When Good Seed Meets Bad Soil...... (Newsletter Message 7-2017)

“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. 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!

"Hear then the parable of the sower. 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. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 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. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 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."  Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Jesus’ “Parable of the Sower” will be our Gospel reading for Sunday, July 16.  A parable is a story that points beyond itself to illustrate some point – or perhaps several points - that the teller of the parable wants to make.  Jesus often used parables in his teaching, and his parables often told the listener about the nature of God – God’s love, God’s grace, God’s justice, sometimes God’s judgment.  In this reading, Matthew records Jesus’ parable (the first paragraph above) – which the disciples and the crowds would have heard – as well as the explanation (the second paragraph above), which only the disciples would have heard.  That is to say, the crowds would only have heard the first paragraph, not the second – and we may wonder how the crowds might have understood the parable without the explanation supplied in the second paragraph above. 

Jesus’ explanation of the parable seemingly makes it easy to understand – but even with the explanation, the parable raises questions and invites us to go deeper in our understanding of God.   Sermons on this parable typically focus on the four types of soil – the hard-packed soil of the road, the thin soil with rocks underneath, the soil overgrown with thorn bushes, and the good soil that produces fruit.  Such sermons ask us to challenge ourselves to consider what kind of soil we are; that is, when we hear the word of God, what effect does it have on us?  Does it produce change in our lives and in our relations with others?  Or are our spirits too downtrodden or our hearts too stony or our lives too cluttered for the word to reach us?

But we should also take a careful look at sower as well as the soil.   The actions of the sower seem wasteful and foolish.  Instead of carefully making sure the seed lands only in soil that has already been plowed,  this sower tosses about seed seemingly at random – some lands on the hard-trodden path; some lands on rocky ground; some lands in a bramble bush; and the sower does manage to get some of it into his plowed field.  Would any rational person plant a garden in this manner?  If we understand the seeds as a scarce resource, the sower’s actions make no sense.  If, however, we understand the seed to be the good news of Jesus – well, there’s no limit on that, no scarcity.  It’s not like dropping God’s word among unreceptive people leaves less of God’s word for everyone else.  Instead, because God is gracious, God wants everyone to have a chance to hear the good news, even those most unlikely to respond.   So this parable tells us that unlike our careful and sometimes stingy calculations, God’s grace is thrown about with lavish abundance.  Of course, we are still left with the question of how to respond.

Why did Jesus tell this parable?   At this point in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus was getting a very mixed response from those he taught – lots of folks showed up to listen, but then just walked away.  Meanwhile he was beginning to encounter opposition from the religious leadership.  Jesus’ disciples may have wondered why more people did not respond as the disciples had, by leaving everything behind to follow Jesus.   Had they made a mistake in walking away from their previous lives to follow Jesus?  Perhaps Jesus told this parable to explain why so many turned away from him, and to reassure his disciples that their sacrifices had not been in vain.

How’s the spiritual soil here in Bridesburg?   Emanuel Church continues to muddle along with our small numbers and struggling finances.   Among those who get past the front door to worship with us for the first or second time, the response has been good – of those who visit us, many stick around to find welcome and blessing in this place. (For whatever reason, as few as we’ve had, weddings seem to have been especially helpful in bringing in repeat visitors and new members.)  But visitors in worship are all too rare.   It would be easy for me to attribute our low numbers to my own shortcomings of limited imagination and stamina – and there is surely some truth to that.  Emanuel’s Facebook page does seem to be reaching people….but not bringing them into the building.  (Maybe the answer is some sort of online “virtual church” with streaming video or such?)  We have a website, which I keep more or less current most of the time, but I’m not sure how much traffic it gets. I blog my sermons, but according to the blog statistics, much of my readership is in France and Russia. (True story!)  We run newspaper ads around the holidays, but again, the response from the community seems limited.  As time permits, I do door-to-door, block-by-block outreach with our printed doorhangers, but after almost ten years here, I don’t move as quickly, and I have to stop to catch my breath more often – so it takes longer, and again, after all of that, community response is minimal.  More hands – and more ideas – might make lighter work.

