It was a joy to be with God’s people gathered as American Lutheran Church in Ashland, Nebraska on Sunday July 12, 2026. Thank you to Pastor Suzanne How for the invitation and to the whole congregation for the warm welcome. In being with the congregation I was invited to preach and lead worship. What follows is the majority of the manuscript I preached from based on the appointed readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for Lectionary 15A: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23; Romans 8:1-11; Isaiah 55:10-13; and Psalm 65:1-13.

Grace and peace from God in Christ who is with you, for you, and who loves you. Amen.

Jesus says to us again this day, as we hear this familiar and hard story that the faithful have heard for centuries, “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.”[1]

Friends, I am grateful to be with you today. And it’s in that gratitude that I want you to hear some blunt honesty. I was not planning to preach this week, nor to be with you. But just about lunch time yesterday while in Indianapolis wrapping up attending and participating in a week of conferences, I was asked if I could cover somewhere this week. Knowing I was going to receive the gift of being with all of you, my friends at American Lutheran in Ashland, of course, I said “yes.” But you’re not getting the usual polished and well ruminated on sermon I like to preach. For that I do apologize. But I trust that the Holy Spirit will do what the Holy Spirit will do.

I trust that, because at the heart of this week’s story is a reminder that God is the Sower, and we are not. You are not the Sower. I am not the Sower. But God is the Sower of the seeds of faith, love, and life. And God will do what God will do, and we need to let God do that. Because if it were up to us, I suspect those of us who might know anything at all about seeds, agriculture, farming, or gardening, would not go and seed rocky soil. We’d at least look for good soil or turn the soil over. Or something. But that’s not quite what Jesus describes today, is it? No. God is doing something different it would seem than we might expect or think would be right, proper, or practical. And as God is up to something, we have to confess our belief that God is indeed up to something, whether we are at the center of it or not.

I suspect when we hear or read this familiar story we might wonder about the act of sowing, or perhaps whether we ourselves are the good soil or not. But what if we’ve missed focusing on something in the story? What if, instead of the role of the Sower, or if we’re good enough soil to grow, the seed of God’s Word, we’re instead the seed? Seed which God sows. Seed which God spreads near and far, anywhere and everywhere, out of God’s deep, abiding, and abundant love? If we think of ourselves in this way, in the story that our Lord and Savior tells today, perhaps this story might feel a bit different.

Consider this. If we, and all Children of God, are the seed, we might recall the truth that faith in God is a gift from God and not a work. It’s not something we can claim, decide, or declare. But rather, a gift that we receive through the working of the Holy Spirit. As a seminary classmate of mine wrote this week, “Faith in God is a gift from God. We cannot understand exactly how it occurs, but we are called to share the riches we have been given and strive to persevere in faith, guided by God’s word and the Holy Spirit.”[2]

Whether the seed grows and takes hold or not, is up to God. It’s not up to us. There are threats, challenges, worries, and more in this world. We all know this. There might be the rocky, thorny, and barren soil that doesn’t promote much growth as Jesus points a picture of. But even so, God sows there too. Because God’s love cannot be contained and will certainly not be limited to one type of place or soil. Just as the gardener or the farmer trusts when they sow seeds or plant their garden, that something will grow, we can trust that God will do what God will do, as part of God’s on-going work and purpose of life- to bring about God’s kin-dom, abundance, and love for one and all of God’s beloved.

You Are the Seed, Enlivened through Christ
If you and I are the seed that God is planting, then it is God too who gives us life, is it not? So think about this. What makes you, you- your very being, is God’s beloved-ness. You are filled with God’s life-giving breath. You are created in God’s own image. You are beloved, because you are God’s own- washed and claimed forever in the waters of baptism. And you are enlivened through Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul writes, “But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spiritis life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesusfrom the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”[3] Siblings in Christ, you are the seed, with life and breath, given to you and entrusted to you through Jesus.

This isn’t to say we don’t have something to do as seed. But God is doing the hard work of bringing life out of death. Of sowing, planting, watering, and harvesting. But we have a role to play as seed, don’t we? We are called to grow. To be curious. To learn. To care for one another. To be equipped and empowered and to equip and empower.

I mentioned that I was at conferences this week. These conferences were a gift. Together with my wife, Allison, and my sister, Tamara, both pastors in the ELCA and at least seven hundred other deacons and pastors across the larger church, we gathered for the third ever ELCA Rostered Ministers Gathering. A time of rest, renewal, study, learning, and inspiration. It was a gift to be together. And after most of the group departed, a few of us who serve as Assistants to the Bishop and Directors for Evangelical Mission from across the ELCA’s 65 synods and from their synod staffs, including Nebraska’s, gathered together for a couple days for further study, training, sharing, and equipping. It was a holy time. Time that in my deepest being I felt like I was right where I needed to be. Growing. Learning. Sharing. Wondering. For a few days, at least, I felt like I too might have been just a little seed which God as the Sower and gardener was watering, pruning, and growing. Of course, this is daily for all of us as seeds of God’s love, but at least for me, I don’t always take the time to think about that. Perhaps you don’t either?

So ponder this. How have you been caring for your soul, body, and mind? How have you been able to make the space for your seed to grow? How have we been cultivating and making space for all the seeds that God has planted in our siblings, neighbors, friends next to us in our rows here in worship and in the larger community and around the world, to do the same?

Perhaps you have been caring for campers all summer in some way at Carol Joy Holling? Perhaps you have been praying for many of your beloved neighbors from across the synod on the Journey this past week to Pittsburgh? Perhaps you have been meeting your neighbors and serving them by helping out with the Closet, Food Pantry, and the Cupboard? Perhaps you have taken the opportunity on one of the beautiful evenings we have enjoyed this summer season so far, to go for a walk here in town and take a few minutes to visit with a neighbor? To check in and see how they are doing? To listen, share, and hear from each other? Perhaps you have taken the chance to get outside and breathe deeply during this season amid God’s good creation? Or even, opened up your Bible to dwell a bit in God’s Word and curiously wonder about what God might be inviting you to think about and pray about?

You certainly don’t need to attend a conference or two like I did this past week to do this. But in what ways have you been caring for the seed in you which God has sown?

In whatever ways you have cared for the seed which God has sown, and in whatever ways God might be growing the seed in you, give thanks. Take heart and find hope. You are the Seed of God’s life-giving love. Be the seed today for anyone you might meet. Share the love of Christ, through all that you say and do, because you never know what impact such an act and presence might mean for the seed in your neighbor.

Do so knowing that God in Christ is with you, in you, for you, and loves you, always. And because of that, you have all that you need, and you are more than enough to be who God has called and created you to be. And because I can’t say it any better than the prophet Isaiah, trust that God is bringing about what God will bring about, and through all that, beloved, “You shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; and the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”[4] May it be so. And may all of God’s children say, “thanks be to God.” Amen.

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Citations and References:
[1] Matthew 13:23, NRSVue.
[2] Jennifer Vija Pietz, “Commentary on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.” As found at: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-15/commentary-on-matthew-131-9-18-23-7
[3] Romans 8:10-11, NRSVue.
[4] Isaiah 55:12, NRSVue.