A Reflection for Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
A sower went out to sow
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.” (Mt. 13: 3-9)
Perched high atop the tower of the Art-Deco statehouse in Lincoln, Neb., is a bronze statue called “The Sower”. It is nearly 20 feet tall and depicts a man with a seed pouch slung around his waist, his right arm extended back (a bit like a discus thrower), about to scatter seeds on the ground. He is barefoot with his pant legs rolled up—the simple, earthy archetype of a man of the land.
The statue was created by a German immigrant and self-taught sculptor named Lee Lawrie, who also created the iconic “Atlas” statue in front of Rockefeller Center among numerous other gems of American architecture. “The Sower” was assembled in New York City and in 1930 was shipped to Nebraska and raised 362 feet to the top of the tower. It represents my home state’s agricultural heritage, the Great Plains, the “breadbasket” of America.
“The Sower” has its own Facebook page, active between 2009-2011, with 59 followers. On June 23, 2010, “The Sower” said, “3.5 inches of rain on Sunday and Monday. Another thunderstorm last night, and then another one early this morning. Could someone send an umbrella up here?” On December 22, 2010, “The Sower” asked, “How come no one came to watch the eclipse with me?”
(These posts are so completely Nebraska I don’t even know what to do with myself.)
“A sower went out to sow,” we hear in today’s Gospel, the beginning of one of the most famous of all of Jesus’ parables.
“And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
The sower represents Christ and the seeds represent various categories of his followers: those who have little depth to their faith, those whose faith is destroyed by worldly enticements, and finally believers whose faith takes root in them and who begin to live it out fervently and joyfully.
Using the example of a sower is an interesting and common-sense way to talk about religious belief and practice. But maybe even just as interesting and common sense, for today’s purposes, is the idea that there are sowers at all. Sowers, farmers, planters, men and women at work today, here and now. Who thinks of them? There is something so fundamental about the sower. People put seeds in the ground and from those seeds grow wheat and corn and fruits and vegetables which are made into food and we eat that food and it keeps us alive.
It is as simple as that. We are kept alive by seeds and the sowers who plant them. Thank God for them. They deserve many statues.
