Readings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23
Having served over the past few months
at the broadcast and live-streamed liturgies
here at the Cathedral—
reading the Gospel to empty pews,
speaking to a glowing red light on a camera,
wondering who might or might not be watching—
I have a certain sympathy
for the sower in today’s Gospel.
In fact, the method of planting
employed by the sower in today’s parable
is called “broadcasting.”
Though we associate the term today
with television and radio,
it originates in agriculture
as a term for scattering seed far and wide
without too much control
as to where the seed falls
and with a measure of uncertainty
as to the yield of the seed that is sown.
The staff here at the Cathedral—
others far more than me—
have put tremendous effort
into making live-streamed liturgies,
along with other forms of electronic outreach,
available to people during the coronavirus pandemic,
to try to help them remain connected:
connected to our community,
connected to their faith,
connected to God’s word.
And though it is possible to gather metrics
regarding numbers of viewers
or how many people open email messages,
we really have no immediate way
to measure the success of this broadcasting.
We have no immediate way of telling,
in light of all our efforts,
what has fallen on the stony path,
what has fallen on shallow earth,
what has fallen among thorns,
and what has fallen on good soil.
But isn’t this always the way it works?
This is not just the experience
of “professional Catholics” like me.
All of us, I dare say, want to live our faith
so as to spread God’s reign far and wide;
all of us seek by word and action
to make a world that is
more loving,
more just,
more peaceful,
more ready to welcome
the kingdom that Jesus proclaims.
But all of us also undertake
our labors for God’s kingdom
without controlling the outcome,
often without ever knowing
what seed lies sterile and unfruitful
and what seed takes root and produces
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
St. Teresa of Calcutta is reported to have said,
“God does not require that we be successful,
only that we be faithful.”
That might be a fine sentiment for a saint,
but for us non-saints it can be a struggle
to pour ourselves out in service to God and neighbor
and not know if anything will come of that effort.
In word and action, day in and day out,
we seek as Christians to broadcast
the seeds of God’s kingdom,
but it can feel as if
our seeds fall only on poor soil
and never take root,
as if we are always speaking
only to empty pews
or a glowing red light.
I think about this in terms of the efforts
people have made over the past few months
to mitigate the spread of this pandemic:
people struggling to work from home
while also helping in their children’s schooling,
essential workers who have put themselves at risk
so that we might have food and medical care,
businesses closed and weddings postponed
and millions of lives turned upside down.
All these efforts, I believe,
are the seeds of God’s word being broadcast;
they are done for the sake of God’s kingdom
when they are undertaken
not out of fear or self-regard,
but out of love and concern
for the least of our brothers and sisters,
for the most vulnerable and at risk,
for the common good of the world as a whole.
And yet we still don’t know where all of this will end.
As St. Paul writes,
we await with groaning the final revelation of God’s plan.
We still don’t know when or if life will return to normal,
whatever “normal” now means.
We still don’t know for sure
which of the measures we have taken
will prove to have been effective
and which will prove to have been pointless or misguided.
We still don’t know which of our efforts will bear fruit
and which will lie fruitless on hard-packed earth.
But, in another sense,
in a deeper and more important sense,
we do know.
God tells us through the prophet Isaiah,
“my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.”
In the end, the work of sowing the kingdom
does not depend upon us,
but upon almighty God.
God may use us—our words and our deeds—
as instruments through which he works,
but it is God in Christ who is the sower;
it is God’s Spirit, which blows where it will,
that will guide the seeds of the kingdom to good soil.
Our job is to remain faithful to the tasks of love
that God sets before us.
And so we broadcast seeds
of faith, hope, and love,
not holding back,
but offering our labors great and small to God
to be transformed by his grace.
Let us pray today that the Lord
would prosper the work of our lives,
and may God have mercy on us all.
