That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he 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 no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell 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!”
God doesn’t believe in scarcity. God doesn’t believe in limits or propriety or rules. God takes what is and uses it for his purpose. The primary purpose of God is mercy. God forgives, loves, and welcomes home everyone. And when we say “No thanks” to the purpose of God, he just keeps at us, showering us with mercy, forgiveness and love. God will always choose mercy over efficiency, or fairness, or domination.
Jesus tells us what this is like. “Listen! A sower went out to sow.” No plow. No ox. No hired hand to help out. Just a crazy farmer flinging seeds around everywhere in a field. Not efficient. In Jesus' day, there were things that the farmer did to prepare the field. But Jesus makes it clear that the field hasn't been prepared. There are well-trod paths, there are rocks, there are thorny weeds. If the sower would just deal with those problems, just make the slightest effort, then there’s a chance the seeds will find good soil and bear fruit. But this sower doesn’t care about the soil. He simply goes out and starts tossing the seeds everywhere.
If I had a field that was completely grown over and rocky, I might abandon it, or get a tractor and plow it all under, in order to find some good soil. But not God. God doesn’t plow us all under and start over. God sows the seed of his mercy everywhere. And if it doesn’t take hold at first, God just keeps throwing the seed of mercy. This prodigal Sower is God. If you believe in limited good, this is the shocker – designed precisely to get you to look at God in a new way. If God is willing to throw blessing over everyone, even those that a reasonable person might conclude are a lost cause, then we have a new way of knowing God.
I have a lot to unlearn about God. I need to get over my addiction to fairness and my fear of scarcity. Maybe you do too. I have to unlearn things about God that I’ve picked up along the way, because I want to know God more and more; so that I can begin again to know God as she really is, not just as I fear she is. I just have to stop and enjoy the experience of God.
The most peculiar thing is that we get to act like God. We get to be like a sower throwing everything he has at creation. We get to unlearn all the bad habits of believing in scarcity. We get to make mistakes, to waste our time and our energy, because God uses all that we offer to make the world anew. We get to give away what we have, what is most precious to us, not because we have to, but because we get to see it increase in the lives of others. God the Prodigal Sower has sown that abounding love into every part of our lives. And that abounding love has begun to bear the fruit of new life in our lives.
What kind of God is this? A sower went out to sow. And in one place he used a sissy-boy to make a covenant, and in another he used a homeless girl to bear him for the world, and in another he took us and gave us his image so that the whole world might know God’s love.
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