“Open-Handed” A sermon preached on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 by Rev. Sarah Henkel July 12, 2026
Otisville-Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church A couple of years ago my Uncle Chuck, a farmer in Nebraska sent me a clipping from the Norfolk Daily News. It was an Associated Press article about Fruition Seeds, a multimillion-dollar organic seed company in the finger lakes that had made a very unusual move, especially according to the Business section of the daily newspaper. The headline read, “Organic producer says that it will be ending sales and giving seeds away.” The article shared pieces of the founders of Fruition Seeds, Petra and Matthew’s public announcement of their transition from being a seed-selling company valued at over a million dollars to a seed gifting or sharing operation that would rely on the gifts of community to keep the project going. They shared that their decision to stop sales came from a sense that they could “no longer commodify our beloved kin, these seeds, or ourselves”....”The call is simple enough,” they wrote, “Seeds are gifts. Gifts are shared.” I thought a lot about Fruition Seeds when I read this Parable about soil, seeds, and seed-sowing told by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus’ parable is titled, The Parable of the Sower but did you notice that Jesus explains everything about the parable except the actions of the Sower? Perhaps because Jesus wanted our attention and questions to linger there? What do we notice about The Sower? The parable’s Seed Sower scatters seed freely on all types of soil. Kind of recklessly, you could say, without careful attention to the quality of soil where the seeds land. They do not seem to be terribly concerned with returns. They are not carefully placing seeds in the most ideal conditions for the optimal harvest. Instead they broadcast the seeds trusting that of all the seeds sown, enough will grow and produce the nourishment needed. This trust makes them generous with their seeds, not holding back out of fear of failure. Seeds are gifts. Gifts are shared. Jesus told over 30 parables that are accounted for in our holy texts…and probably a lot more that were not recorded. These parables were told to perplex and surprise with unexpected truths about God’s presence in the world. It is undoubtedly the actions of the Sower in this parable who would have caused the original listeners to scratch their heads. Jesus was teaching subsistence farmers, people familiar with the calculations of how much precious seed would bring sufficient food to fill the bellies that needed filling. To them and to any of us here in this room who have carefully planted seeds on well-prepared soil, the actions of the Sower would have been strange, beyond ordinary. That’s what got me thinking about Fruition seeds and that newspaper clipping my Uncle sent me. Because, like the parable, it produces a similar response - they’re doing what?? Giving away seeds they used to sell for a healthy profit?? I carried that article about Fruition Seeds in my laptop bag for over a year; I kept meaning to share it with Freedom Farm Community, another radical experiment in sharing extravagantly. But before I got around to it, Petra of Fruition Seeds ended up coming to Middletown - we met her, she met the farm, she shared seeds, we shared food, we talked for hours about awakening to a world that is full of gifts - from every seed to every breath. We’ve stayed connected. One of the primary ways that Fruition Seeds shares their seeds now is by hosting gatherings around the northeast in which people come to listen and share stories and receive gifts of seeds to plant and to share. Will, Edgar, and Ann have all attended and can share what those events feel like as they strive to create a space outside of our usual transactional - buy and sell - society. I’ve heard words like awe, humility, joy, self-examination in reflections from people who have participated in these gifting circles and experienced receiving gifts of seeds. The last time Petra came to visit our home, she shared a bunch of seeds with our kids. For weeks after she left, I found cucumber seeds and lettuce seeds in every nook and cranny of the house - in couch cushions, under the rug, all over the table, in the pockets of clothing in the laundry hamper. Will those seeds grow? On one hand, no. Couches are not fertile soil. But in another sense, yes, they already are. They have taken root in my heart as I support the food sharing that Freedom Farm Community does or as I respond to other needs of the community with all the generosity I can muster or as I remember and reflect on the thousand gifts that made the day I lived possible. They grow and produce a harvest of gratitude and more generosity. Fruition Seeds, like The Sower in today’s parable, invites us into a realm beyond calculations and ledgers, beyond expected returns on investments, beyond our plotting and planning, beyond judgment of worthy vs. unworthy soil or people. Beyond these calculations and into trust, into God’s abundant love for all. We can’t all take the giant leap of faith that Fruition Seeds took. Nor is the Parable of the Sower a description of how we all should go about farming now. But both do the work of shaking us up, of shaking us out of the limits and constraints we put on what Love can do, even in inhospitable soil. Two invitations from this Parable to carry into the week ahead: Trust that God’s reign of love is growing…parable told to people beaten down and despairing. Jesus was teaching that God’s goodness was taking root and would nourish with a plentiful harvest. And trust that this growth won’t just come from the fertile soil but perhaps even in those places where the seeds didn’t initially take root. For example, those seeds that were eaten by birds? We all know that what goes into a bird, comes out - those seeds will have another chance. The seeds that didn’t root deep enough and withered become the compost that will allow the next seed to flourish. And the Sower, we are assured will be back out there freely scattering seed over and over again. Love will take root, enough to nourish us all. Last line of the article about Fruition Seeds is Petra’s affirmation of faith: “I trust, like air, what is present - though not yet visible - will carry us all.” Perhaps this is the encouragement to trust you need this morning for some area of your life or in the world that you have assumed cannot bear fruit. Second invitation: Be like the Sower, sharing God’s love even where we have been told it is not deserved or will not be heeded. Share God’s love like Jesus did: good food for all who are hungry, loving presence to those who are hurting, unwavering commitment to the dignity of all humanity and all creation, and Joy for people caught in despair. Sermons are a lot of words and maybe words are not your things so I also want to offer two more paths of entry into this Parable, to more ways to plant the parable in your heart and let it grow. First, take a long look at the image of Sally, the Sower on the front cover of your bulletin. She is not looking down at the ground to carefully land the seed, looking with joy at something beyond, caught up in the joy of sharing. Second, I invite you to feel this text in your body. This is a parable about an Open-handed Sower. It is a story told to contrast the Roman Empire that ruled the people with a violent, closed fist and God’s Empire that is characterized by abundant generosity, by open-handed sharing of gifts. Close your fist tight and then see what it feels like to open your fist, to open your hand. Seeds are Gifts. Gifts are shared. God’ love is a Gift. Gifts are shared. May we give and receive with open hands.