SUNDAY, JULY 12TH, 2026 – SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
SEEDS
THE REV. RICHARD BURDEN
Photo by Ian Noble on Unsplash
Title: Seeds
It’s night…by the waters of the Jabbok river…Jacob is once again holding on. Jacob…the heel-grabber…the birthright thief…the trickster…is wrestling…all night long with…something…a man? an angel? God?…holding on to whoever it is for dear life…refusing to let go…until he gets…well, he wants a blessing…but what he gets is a new name…Jacob is born grabbing onto Esau’s heel. And throughout his life he is often portrayed as reaching…grabbing…striving…conniving…Grasping for Esau’s birthright…for his father’s blessing…for Rachel…for Laban’s flocks…
His brother Esau, the red-haired hunter…who seems driven solely by primal internal cues — hunger…thirst…hunting…is also grasping…for the stew…for his father’s blessing…and then for his brother’s life…which sends Jacob into exile for decades until he ends up on the banks of the river Jabbok wrestling with something all night long…grasping for a blessing.
Jacob and Esau are clenched fists…reaching…grabbing…tense. The sower in today’s parable is an open hand…Carelessly flinging seed wherever…hard soil, rocky ground, among thorns, good soil…doesn’t matter. As a model of sound agricultural practice the sower is terrible…irresponsible…wasteful. How are they supposed to maximize their yield? Increase their efficiency? Scale up? with this kind of slap-dash, haphazard, flinging-seed-to-the-wind approach?
And yet…if we let the story sink in…the seeds flung onto hard, rocky and thorny ground feeds birds, and insects, and provides nutrients to the soil for other plants to grow…so it’s not actually wasted, is it? And the seed that does germinate produces a harvest of thirty…sixty…a hundred-fold. None of that seed is truly wasted in God’s creation. Everything can be transformed into grace. So why not be generous? Why not open your hands and live from that relaxed…abundant…fertile place? What are you really risking by doing that?
This morning we prayed that God would grant us the ability to know and understand the things we ought to do…and then give us the grace and power to faithfully accomplish them. So here’s a question: Do either Esau or Jacob…in this story today…really understand what it is they need to do? Or are they just serving their own needs?…Reacting to some tension within them…a sense of scarcity…of not-enoughness? Not enough stew…not enough blessings…better get what I can and hold on tight!
Does the sower really understand what they are doing? Casting seeds…grace…the word of God willy-nilly? Maybe…maybe not. But they are clearly acting from a different place than Esau or Jacob…a place of abundance…a posture of “there will be enough.” Always. … Enough seeds…Enough grace…enough God…So why bother carefully managing or controlling it? Just spread it around.
When the sun rises on the Jabbok, Jacob will finally loosen his grip on his adversary and…although injured and after many decades…he will finally go back across the river and reconcile with his brother, Esau…who will likewise greet him with open arms. Their grasping today…will be transformed into a harvest of embrace…and forgiveness. Because with God nothing is ever wasted…but grace very often takes time to germinate and grow. And doesn’t always land on the best of soils. Nevertheless, the seeds we scatter today…will be harvested later.
So what about us? Today? What gesture is most present in your body right now? [closed fist gesture — open hand gesture] Are you more tense…ruminating on what has been…or what might be…? Or are you a little more relaxed…open…ready for whatever may come? In the next few minutes…as we sit in silence…see if you can let the sower in…and open up just a fraction more.