That's How We Roll

“That’s How We Roll”

 Isaiah 55:1-13   Matthew 13:1-9

 July 10, 2011                                                                         

How was your Fourth of July celebration?  Did you see any fireworks?  My family and I went to a friend’s home which is on a small lake.  They have a nice firework display each year.  Long before the main attraction, there are plenty of fireworks.  Folks who can’t wait, can’t just sit and watch.  Folks who have to blow something up themselves.  Among those who just couldn’t wait I noticed a ten year old boy and his father who set off quite an impressive and festive celebration of their own.  The kid ran up the hill from the lake shore, arms in the air yelling, “That’s how we roll!  That’s how we roll!”
That is how I see this passage in Isaiah.  God is showing a sparkling display of mercy and grace in providing blessings and gifts to God’s people that are sure to brighten the darkest sky.  Then, running in jubilant celebration, arms waving in ecstasy, God shouts, “That’s how I roll!”
Well, the text actually reads, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.  My ways are not your ways.”  The thoughts and ways of God, compared to those of humankind are above, beyond, amazing.  We are reminded, even though it would sound like an understatement that we do not think like God thinks; we do not work the way God works.  Need we be reminded of this obvious truth?  Yes, yes we do.  And where better to find this obvious, parenthetical reminder than in the midst of a passage which addresses the merciful and gracious provisions of God?  God’s love is foolish, repeatedly reaching out in holy compassion, faithfulness and mercy.  That’s the way God rolls! 
This can be seen if we take a second look at the Gospel passage for today.  It requires a second look because at first glance we tend to focus on the familiar interpretation which Matthew provides of this parable.  We are preconditioned since Sunday School days to think of this parable as being about the soil rather than the sower.  We tend to focus on preparing the soil of our hearts to be receptive to the fruitful and faithful hearing of the word of God.  And so we must.  But what if we take a second look at this parable and consider the parable of the sower?  What does the sower have to teach us? 
The sower, if we look again, will suggest to us that, indeed, the thoughts and ways of God are not like our own.  We tend to think about sowing seeds of  the kingdom quite differently than the sower, who seems to symbolize God, or Christ as the messenger of God. 
Let’s look again at the sower.  For the purpose of memory let us borrow from the children’s song about another farmer, O McDonald Had A Farm.  We all know the song…the familiar “E-I-E-I-O.”   From these letters let us characterize the action of this sower, and so the character of God in the distribution of the gracious gifts of God.
Let’s take the first E.  This could be for Extravagant. Now, Jesus hearers knew, and we must be reminded, how precious seed was to the sower.  The seed had to be gathered, the best from last year’s crop.  It had to be dried and stored.  The value of the seed was unquestionable and the chances of survival itself depended on the use of the seed.  Yet, we see the sower in the parable sowing the seeds of the kingdom as if what is  precious is also absolutely limitless in supply.  Why?  Because it is!  E is for Extravagant.  That is just the way God thinks, the way God works.  It is the the way God rolls! 
Now, let’s move on to the first I.  This is for Indiscriminate.  See how freely the sower distributes the seeds.  Anywhere and everywhere:  on the pathway, among the hard rocks and even in the thorn patch.  It is not surprising that much of the seed does not grow, considering where it is sown.  What is surprising is where the sower would cast such precious seeds.  Doesn’t that seem senseless, careless and foolish.  The way of the sower is not how we think, how we would work.   Yet, it is the way of planting kingdom seeds.  It seems to reflect the Indiscriminate Grace with which God offers love, mercy and blessing.  Sending life giving rain on the just and the unjust.  God’s grace falls indiscriminately into the lives of all God’s children.  Here a blessing, there a blessing, everywhere a blessing!  I is for God’s Indiscriminate Grace.
Let us compare the way God rolls to the way we think.  We find it strange to act as if the most precious gifts of God, grace, mercy, love and forgiveness, are limitless in supply.  But they are!  We are prone to look at the precious gifts of God, all of God’s blessings, from a stance of scarcity.  We guard what is precious, what seems to be so rare.  We think of ourselves as assigned to “protect them as the last egg of the rarest endangered bird.”  We tend to think before we cast the seeds of the kingdom. We want to analyze the soil, test the reception and assure that the receiver is worthy and it will yield successful results.  Indeed, these gifts are precious but what we must remember is that the mercy and blessing of God, seeds of the kingdom, are without limit and are to be cast Extravagantly and Indiscriminately. 
Speaking of results, the next E is for Extraordinary Results.  Notice, that in spite of his careless casting of precious seeds in the strangest places, the sower has amazing results.  The results were exaggerated to demonstrate the results went beyond the wildest dreams.  Reaping a five-fold harvest would have been a cause for celebration in the village where Jesus taught this parable.  For a ten-fold harvest the villagers would have attributed the results only to God.  But this sower, unconventional as he was, reaped a thirty-fold, a sixty-fold, even a hundred-fold return.  Jesus must have known his hearers, like hearers today, would want to have some kind of evidence before there would be openness to change the way they sowed, the way they thought and worked, and the evidence would have to be compelling.  Thirty, sixty and a hundred-fold harvest is compelling.  Can you imagine this sower on harvest day, running across the field, arms in the air yelling to all the sowing critics, “That’s how I roll?” 
Now, results are not always immediate, apparent or what we expect.  That takes us to the next I.  I is for Investing in Eternity.  As sowers of the seeds of the kingdom we are called to Invest in Eternity.  The results will not always be immediate, obvious or what we expect.  The standards of evaluation of the harvest of the kingdom are as vastly different as are the ways of sowing in the kingdom. 
Wendell Berry in his poem entitled Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front addresses these two ways of thinking and working, God’s way and our way.  The poem is an indictment against living for the quick profit, the short-term gain that defines the way of our modern world. Berry calls us to live counter to the values of the world and live as disciples of Christ. These two ways of living are mutually exclusive. There are no points of intersection. Berry writes:

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

The poem ends with the two words “practice resurrection.” Planting sequoias is a metaphor for investing in things that will remain for a very long time, far after you are gone. It means giving your life to things “that you will not live to harvest” but have eternal results.
That is the way God would have us roll. That is the way of sowing seeds of the kingdom.  Investing in Eternity.
The final O of E-I-E-I-O is for Only God Gives The Harvest.  It is important to remember who is who.  We are sowers.  We are to do the work of sowing, and do it God’s way rather than our own way.  We are to be faithful in regard to dutifully fulfilling our assignment and in regard to believing that God will bring the harvest and the harvest will be Extraordinary and an Investment in Eternity.  With this perspective we are more prepared to plant seeds of the kingdom in new and transforming ways. 
We used to sing an old hymn in the Baptist Church called “Bringing In the Sheaves.”  It goes like this:
Let us begin to think more like God thinks.  Let us begin to sow more like God sows.  If we do, then we shall come rejoicing, waving our arms in the air in celebration, yelling, “That’s how we roll!”          Amen.