good meals, and slow time.
And…it was possible for me to keep all of these important commitments because of the deeply gifted staff and volunteers who I partner with in this wonderful place called Knox—so I’m grateful to all of you too.
But I’m only human, and I don’t always feel grateful when I should.  Sometimes, I have preached at an out of town funeral and found it be a lot of work that seems outside my job description.  Sometimes I go to conferences and find myself mostly complaining that the content isn’t better.  Sometimes I’ve gone on vacation and it seems like the weather is too hot the food service is too slow, and the vacation is over too soon—which is an ironic complaint if I wasn’t enjoying it anyway!
It makes a lot of difference what story we choose to tell ourselves about the life we are living; do we perceive our lives through a lens of gratitude, or complaining, or something else…and at times, the consequences can be much more serious than what I was talking about.  What if you get stuck in a bad story about whether or not you are lovable, or capable of making a much needed change?  When you look at the challenges of the world, does it seem worthwhile to be generous toward others and hope for a better world, or do you mostly feel like it just isn’t worth it.  The stories we tell ourselves matter.
So in these weeks I am focusing on Stories Jesus Tells—well known stories from his ministry that he tells to wake us up to the world around us, and help us to see.  Some of the stories of Jesus get told in ways that are not unhelpful, but a closer look can help us rediscover what Jesus is trying to get us to see.
Here’s a story that has often been read in an unhelpful way.  A sower goes out to sow some seed.  Some seed is sown in good rich soil, but other seed is sown on the path and gobbled up by birds, some is sown in rocky ground, races up because it isn’t buried deeply and then burns when the heat comes; some is sown among weeds and gets swallowed up by the toxic surroundings.
Over time, and especially in recent history, this parable has come to be a story about how to get into heaven.  Some Christians have argued that it’s up to each of us to be planted in the good soil and avoid the bad; others look around and believe that some folks get planted in good soil and others just don’t and there’s not much you can do about it.  There are big problems with these interpretations:  For one thing, What do these tellings of the story suggest about God?  Is God no better than some kind of unskilled and careless gardener who scatters seed where it is unlikely to grow?
Originally, though, this was a different story. It was an earthly story with an equally earthly meaning.  In this telling, we imagine God as an incredibly abundant  and generous gardener who wants all seed to thrive…and the bad kinds of soil in the story—they are the obstacles we keep putting in the way.
In the ancient world of Jesus’ time, there were real obstacles to good growth and human thriving.  New Testament scholar Wilson Dickinson writes that farm laborers in ancient Palestine would have understood the meaning of the parable—they knew the obstacles well.  The obstacles included out of touch landowners who lived in the city and Roman Imperial occupiers of the region of Palestine—these were the government and corporate interests who extracted wealth from regular hardworking people.  Can you imagine living in such a world???  Where corporations, governments, and distant landowners prey on the little people!  Can you imagine a world where not all seed that is planted has an equal chance to grow?
Well of course, that is what we have.  So what if Jesus tells this story to call attention to a reality we sometimes wish to ignore:  The world is unfair; we are not all planted in equally good soil.  And:  here’s the important part:  that is not the way God wants it to be.  I refuse to believe that God is some careless and unskilled gardener or that God just loves some of us more than others; I believe the bad kinds of soil in this story is about how people often get in the way.  And those who find themselves in soil that is not so good—well, maybe they just need some extra help.
Do you believe this interpretation—this retelling of the story?  Do you believe that human brokenness has led us to live in a world where some of us do not get the chance they should have to thrive in good soil?
All the evidence I need to talk about the unfairness of the world comes from a story you’ve heard here at Knox in the past month—it’s been in our announcements and in our prayers.  Izreal Bishop, a 13 year-old boy, child of Third Presbyterian Church in East Westwood, was shot and killed on February 20 in Winton Terrace.  Izreal was a good kid—all kids are good, you know—but this is a child plenty of us at Knox knew well.  His family fell on some hard times and moved from the relatively challenging circumstances of East Westwood to the desperate circumstances of Winton Terrace.  Rent is cheaper there—for a reason.  Izreal apparently found himself in tough surroundings, and wound up dead.  Those among us who know this family have worked hard to resettle Izreal’s mom and siblings in another neighborhood, and to help where we can—but that will not bring her son back.  Nor will it fix the desperate situations in which so many continue to live.
I began this morning by telling you about my past month of deep gratitude, my opportunities, my family vacation.  Am I telling you the full story if I leave out the injustice?  I feel deep sadness for what happened to Isreal; I also feel a lot of ambivalence about my own blessings.  Not only did Izreal grow up lacking many of the opportunities others have, but he lacked the basic safety and stable surroundings most of our children never have to worry about.  The soil in this world is not all the same.
This is difficult stuff to think about—and to know what we should do about it.  But sometimes we are supposed to think about difficult things
Not all sermons should have neat and tidy endings; sometimes we’re supposed to be challenged by things that make us uncomfortable.  And there is a message in today’s scripture about that too.
At the end of the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talks about his use of parables—of stories, and about people who hear them but do not understand.  Jesus says to his disciples: “to you it has been given to know the secrets of God; but for others…looking they may not perceive and listening they may not understand.”
“Let anyone with ears to hear, listen.”  This was his warning; some of us prefer to live in blissful ignorance of the unfairness of the world; others of us are aware of it, and choose to do nothing.  Jesus knows that some do not get a chance to grow in rich soil, and that is not what God has in mind.
We must do better.  And make no mistake about it, this parable should not be a reason for despair but a call to action.  If we are willing to pay attention to the unfairness of the world, we can be about the work of creating better soil and more chances for seed to thrive in every way we can.
As I close this morning, I want to leave you with a few thoughts that may trouble you—I hope they do; I think that’s good.  I’m going to share these four thoughts with you slowly, inviting you think more about the one that grabs you:
Being planted in good soil is not the same as having a lot of money.  There are plenty of rich people whose lives may not be planted in rich soil.
Ignoring the unfairness of the world may lead to temporary happiness, but it is not the way to real joy.
Are you paying attention to the unfairness of the world?  What can you do to improve the soil in the lives of others?
Are you actively giving thanks for the good soil that is present in your life?  Gratitude for our blessings is the first step to following Christ.
Amen.