Lavish, Extravagant Grace
Matthew 13:1-9
What in the world is God doing?
If the farmer in this parable is supposed to be God – and it is! - this God goes against almost every economic principle we most highly value. This farmer-God throws seed around like the wealthiest among us throw money around. Not only that, but this God is utterly incompetent at marketing and farming, recklessly tossing valuable seed in no particular direction ending up where most of it has almost no chance of taking root and growing. This God is wasteful. The Return on Investment of God's enterprise is far less than it could be. God sure didn't get his Master of Business Administration from Kelly School of Business or his Doctorate of Agricultural Science from Purdue University.
So it is fair to ask, “What in the world is God doing?”
We know better than to be reckless and wasteful. Many of us were brought up in families where we weren’t allowed to get up from the table until we’d finished every last scrap of food on our plate. My mother used to remind us kids that there were starving children in India who would love to have the food we were wasting. So I offered to help her pack it up and put it in the mail to India. But my mother was not amused and she was not budging. Food was NOT to be wasted.
And that kind of frugality applies to other things, too. During these times of environmental sensitivity, some socially conscious folks have bumper stickers that ask, “What Would Jesus Drive?” It’s not really a question that seeks an answer because they're answering it by the kind of vehicles they drive and put these bumper stickers on! You never see one of those bumper stickers on a Cadillac Escalade. Those bumper stickers are found on a Toyota Prius, or a little SmartForTwo three-cylinder shoebox of a car, or a car that our beloved Dan Mitchell might drive, or maybe Jesus would have no car at all – maybe Jesus would just ride a bike to church to reduce our dependence upon foreign oil and to keep the planet from hydrocarbon disaster. Jesus would conserve natural resources and live more frugally to SAVE Mother Earth because, as we all know, “We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves!”
Well, maybe that's true for Jesus, but it's not true for Jesus' Holy Father! Not God – not the wasteful, spendthrift, throw-seed-around-like-its-going-out-of-style farmer in today’s parable! Oh no! If Jesus is putt-in' around town on a little Vespa motor scooter in order to conserve, God is zooming down the street with the pedal to the metal in a gas-guzzling 5.0 Liter V8 Supercharged Land Rover Mega-sized Range Rover SUV! Look at God in this story recklessly tossing that seed around without any concern whatsoever about waste!
What in the world is God doing? “Some seed fell upon the path. Some fell on rocky places. Some seed fell among thorns. And luckily, some seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop.”
What a thought-provoking parable! What is Jesus getting at here? Maybe Jesus is telling us this parable of the wasteful farmer to jar our sensibilities and create some tension around the values we hold so dear. Maybe Jesus is showing us that there is more to life than the bottom line – that life is not measured in terms of “Return on Investment”, or in terms of dollars and cents. Maybe Jesus is teaching us that the central issue for us should not be our sense of economy, but rather our sense of humanity . . . not even our Quaker frugality but our Godly generosity
Or maybe the parable is simply asking, “What is the worth of one single human soul?”
“A farmer went out to sow. Some seed feel upon the path. Some fell on rocky places. Other seed fell among thorns. And some seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop.”
I wonder why God would throw so much seed into so many hopeless places? Wouldn’t God be more responsible and wise to just cut the losses and stopped throwing good seed away after bad? Wouldn’t the number crunchers on Wall Street give God a raise and a pat on the back if God stopped being wasteful and produced bigger harvests with less seed?
Those are the kind of folks currently managing my Brussels Sprouts packages. I love Brussels Sprouts with balsamic vinegar and sea salt on top. I have them for lunch at least once every week. But over the years those wicked number crunchers at the Brussels Sprouts home office keep raising the price of my Brussels Sprouts while lowering the number of Brussels Sprouts inside. And I'm mad and imagining the day I open up my Brussels Sprouts package to discover only three puny, little Brussels Sprouts inside. When Brussels Sprouts have yielded to pure capitalism you know the world has gone to pot, or instead of a pot, more succinctly a very small pan.
