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Divine Extravagance

Jody Winston
July 10, 2005

Sermon
Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
Let’s listen in as a farmer goes down to the local bank and asks the loan officer
for some money to buy some seed, in other words the farmer is looking for a seed
loan.

Banker (excited about making possible a deal): “Hey Josh, it’s really good to see
you!”

Josh (good old boy): “It’s good to see you too. You know how hard for me to
come in and spend some time with you because I’m so busy down on the farm
with work and such. Today’s no exception either, so I’ll just have to cut to the
chase. I need to take out a seed loan.”

Banker (still trying to work on making a deal): “You know Josh that I’d love to
make a deal with you and have your business. How many acres do you plan to
plant this season?”

Josh: “Well, I only have a small field down by the river that has good enough soil
for the type of seed that I’m planning to plant. . . ”

Banker (interrupting): “Josh, then the loan should be easy enough for us to pro-
cess. I’m glad to hear that this isn’t one of your wild and crazy ideas that I’ve
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

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heard from you in the past. I’ll start on the paperwork right now so that you can
get back to work.”

Josh (slightly flustered): “Now hold on just a minute. I haven’t finished telling
you about the land and until we can figure out the acreage, we can’t do the deal
for the seed loan. Where was I? That’s right, I was telling you about how much
seed that I needed. In addition to the river bottom, I’ve got some blacktop and
calichie roads, I also have over a good portion of the property poor soil on top of
the limestone, and of course, I’ve got brush everywhere. By my calculations, I’ll
need enough seed for about 37 billion acres (36,780,894,497). Think that we can
do the deal?”

Banker (confused): “Josh, Josh, I’ve never studied agriculture anywhere but it
doesn’t take a PhD in farm and ranch management from Texas A&M to evaluate
your business proposal. It just won’t work! Don’t you understand that what will
happen if you try to plant on the road? You’ll just feed the birds. Don’t you see
that you can’t plant anything of value in that thin soil either? The roots can’t get
into the rock. And don’t you get me started about trying to plant among the cedar
trees. Nothing can live with those trees.

Finally, your numbers they just don’t add up. This county only has 575 square
miles! Since there are 640 acres to the square mile, that’s only 368, 000 acres.
Josh, are you trying to buy enough seed for the entire earth?”

Josh (matter of factly): “Well, yes I am.”

I’m sure that at least one person on the crowded beach noticed the same problem
in the parable told by Jesus. Farmers just don’t act this way. They never have and
they never will.
By nature, farmers are frugal. They only have a limited number of hours in
every day to do the work that is set before them and they cannot afford to waste
any of their precious time on doing work that does not yield results. I know that
many of you were taught a similar phrase by your parents and grandparents that
illustrates this point, “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.” This
motto must be a farmer’s creed because you never know what work tomorrow
might bring, so you must do your best on the jobs that you are required to do
today. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that a farmer would ever waste time by
placing seeds where they would never grow.

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Farmers are thrifty. They only have a limited amount of working capital that
they can spend on their crops. For most family farmers, the amount of money
that they can spend on their crops is very small. They cannot throw their money
away like the farmer did in the parable told by Jesus because they never know
what the future might bring. They might need their money to fix a tractor that
breaks with out warning, they could need their capital to pay for water during
an unexpected drought, or perhaps they might have to employ extra workers to
harvest the crops before they ruin in the fields. Once again, I cannot believe that
any farmers would deliberately throw away good seed because that is not how
farmers normally behave.
However, this parable told by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading is not a story
about a farmer who carefully budgets his time and his money. It instead is a story
about a different type of farmer, a farmer who is divinely extravagant. It is a story
about God’s lavish love for all of creation.
First and foremost, this parable is about God the Father. The Father was will-
ing to do everything needed in order that the universe would be saved from our
sin. He sent His only Son into the world so that all of the world would believe in
God and do God’s will. This action caused His Son to suffer and to die. God’s
love for all of creation is divinely extravagant and we see this in Father’s actions.
Secondly, this parable is about God the Son who commanded His Church to
go into the world teaching, making disciples, and baptizing. This order to go into
the world by Jesus shows us that God’s concern for everyone continues with us
here on earth. In God’s Word, we hear of God’s extravagant love for the Church
and its mission.
Finally, this parable is about God the Spirit who gives us everything that we
need. Not only does this include our daily needs of bread and water as we pray
for in the Lord’s Prayer but the Holy Spirit also gives us our faith in God and our
ability to go and tell others about God. These gifts from the Holy Spirit, which
sustain us througout our lives are extravagant.
Sometimes, we do not want to hear of the farmer who gives everyone what
they need. Instead, we would prefer to turn our hearts into soil that causes God’s
seed to wither. When we do this, we reject God’s message of love and act like
hard soil, rocky soil, or soil that has thorny plants.
Some of us might keep our lives so tightly packed with things that God’s seed
never takes root. We are the ones who have bumper stickers that read, “Whoever
dies with the most toys wins.” We think that our things will save us the pain of
our sin but our things cannot love us nor can they forgive our sin. For a portion
of us in this situation, our Day Timers or Palm Pilots are full with things that we

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have to do but we never can find the time to be with God and to learn God’s ways.
Others of us might harden our hearts and kill off the young plants before they
have a chance to take root and change our lives. We could speak ill of the Church.
We might say that we would never darken a door in the Lord’s house because the
Church is filled with “those type of people.” And that we would never be caught
with them. We forget that they are just like us since they are sinners also.
Still others of us could choke out God’s message with all sort of thorny prob-
lems that we pay attention to instead of feeding the young plant in our hearts. We
might be concerned about doing things the right way instead of doing things the
Lord’s way. Our actions certainly will stunt the plant’s growth and might end up
killing it outright.
Even though God knows about every possible problem that might befall God’s
Word, God continues to lavishly give us both the attention and the Word of the
kingdom. Every member of the Trinity works toward this goal. The Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit all spend time and energy on each and every one of us.
God continues to be with us and give us what we need even if we are hard soil,
rocky soil, thorny soil, or even if we have been blessed with good soil. God is
always there with us and working on us. God never gives up on us.
I am sure that farmers in the audience were surprised when they heard about a
farmer who took the time to place seed in places where it would not make a return
on the seed’s investment. Jesus continues to go to the banker and ask for a seed
loan so that seed may be planted over the entire earth. Unlike an earthly banker
who would never give a single cent to this type of plan, God the Father gives the
Son anything that the Son asks for. The Son and the Holy Spirit take this seed and
spread it over all of creation.
The farmer also has a plan for us. Jesus wants us to work with Him in the
world. Some of us may be asked to go into areas that are hard to penetrate. Others
of us may be sent to areas with rocky issues and maybe we might be placed into
situations that are thorny. Maybe a few of us will be blessed by being sent into
areas with good soil. But no matter if we have been placed in areas with hard,
rocky, thorny, or good soil we need to remember that God has given us the time
and the seed to plant.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”

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