The sower....the seed....or the ground?

I think the challenge in this familiar parable of the Sower and the Seed is to put aside what we think we know about it and listen to it again........and then to allow this parable to challenge our conception of what faithful living looks like.

I think most folks get hung up on the ground - rocky ground, hard ground, miserable ground, thorn-y ground.  Who is represented by each of the different 'grounds'?  Certainly Matthew goes on to give an explanation of this parable (see verses 18ff), although I think even Matthew does not do this parable justice.

We tend to assume that rocky ground is always rocky ground.  It is not rocky ground one day and thorn-y ground another day, and even possibly, good soil on a third day.  No, ground is ground and stays that way. 

Thus we assume that one person = one kind of ground - forever!   Who's to say that you and I can't be two or three kinds of ground - some parts of us are rocky, some weedy and some really receptive to the seeds?

So now we have a story where a sower goes out to sow, and on this particular day the part of the ground that is rocky is not a fertile receiver of seed.  Neither are the other 'bad' ground areas.  Only the good soil gets the seed and produces.
This leads us to think that we should not waste our time or seed on soil that is no good.

But what if tomorrow the rocky soil becomes good soil?  Then the seed that started out on rocky soil finds itself on good soil and is off and running to produce 100 times.  Now, this parable is not static, stuck in time, but active and uncertain, full of possibilities.  Now this parable is fertile, productive, moving into the future of God's kingdom.

Think of you and me.  Some days we are not receptive to much of anything.  Our friend has a great idea about keeping the neighborhood clean and you walk away unimpressed.  The next day, you have thought it over and see this as a real possibility to bring a newer, cleaner look to your neighborhood.  One day you are bad soil, the next day you are producing at 30 times expected outcomes!

Can the sower determine which soil is which as s/he spreads the seed?  Can the sower guarantee that the bad soil will stay that way forever?  Isn't it the sower's job to get out there and spread seed, not to evaluate soil readiness?

Have your thoughts on this parable shifted a little?

Hopefully, more tomorrow!
Pax.