This is one of the deepest struggles we Christians face. In a world of capitalism that measures value in terms of economic efficiency, God calls us to take up an entirely different value system. The question God asks is not, “How much does it cost?” but rather “What is the worth of one human soul?”
The parable of the sower tells us about a God who is absolutely unafraid to waste resources in the effort to bring life to others. So this God of the Bible that Jesus teaches us is the true nature of God. God, just like the imprudent farmer in this parable, intentionally scatters the seed of his Word east and west and north and south. God sows among believers and doubters, good people and bad, those who are ready to receive the Word and those whose hearts are hardened. God spreads the seed on the pathway, and on rocky soil, among the thorns, and every once in awhile, that seed finds fertile ground, and it takes root, and grows, and produces fruit . . . fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
While we secular human beings might consider this a waste, it is not a waste at all! It is the very definition of God. It is the very definition of GRACE! Grace is always a “my cup is full and overflowing” kind of generosity. It is the very essence of our faith. It is lavish, extravagant, unmerited love poured out for family, friends, enemies, neighbors, strangers, poor, immigrants, sick, diseased, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, as well as for all creation!
If you ever wonder what God is like, look no further than this parable. This is what God is like. And this is exactly the same nature we are called to exemplify as Christians!
Lavish, extravagant, wasteful love! Surprise of surprises, when it comes to “Grace” God is no Toyota Prius, Smart-for-Two, Vespa driver or bicycle rider. God is driving an absolute unashamed, unabashed “grace-guzzler”!
And the tipping point that makes the difference between our human values and God’s values is simply this: Economics produces a faith that is all about us and our personal well-being and can be quantified, analyzed, and justified to bless us and our kind. However, God's grace is something entirely different. At times it won't even make common sense because Grace produces a faith that is totally about loving everyone and concerned about everyone's well-being. I realize common sense is like deodorant . . . those who need it most don't use it. But whether it makes sense or not, God's grace is there for all.
What in the world is God doing? What in the world does the Church think it’s doing? What in the world do Christians think they’re doing? Saving the world. That’s what. And how can the world and our country and ourselves be saved? With “Grace” and a whole lot of it.
Any so-called Christian who is in the business of dogmatizing the faith and creating rules and regulations and forms and rituals and hoops to jump through and judging others day in and day out and scaring people with damnation and satanically preaching a prosperity gospel and failing to see that of God in everyone and proclaiming themselves purer than others and becoming a religious prude is NO Christian at all. To be a true Christian your one and ONLY focus should be a GRATEFUL GRACE RECEIVER who is equally focused on being a GENEROUS GRACE DISTRIBUTOR
Jesus taught, and Paul put on the exclamation point later on, we are saved by grace and grace alone. God is extravagant. God is generous beyond belief. God is seemingly wasteful. God doesn't care how much it costs because God knows how much each and every soul, each and every person is worth regardless of all the barriers society and religions might add into the equation, stuff such as race, nationality, gender, religion, sexual orientation, political views. If you really want to describe God in a few words, here it is: God is love. God is grace. If you and I are to follow the witness of our God then we ought to be equally extravagant, wasteful and grace-guzzling in our lives. Extravagant in extending our love and God's love to everyone without any thought that such grace will ever run dry. It won't.
So it’s about time, it's about time all of us start feeling a nudge to live on the wild, lavish and extravagant side of faith. We need to go right on ahead and place absolutely no limits on God's generosity. So if you are serious about your Christian and Quaker faith, here's your one-and-only job this week and every week for the rest of your life: Go spread some grace! And be downright generous when you go to do. Don't judge, assume or build walls. Just go out and spread God's grace far and wide.
As we enter into a time of listening and sensing God's presence among us, let us consider these three queries:
1. Are there any persons, ways and areas I am currently placing limits on God's grace?
2. How can I distribute God's grace to myself, my loved ones, my friends, my faith community, and my world?
3. How may I need to adjust my soul, my words, my attitudes, and my actions in order to fully offer God's love without limit?