Pesky Birds & Abundant Love - February 6, 2022
Sermon: Pesky Birds & Abundant Love, Carolyn Smith
Stories are told in all sorts of ways, whether it’s cozy on a lap, or kneeling around
the Godly play mat wondering about the figurines. Tall tales are told around a
noisy table with friends. And we like movies too!
Among all the things that everyone talked about this week was Groundhog Day -
some groundhogs saw their shadow, some didn’t, and it snowed some more
anyway. Groundhog Day has taken on a theme of repetitive deja-vu - like we’re
stuck, spinning our wheels, like winter weather, or the pandemic, or blockades that
should end, and forward progress. And spinning our wheels doesn’t bring out the
best in us, or help us grasp good opportunity. In the movie Groundhog Day, actor
Bill Murray plays Phil Connor - an arrogant jerk of a meteorologist. He has been
sent against his will to cover the Feb 2 appearance of Groundhog Puxatawny Phil
and he can’t wait to get out of this town. Except when he wakes the next day, and-
it’s still Feb 2, he is reliving Groundhog Day all over. He finds himself stuck in a
loop. If you thought he was a jerk at the start, keep watching. He tempts fate,
treats everyone worse than before, recklessly endangers himself and even launches
his car off a cliff, and then wakes up and does it again. Until he meets the girl of
his dreams. Let’s not talk about inward or outward motivation today, but what
happens is that he begins to realize life is a bit better when he is nicer. She is more
receptive when he isn’t a jerk. The world is better even in this backwards little
town, on this ridiculous day, when he discovers how to be a better person. Finally,
he gets life right, wins the girl, and hurray!! He wakes up on February 3rd to
freedom. This is a story of second chances and relieved redemption.
I hope most of us aren’t so stuck as Phil Connor, but with the parable of the Sower,
whether we feel frustrated and bitter like thorns choking, or parched and pecked at
like the path with the birds, or shallow and unsupportive as the rocks that don’t
feed the seeds; it is common for this parable to encourage us to be good rich soil,
to figure life out, to try harder to nurture roots with faith and love. Yes, all of that
is true, if you can try harder. The parable encourages this message for people with
agency and energy, but let’s wonder about it. We can wonder about being rich soil
or not. We can wonder at seeds and all that might grow. Jesus knew that his
community was hearing different things in this story, and it is one of the only
parables he takes time to explain. So to enrich and deepen ourselves as faithful
soil, that’s pretty clear. But what if we are feeling stuck, parched and trodden on
like that path? The harvest didn’t spring up there! What a waste of good seed. Are
some people just a hopeless waste?
In the explanation that followed, Jesus helped them wonder. The good soil still
counts but he explains first in verse 18-19 with the barren path - When anyone
hears the message about the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one
comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown
along the path.’ Another translation calls it Satan. What I want you to take from
this is that bad stuff happens! To good people and normal people. Some people
are so trapped by circumstance, outward injustice or even just illness and
exhaustion, that through no real fault of their own, find themselves stuck on a
barren path unable to even get a hand on a tiny seed and help it grow. It might be
a life-long struggle, or just where we find ourselves in a moment, in a relationship,
in a time. But Jesus says this needs to be understood. It doesn’t mean we stay
that way always, but that when it happens, we feel pecked at, hopeless and
forgotten. Be good rich soil, he says, but sometimes it feels hopeless, and still....
And still, The Sower! I wonder if any good efficient farmer scatters seed in this
way, willy nilly, throwing seed down at random - we don’t, and certainly, in a poor
besieged little town, no one would be so irrational, wasteful, extravagant. Who
does that? Who scatters precious seed so extravagantly, equally to all, even the
lost and forgotten?
Whether you are deepening your roots in learning and prayer and service, or
disentangling yourselves from distractions that keep you from a life that matters
more, from loving relationships and community, whether you are Good rich soil
already that nurtures all around you, or you are at a breaking point, feeling wasted
and forgotten, the Sower is sowing seeds of love. Seeds of hope and possibility.
And God the Sower doesn’t give up even if you’re miserable Phil Connors. The
seed keeps falling, the love keeps flowing, the invitation calls us to reconciliation
and redemption every moment. When we remember... pause a moment and
remember.... , and then we open our hand, one of those seeds will land right there,
cozy and safe, and it will begin to take root.
Do you remember? As ever, God’s love is scattered all around and it is meant for
every corner of this world, and for you.
With gratefulness and awe, we give thanks for an irrational, wasteful and
extravagant loving God. Amen.