Investment Management
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
by Jim Westmoreland
Carl Michalson in The Witness of Radical Faith (Abingdon Press) has a cute story about jumping to conclusions. He says:
"When my daughter was very small, she came in with a tear in her pants. My wife was annoyed with her. I have a patient wife, but my daughter had done this so often that at last my wife said, 'Now you go into your room, take off those pants, and sew up that tear.' The poor kid had never had a needle in her hand in her life.
A little while later my wife saw the pants in the middle of the bedroom floor. She went in and looked around and there was no little girl. But she saw the light on down in the basement. She went to the basement door and called down, 'Are you down there running around with your pants off ?' A big voice came back, 'No, lady, I'm just reading the gas meter.'"
We all sometimes jump to the wrong conclusions. We assume things based on too little information. We quickly read a scripture that we have read many times before, and we say to ourselves, "that's the one about . . ." and we never open our minds or hearts to let God speak His word to us today!
Our scripture this morning could easily fall into that category. We read it and think, "Farmer, seed, different kinds of soil. Oh, yeh, I know what that one is about."
As I began to read this text again I began to think of it from the view of "investment management" and I was surprised by what I discovered. As I look back and describe my life now, I believe that, as an adult, I have always been a minister, I just haven't always worked in the church. My church-based ministry was "briefly" interrupted from 1984-2002. In 1987 I became a stockbroker and the principal license that I needed was a Series 7 general securities license. I was elated to pass the six-hour exam required to receive it on my first attempt. Stocks, bonds, derivatives, real estate investment trusts, limited partnerships, options trading, margin accounts and hundreds of regulations controlling them were on the test.
My last four years in the financial business I was a securities trader in the trust investment department of a regional bank. My job was to do the trades given me by the portfolio managers. One Monday, the other trader was on vacation, and it was the day that major adjustments were being made to several large accounts. All of our trades were done by phone by giving the ticker letters and the number of shares being bought or sold. In three hours I had traded $35 million in stocks and mutual funds. Getting it right and being precise were important. In investing we wanted to avoid companies with problems or that did not have a potential to grow or produce stable dividends. Good companies were financially strong, had a good track record and had good management. Investment management was something I was interested in.
And then I hear Jesus sharing another parable. A sower went out to sow. Some seeds fell on the path where people walked and the soil was not loose, but packed tightly. Some seeds fell on rocky ground, others fell among thorns and weeds, and some seeds fell on good soil. The greatest efficiency and the best results are obviously going to come from the good soil. We don't want to waste our time or our seed on the less productive ground. This is clearly an investment management decision.
The parable tells us the problems with the first three types of soil. On the path there is not much loose dirt, and the birds come and eat the seeds. On the rocky ground there was a thin covering of dirt that allowed the seeds to germinate and begin growing. At first the plants looked good, but when the heat came, they withered and died. In the soil with weeds and thorns the seed germinated, but it had to compete with the thorns and weeds for light, moisture and nutrients. The thorns choked out many of the seeds that had germinated that did not survive. The good soil was productive and produced great crops. That is what the seed was for wasn't it?
Now all of this is not about seeds or soil, or stocks and bonds, or deciding on a career, or finding a job, or anything like that. This story starts with a sower who went out to sow. The story doesn't tell us who the sower is, but it does let us know what the seed is. Verse 19 says, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom . . . this is what was sown on the path." We are like the soil on the path when our hearts are closed to the voice of God. He may share the gospel of hope, love and forgiveness with us, but the Tempter comes and snatches what was sown before we know what has happened. God tried to reach out to us, but it didn't penetrate our walls.
We are like the rocky ground when we hear God's Good News for us and we gladly receive it, but we don't last because, when trouble comes or people kid us about "getting religion," we disappear or become very distant and uninvolved. Jesus continues the parable by suggesting that we are like the thorny soil when we receive the word of God and make a positive response, but we fade away because of the lure of the world and all of the other things we'd rather do.
What is interesting in all of these comparisons is the implicit idea that we choose what kind of soil we will be in the way that we respond to the message of Jesus. We can choose to be the good soil that hears the word and understands it, who bears fruit and yields and abundant harvest. This happens when we let our lives be transformed by the freeing, forgiving love of God. It happens when our lives are lived looking for opportunities to share God's love with others through our words and actions. It happens when we join Jesus in caring for the poor and oppressed, for those with the least power to look out for and fight for themselves.
Seed is a precious commodity. If we are the one spreading the seed, it is not something that you spread on rocky ground or cast indiscriminately on the pathways throughout your garden or the roadside next to acreage. Nor do you sow seed in the midst of thistles. But the problem is that some seed goes there anyway.
Yes - when we sow - be it by hand or by machine - some seed will fall in those places, but it is not something that we do deliberately. What we do deliberately is sow seed in good ground. We sow it in those places where we know the seed has a chance not only to germinate and sprout, but to grow up into a healthy plant - one that produces much fruit.
But in today's parable the one who sows the seeds of the word of the Kingdom is God, and it seems that God has a different system of sowing than we do. God's investment management strategy differs from ours. We can all be grateful for that.
Now, the ground to be sown might not look so healthy to us. Lots of weeds over here, thin rocky soil over there. Surely, we're not meant to plant in such barren spots? But that is not the way of God. God is magnanimous, generous, profligate, prodigal, abundant in His sowing. Just picture in your mind the millions of tiny parachutes floating on the air each dandelion season; the never-ending puffballs of seed from the cottonwood drifting on the slightest breeze; the hundreds and hundreds of maple keys strewn about everywhere.
Wildly extravagant is our God. God doesn't quit. Neither should we. God has given us seeds to sow. Paul, in First Corinthians says that some sow, others water but God gives the increase. God provides the harvest. Remember that the next time you see a determined dandelion break through a crack in the asphalt to fulfill its destiny. We are not to choose only the fertile ground.
This goes against our training and thought-processes. It seems unnatural to spend time and show interest in people that are not likely to be productive, "good soil" for the Gospel. But, God has given us a new Investment Strategy. We bear the precious treasure of the seed, the Good New of God's love and forgiveness, and we are to sow like God--generously, haphazardly, everywhere.
It is not always easy to do what is required. In his book, The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard says, "There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses." Good soil represents the company of the committed " people who are determined to serve Christ to the best of their abilities, people who are willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to see Christ's kingdom come, people who by their work and their witness bear fruit that does not perish.
The hardest thing to learn is that the results are not up to us. They are up to God. We're just supposed to be obedient to the great commission, to go out and keep sowing, keep broadcasting the seed. We may never know what growth is taking place, but we are all called to participate in sharing the Good News of the Kingdom, that God loves us, forgives us, gives us hope and meaning and purpose. We are called to be "registered representatives" for the Kingdom and to sow the seeds of the Gospel according to God's investment plan.
Century Christian Church, July 10, 2005 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
