Jesus paints a picture with words about a sower and seeds thrown to a blustering breeze. We see the seeds carried first by a hand and then by a wind and watch them as they fall to the earth that receives them. More than seeing a farmer, a kernel, and a field, we ourselves become sower, seed, and soil. We ask ourselves “What is it I sow in this world?” “What is the resiliency of my character no matter the setting into which I am tossed?” “What is the environment I create for others?”
Inside the parable I see the brush strokes of my life. What does the canvas reveal of me; a hardened path? Are there no cracks in the surface leading to a deeper more joyous self? Do I let the goodness tossed my way be sown in my heart or be easily taken as birds in the parable take the path’s seeds? Am I rocky ground? Do I appear interesting, a challenge, but lacking in roots so that my joy “lasts only for a time? When some tribulation or persecution comes” am I unable to nourish others? Is it the case that I am bramble, prickly and unsteady, wrought with “worldly anxiety and the lure of riches?” Do these things choke me so that I bear no fruit? Am I deep and rich soil? Am I one in whom seeds of life and joy and meaning can find a home; one “who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirty fold?”
The parable entices many questions and our answers can help form the painting of our lives – as Vincent Van Gogh must have felt. The picture of The Sower Jesus painted once with his words, Van Gogh painted over 30 times with his oils. They were often lonely figures in darkened surroundings, much like Van Gogh, especially during his years of ministry. It is not often known of Van Gogh that he was a minister. Nor is it known that he compassionately served the most destitute of his brothers and sisters – fragile seeds, like him, thrown to the wind and falling on hardened paths. He painted his life, its tribulation and its pain for he felt little joy within it. He did so fraught with worldly anxiety and feverishly so, as 30 plus paintings of a lonely Sower show. Then, in 1889, a year before his death, Van Gogh painted The Sower enveloped in a magnificent yellow sun. It seems it was the joyous feature the artist needed as he was drawing his life to its close. Van Gogh lived a far more torturous life than our own and yet he painted a life which has born much fruit. It has yielded a hundred, sixty, and thirty fold. What will our life yield?
Prayer: Spirit, may I sow beauty, plant seeds of wonder, and serve as nurturing soil for others tossed my way.
Question: What is the painting of my life?
July 16, 2017 Gospel Matthew 13:1-23 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time