Sermon For July 12th

The Parable of the Sower

Sermon for July 12, 2026

by Pastor Dale Henderson

I think most of you know how much I like to garden. In recent years I've been growing mostly all my vegetables in containers and raised beds, and, as long as I can manage to keep Peter Rabbit and Bambi and his mother and Thumper away, I've had fairly good results.

There's one thing you have to keep in mind when growing vegetables in containers and raised beds, and that's the quality of the soil. You don't use just plain dirt in those beds. You need a good blend of quality topsoil and well aged compost to create a nice, loose, fertile loam. Add a little perlite to insure good drainage.

As I was buying bags of topsoil this past spring to fill a new raised bed, the thought occurred to me: “I wonder what my penny-wise daddy would say if he saw me buying dirt.” My father always planted a garden in the back yard. He DID buy a bale of peat moss every year, but I cannot imagine my father ever spending good money to purchase dirt. I don't know what he would say if he saw me buying dirt, but I know what my mother would say: “I-yi-yi-yi-yi.”

Maybe my frugal parents wouldn't understand why I'd ever buy dirt, but Jesus would. One day a multitude of people gathered on the lake shore to listen to his teaching...so many people that he climbed into a fishing boat and pushed away from the shore so he would be able to speak to them all...and he told this wonderful parable, full of imagery, about a farmer who went out to sow his seed. He was obviously sowing some kind of grain, for he was broadcasting it over the ground.

Some seed fell on the path and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground. They sprouted, but, having no depth of soil to take root in, the young plants withered in the heat of the sun. Some fell among thorns and the weeds choked them out. But the seed that fell on the good, fertile soil grew into an abundant harvest. And Jesus said, “That's just how it is with the Gospel. God graciously invites all people into his eternal kingdom. But some are so caught up in the cares of the world, some receive it with joy, but soon lose interest and fall away, and some...well...some simply don't understand. But rejoice! Those who are open to receive God's word will bear an abundance of fruit.

Naturally, hearing this parable, we want to ask ourselves, “What kind of soil am I? Is my heart really open to receiving God's word? Is it taking root in me? Is it living and growing in me? Am I bearing the fruit of the kingdom? These questions we should always be asking. We need to be honest with God, as well as with ourselves, examine our lives...our thoughts...our actions...our words...things done and things left undone. When we are honest with ourselves and with God in the light of what the Lord expects of us (the law), we know we always come up short. But God doesn't. God doesn't come up short...and that, I believe, is the heart of parable. After all, this is the parable of the sower...not the parable of the dirt.

And here Jesus describes a sower who casts out his seed with such reckless abandon, so that it falls everywhere...on all sorts of terrain: on the path, among the rocks, among thorns and weeds, and finally on the good soil.

And so it is... GOD is the one who sows the seed. It is GOD who casts the Word all about, with such reckless abandon, because he loves us all, no matter what type of soil we may be. And, while our hearts may sometimes be the rocky ground, and while our lives may sometimes be thorny, and while we certainly are sometimes stepped on and beaten down, God is still showering us with grace.

Jesus, in today's reading, is urging us to focus—not on ourselves—but on the mercy and generosity of God...the sower. Remember his assurance from Isaiah: “...my word shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

So................... When we leave here today, I pray that we don't go to our homes in despair, because we have failed to live up to what God expects of us. Nor should we go home feeling all puffed up and good about ourselves, because we are such GOOD SOIL. In truth we are both. But may we go out in joy and be led home in peace, praising God...bursting into song like the mountains and the hills, and clapping our hands like the trees of the field...for the mercy, the extravagant generosity of our God. I promise: His word which has fallen on your ears today will accomplish every last thing for which he sent it. Amen.

DMH