Sermon for Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 15) A  | July 12, 2026 | A Sermon on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 | by Luther H. Thoresen

¹That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ² Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³ And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵ 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. ⁶ But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ If you have ears, hear!”

¹⁸ “Hear, then, the parable of the sower. ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹ yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. ²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²³ But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Scripture quotations from: New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Note: The initial paragraphs in italics of this sermon might be used as the basis for a Children’s message. If not used that way, one might adapt it as the beginning of the “usual” sermon or insert part of it later in the sermon…or elsewhere in the service.

Good morning!

“Sow, sow, sow the seed, cast it all around.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, harvest will abound.” (repeat)

(this might be sung lightly to the tune “Row, row, row your boat…or spoken in cadence, and some people will probably be “singing” in their heads).

 

Would you sing (speak) that with me? “Sow, sow…abound”

You heard Jesus’ parable in the Gospel reading today. A sower, a farmer threw out seeds on the field. That’s often how people plant when they don’t have modern machinery like a corn planter or a drill. They walk and throw handfuls of seed in every direction. They may not get the yield of a modern farmer with chemicals and tractors and implements. But, when you want to grow wheat so you can eat bread, some is a lot better than nothing, right? The farmer in Jesus’ parable today meets difficulties like birds that eat seeds, rocks that prevent plants from sinking in good roots and weeds that choke out plants. Still, at the end of the season there was a harvest…and in Jesus’ story a great harvest – lots of wheat for bread to eat. Does anyone in your family plant a garden? [allow time for answers…if none have gardening in their family, the pastor might relate some gardening experiences of their own, or from family/friend relationships] One thing really important today, is that whenever we do plant, there is usually more to harvest than we planted, right? Sometimes lots more!

I’ll talk about this more in the regular sermon. But for now, would you pray with me? God, thank you for sing-song words that might help us remember today’s Gospel story. Thank you for gardens and the food we might receive. Thank you for gardeners and farmers and for their labor to feed us. Thank you for Jesus’ story today and thank you especially for sending your Son to share his life and love with us. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In a published sermon¹ on this text, Episcopal priest and author Barbara Brown Taylor suggests we could think about an “alternate story or parable” for today. This is my adaptation of her tale.

One day, Steve, a farmer, prepared to go out to sow the wheat on newly prepared ground. He put on his hat and put seed in his pouch and began just after sunrise to cast the seed along the path. He saw some pigeons and doves and had a bright idea. “I will make a scarecrow from straw and clothing and sticks…and I will fashion a scary owl, too, from whatever I can find. In this way, these pesky birds will leave my wheat seed alone.” He went off, and by the time he was done it was 10 am. He put his seed pouch back on and began to cast.  Then…he saw an area with quite a few rocks. “What shall I do?” he thought. “I know what I will do. I will get tools and bring my ox and sled. I’ll dig out the rocks, put them on the sled and pull them away. Maybe I can sell them to the stone worker down the road, or sell them to my neighbor for the foundation of the house he’s planning.” Well, by 3 o’clock he was back out in the field with his hat and seed pouch.  Again he began to cast and saw a patch of thistle and then another patch. He went back to the shed, got a hoe and got to work. By the time he was done the sun was setting and he was tired…and he had not seeded much of the field at all. “Maybe I can get this seed sown tomorrow,” he said aloud to himself.

The next morning, Steve headed out to the field bright and early. There were doves sitting on his scarecrow and pigeons sitting beside his owl. I think the birds were waiting for breakfast. As he surveyed the field, he saw several more rocks that he missed yesterday, and wondered, “Where did they come from?” Then, he looked where he had been digging thistles, and said, “Well, I’ll be. There are leaves starting to grow up from the roots of the thistles I cut off with my hoe.” Then, he began to chuckle. Soon he was laughing out loud. Then, he adjusted his hat, put his hand in his pouch, grabbed a handful of seed and began to cast the seed…everywhere.

In Jesus’ parable, the sower cast the seed everywhere. The sower trusted that the seed would grow, knowing that some of the plants from that seed would not make it to harvest time.

“Sow, sow, sow the seed, cast it all around.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, harvest will abound.”

Pastor H. George Anderson is a former presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In a sermon published online² he reminded us of how the man known as “Johnny Appleseed” operated. As the story or legend goes, he walked across Ohio and several other states, giving out seeds for apple and other fruit trees. We understand that many generations have benefitted from Johnny’s passion for planting fruit trees. Then, Anderson wondered, “But just suppose that Johhny was worried about results. Suppose he did not trust the power of the seeds to grow and the weather and soil to nourish. Suppose he felt personally responsible for getting each and every tree up to the state where it was producing fruit. How many trees would he have been able to plant in his lifetime? How many counties or states would have looked back to him with gratitude?” The answer to both questions would be “Not very many.” Right? Not many total trees. Not many grateful counties or states.

But, Johnny Appleseed did trust the seed. The sower in Jesus’ parable trusted the seed. You and I can trust the seed, we can trust the seed of the word of God. What does Isaiah say in our first reading, speaking on God’s behalf? Isaiah (55:10-12) says,

¹⁰ For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

We might ask, “What is the occasion for Jesus’ telling of this parable?” Well, in Matthew chapter 13 is right after chapter 12. Right? In that chapter, Jesus had been criticized for allowing his disciples to pluck grain as they walked through a field on the Sabbath. Jesus had been criticized for healing a man with a withered hand…on the Sabbath. In chapter 12 we even hear about a plot to kill Jesus. And finally, we hear an episode when some folks bring to Jesus a man who has demons disrupting his life. Jesus cures him and the crowds ask, “Can this be the son of David?” But the leaders say, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this man casts out the demons.”  Some don’t get it, Jesus’ ministry of the Kingdom. Some even oppose Jesus. Is Jesus a failure? Nope. Not on your life.