But things aren’t much better at some of the other neighborhood churches.  It was odd that as I was looking at this passage, I got the news that our neighboring congregation, Bridesburg Presbyterian Church, plans to close in October, after 180 years of ministry here in Bridesburg.  Last year, Bridesburg Baptist Church closed.  A few years before that, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia closed All Saints Roman Catholic Church.   Of the churches that formed the Bridesburg Council of Churches, that leaves Bridesburg Methodist, Bethesda Methodist in Port Richmond, and us.   And all three churches are attracting roughly the same numbers – roughly 15-20 at each church on an average Sunday - out of a neighborhood of 8,600 people, plus the surrounding neighborhoods.  What’s going on?  Whatever has happened seems to be bigger than any one church or pastor.  Seemingly, the spiritual soil in Bridesburg has changed and is no longer the fertile, well-tilled soil our churches once enjoyed.  For us, the soil seems hard as asphalt, rocky, overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes.   How did this happen?

Some churches are experiencing more success.  Of course, in heavily Roman Catholic Bridesburg, St. John Cantius has many registered members, including their longtime pre-merger members along with some former members of All Saints.   According to their 2015 statistics, roughly 4,100 are registered to the parish, almost half the neighborhood.  However, these same statistics tell us that weekend attendance is slightly less than 600 – less than 15% of registered members - and in fact has dropped slightly since the merger, despite a significant increase in registered members.  (For more details, visit http://archphila.org/pastplan/Rtp1/1345.pdf)  Perhaps more relevant examples are Grace Baptist Church and Real Life Café.   Grace Baptist Church is virtually next door to us on Almond Street – their members compete with ours for parking on Almond Street - and they have enough members to offer two Sunday services, 10 am and 12:45 pm, along with Sunday school and a midweek Bible study.  And Real Life Café has moved from their original former-bar location at Richmond and Buckius to a nearby building renovated by their own members, and used by multiple community organizations.

What are they doing to attract new members?  If I had that answer, I’d bottle it and sell it, and retire on the proceeds.  (And if anyone has any first-hand observations, please let me know!) While I don’t have definitive answers, I may make some suggestions:

1)      In the case of Real Life Café, their entire membership felt invested enough to renovate a building.  It wasn’t just the pastor and a couple of deacons frantically swinging hammers.   As in an old-fashioned Amish barn-raising, the whole faith community was involved.  Similarly, sustaining and strengthening Emanuel Church will require the efforts of all our members.

2)     Real Life does regular outreach into the community, trusting that God will use their efforts to change hearts and minds.  While many of our members have invited friends to worship with us, there’s much more we can do to connect to our neighbors.  And before we invite, we need to pray, and as we invite, we need to trust God for the results.  Whether they come quickly or slowly, God’s time is always the right time.

3)     While I don’t know if it’s still true, in my early years in Bridesburg, Real Life’s pastor regularly showed up at Bridesburg Civic Association and other community meetings.  I get to community events, but on a very occasional basis. We have members who are involved in Bridesburg community organizations – Civic Association, Town Watch, and so forth.  Please let these organizations know that, as small as we are, Emanuel Church stands ready to serve the community – as we already do in supporting Bridesburg Elementary School with supplies.

If the spiritual soil in Bridesburg has for us become hard as asphalt, stony, overgrown with thorn bushes, perhaps it’s because at some point we stopped tending it.  While God can bring about growth in any kind of soil, clearly, the seed (i.e. the Word of God) bears more fruit when planted in soil that has been prepared.  As churches in Bridesburg continue to struggle and consider closing, each of us needs to put our hand to the plow as never before, trusting that so long as our efforts are to God’s glory, they will not be in vain. 

See you in church –

Pastor Dave