By: The Rev. Guillermo Arboleda
Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
The stranger is a seed.
A seed is an ordinary living thing (Cardenal, 158-159). It can be spread and planted in new places. And under the right conditions, a seed can blossom and multiply into something great and fruitful, thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. The fruit of that seed can transform a land and a people. It can feed and nourish and sustain further growth and multiplication. A seed growing into a plant is an everyday miracle.
The stranger can be too.
The stranger in a new place is not an inherent threat. A stranger is not a thing to be disposed of. A stranger is a living thing, a human being made in the Image of God (Genesis 1:27). Strangers do not only consume resources from the soil, water, and sun, but they contribute to the garden or the farm by producing food for the whole community. In the right circumstances, strangers can flourish and multiply thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.
The stranger is a person full of wonder, opportunity, and potential. Strangers in good soil bring new languages, cultures, and perspectives that contribute to the flourishing of humankind. Strangers in welcoming soil positively influence the places they go with work, leisure, faith, and other contributions to the common good.
But not all soil is good because not all soil is welcoming. Not all soil is loving.
Some soil is like the path where birds come and eat up the seeds (Matthew 13:4). In that soil, “the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown” (Matthew 13:19). Strangers in that soil are persecuted, abducted, detained, and deported. They are snatched away from their new homes and prevented from bearing fruit in their new land.
Some soil is rocky, and seeds cannot grow deep enough roots to survive so they wither in the sun (Matthew 13:5-6). Strangers may come to such soil and receive a superficial welcome. Those strangers can own restaurants to share their cuisine or work blue collar, service jobs. But they are not allowed to contribute more deeply to society. Their voices are not heard in those languages or those accents or in those bodies. They are expected to conform or remain marginalized, and some simply cannot conform enough to overcome their “strangeness.”
Some soil is covered in thorns that choke out new seeds before they can flourish (Matthew 13:7). The thorns are “the cares of this age and the allure of wealth” (Matthew 13:22). Economics might drive otherwise welcoming people to reject the stranger. “They take away jobs. They drain social service resources. They don’t pay enough taxes. We cannot afford to let everyone in.” And so strangers are exploited or removed in favor of wealth and perceived power.
But wealth and power cannot buy love, community, or fellowship. They cannot buy the Kingdom that Jesus promises. They cannot transform us the way that God’s word can. And all the world’s wealth and power pale in significance next to our human siblings, even strangers.
So, Jesus asks, will we prepare good soil for the seed? Will we welcome the stranger as a bearer of the Word of God? Will we pass this test of love’s sincerity? Or will we succumb to the follies of thorny wealth, stubborn rocks, or vicious birds? What kind of soil will we be?
Works Cited
Cardenal, Ernesto. The Gospel in Solentiname. 2nd edition. Translated by Donald D. Walsh. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010.
The Rev. Guillermo A. Arboleda is Program Manager for New Church Starts, ELCA & Missioner for Racial Justice, Episcopal Diocese of Georgia