With the parable, it seems that Jesus is affirming that in spite of any perceived losses or obstacles, the harvest is at hand. The birds, the rocks and the thistles would not prevent a great harvest. The opposition to Jesus will not prevent the harvest of the Kingdom. With this, we might affirm that Jesus’ parable is more about sowing and trusting the seed than it is about the different soils. We might affirm that Jesus’ parable is more about casting seed than it is about wondering where the seed lands. We might affirm that Jesus’ parable is more about hearing the Word and bearing fruit than it is about what gets in the way.

“Sow, sow, sow the seed, cast it all around.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, harvest will abound.”

The Word is heard in many ways, from usual sources or in almost accidental ways. Let me tell you about Ramad. Ramad lived in India and was a member of a gang of robbers. Once, while burglarizing a house he noticed a small black book containing very thin pages…just right for rolling cigarettes. So, in his pocket it went.  Evening after evening, he tore out some pages, rolled each page around some tobacco to make a cigarette. One evening, he noticed that the words on the pages were in his language. So, each evening he began reading a page before he rolled the tobacco in it. Then, one evening after reading one more page he knelt on the ground, asked the Lord for forgiveness and to be saved. Then, he turned himself into the police. They were amazed. Ramad the bandit had become a follower of Jesus. You know that the little black book had been a New Testament. In prison as he served his sentence, he led many others to the Savior. Ramad heard the Word. Tobacco rolling papers had carried the Word to him in what seemed an accidental way.

“Sow, sow, sow the seed, cast it all around.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, harvest will abound.”

When the Word is heard, people bear fruit, even if the one who sows is not aware of how or when the Word bears fruit. William Barclay was a university professor and pastor in the Church of Scotland in the mid 1900’s. He also authored a series of commentaries on each book of the New Testament for lay people. One of his friends related a story⁴ to Barclay about something he had witnessed. It goes something like this. A member of the church where Barclay worshiped was a lonely older man, old Thomas, as folks called him. Thomas had outlived his friends and hardly anyone knew him. When Thomas died, Barclay’s friend had a feeling that there would be few if anyone at Thomas’ funeral. So, he decided to go so that there might be someone to follow Thomas to his last resting-place.

It was a miserable day, and yup, no one else was there. The funeral director and Barclay’s friend (and maybe the pastor) reached the cemetery. At the gate there was a soldier waiting. He seemed to be an officer, but with his raincoat there were no badges showing his rank. The officer came to the graveside for the graveside service, and at the end, he stepped forward and before an open grave swept his hand to salute…as if he were saluting the King. The friend walked away with the officer and as they walked, the wind pulled back the raincoat and revealed shoulder badges of the officer. Walking beside him was a brigadier general. “You are probably wondering what I am doing here,” said the general. “Years ago,” he continued, “Thomas was my Sunday School teacher; and I was a wild lad and a sore trial to him. He never knew what he did for me, but I owe everything I am, or will be, to old Thomas. Today I had to come to salute him at the end.”  Wow.

We could say that Thomas had sown the seed of the Word in the general’s life a looooong time before he was a general. We might guess that Thomas never knew the impact he had on the general. He was simply a Sunday School teacher and follower of Jesus.

“Sow, sow, sow the seed, cast it all around.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, harvest will abound.”

We often hear the Word to us and for us, and that is appropriate. We hear the Word in with and under the words of scripture shared together in worship or read alone at home. We hear the Word in with and under the water and Word of Holy Baptism and as we return to the grace of Baptism in Confession and Forgiveness. We hear the Word in with and under the bread and wine of the Holy Communion as we receive the body and the life-blood of Jesus. We hear the Word in with and under the conversation among God’s people. As we serve others we may meet that Word in with and under the flesh and bone of our neighbor. We may hear the Word in with and under prayer with our own words or in the prayer of stillness and silence. The Word to us is free and life-giving, sown in our hearts and lives by the Lord of the Church. That Word bears fruit in lives of faithfulness and mercy. That Word bears fruit in lives of service to the hungry, the naked, the thirsty, the imprisoned, the sick and more.

Also, the Word is to be shared by us. It is not just a Word that is to us and for us only. It is a Word for us to share. Can we trust the Word for others as the sower trusted the seed?  The Word does bear fruit in unlikely places. The Word is shared, the word bears fruit in unlikely places among unlikely people. Amen?

We can trust the Word that is shared through a prison ministry developed by an association of people or of congregations. We can trust the Word that is shared though the ministry of chaplains in hospitals, mental institutions and hospice programs. We can trust the Word that is shared through campus ministries at colleges and universities. We can trust the Word that is shared through caring conversations with people who have dementia or developmental disabilities. We can trust the Word that is shared through your caring words and actions among your friends, family and neighbors.

“Sow, sow, sow the seed, cast it all around.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, harvest will abound.”

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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©Pr. Luther H. Thoresen, ELCA, STS, retired; thoresenluther54@gmail.com; Grundy Center, IA, USA

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¹ “The Extravagant Sower” in The Seeds of Heaven, © 2004 Barbara Brown Taylor, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, pp 23-29, (specifically pp 28-29)

² “…And the Seed Will Grow,” a sermon published for July 14,1996 on the website Day1.net. However, it is no longer online that I could discern, unless archived somewhere.

³ This anecdote was published online by the late Pr Tim Zingale. The site, www.dodgenet.com is no longer available. The source cited by Zingale was a book by Peter Deison, The Priority of Knowing God. (Discovery House Pub, 1990)

⁴ My source for this story was from a page of illustrations for this lectionary day that included this one by David E. Leininger’s Collected Sermons, as found on www.Sermons.com