Listen!


Sunday, July 10th, 2005
Pentecost +8, (Ordinary 15)
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!’ … 18‘Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!”

We were sitting at KT’s Restaurant in Louisville last Saturday evening, after the celebration of Momma and Daddy’s 50th anniversary, with my nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, my sisters and brothers in law, and Claude, my former housemate.

Hannah was regaling us with several jokes she’s learned over the last few months, and the folks sitting at the table were just eating it up. But that punch line just didn’t make sense.

The celebration earlier that afternoon had gone splendidly. There were over 75 people who came to congratulate my parents on the occasion, and there were people there who covered the entire 50 year span of their marriage so far. My sister Lolly and Tomy Janes, another MK who is working with her part time, had put together a computer slide show with music to accompany it, and it had been a big hit. The food was delicious, the company was excellent, and the overall celebration had just infused us with a sense of how much we had to be grateful for, and how many blessings we had been the recipients of, to let anything sour the remainder of the day.

But Leslie and I looked at each other quizzically, trying to figure out what was funny about what a canary says as it walks down a dark alley “here, kitty, kitty, kitty”. We laughed, but mostly at the silliness of the punch line, not so much at what made it funny. We couldn’t figure that one out.

The disciples, it seems, were always having trouble figuring out what Jesus was trying to tell them. Time after time, we find that comforting word that translates perfectly from Aramaic to Greek or Latin, German, and English coming from their mouths: huh?

Jesus does them (and us) a favor by going on to explain this one. The breakdown is fairly straightforward, the hard soil of the path, rocky soil, soil chocked by thorns, and good soil. But it bears noting that he seemed to be hoping that his listeners would actually do what he asked them to at the very beginning of the parable: Listen! In longer form, we hear Jesus say: let anyone with ears listen!

Jesus calls us to not just listen to the words that we find in scripture, but more, to listen to the SPIRIT that inspired them. To listen to the whisper of God’s voice, that insistent, persistent, ever-patient voice that calls us by name and invites us to join the conversation, to join the chorus, to add the individual distinctiveness of each of our voices and to blend into the song – whether in harmony or in dissonance – the song is made all the richer by the adding of new and different voices.

Sometimes we miss the invitation in the hustle and bustle of our lives.

Last night we ran over to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things we’d forgotten earlier, and as is usually the case on Saturday nights, we ran into several people we knew, both Hispanic and Anglo.

Two families stand out. The first, a Hispanic family, we’d not seen in several weeks, so to see them to begin with was a joy, and we greeted each other with hugs, kisses, and handshakes. In the space of a few minutes of visiting, most of the pleasantries were done with, catching up with how everyone’s work was going, and how the children were enjoying being out of school. As the conversation turned and seemed to be wrapping up, we began to say goodbye, we mentioned that we’d already run into most of the children in a different part of the store. We asked after the oldest daughter. The wife then told us that she had moved out of their house and moved in with her boyfriend. The news was simply stated, with a smile that was a little disorienting to see. So we asked how they felt about that. It was then that they shared with us in short, poignant phrases, their anguish at the situation.

The other couple, an Anglo family whom I’d gotten to know in the last year, struck up a pleasant enough conversation, but within the first couple of minutes I learned of their having left the church they’d called home for several years and had moved to another. That’s not that unusual, I’ll grant you, but it was in the telling that I noticed that even though they were moving on from the event, there was a shrugging, a turn of the head, something to indicate that it wasn’t exactly an experience they’d want to live through again anytime soon.

So it is with God’s invitation to us. We might miss it for all the distractions, for all the rocks and thorns, for all our hardened attitudes. Just like the sower, God comes and sows seeds in the soil of our lives. Soil is receptive, it has all the necessary qualities for life to flourish, but cannot create the lush growth out of nothing. Soil cannot will a watermelon or a zucchini. It can only do its marvelous work when it receives the seed.

What is it that makes our lives rocky soil, hard soil or soil choked by thorns, or good soil? Are there rocks in our lives that stubbornly refuse to allow the spirit of God to take root in us? That keeps us from opening up and taking in and nurturing … and GROWING that spirit within? Are we too intractable in our ways, are we so set on THIS being the way church is done that we miss the opportunity to be church in a different way, in a way that might be uncomfortable for us? Are we so thorny in our thinking that ‘this HAS to be the way it is, or I’ll not have any part of it’ that we miss that first short word from the Lord: “Listen!”?

The work of the church is to nurture the seeds God plants within, to water them with compassion and encouragement, to teach them in the way that leads to life. Perhaps that is why the root word for human is "hummus." We come from soil, "from dust we have come and to dust we shall return." If we are willing to bear the seeds of God, we shall also bear the hundredfold harvest.

Part of that hundredfold harvest is found in sharing, in community, in rejoicing together and in weeping together. Just as those two families invited us into their lives in their sharing with us last night, so God invites us into God’s own life by inviting us to listen, and not only to listen, but to act.

It is after all, sometimes critically important to listen.

A few minutes after she first asked the riddle, Hannah came back to the table, and gave us the full version. For lack of 3 words, a joke was lost: what does a five hundred pound canary say as it walks down a dark alley?

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”

I am not, of course, a five hundred pound canary, but the invitation does come to each of us:

Invitation to the Table

Come to this table,
not because you must
but because you may;

come not to testify that you are righteous,

but that you sincerely love our Lord Jesus Christ,

and desire to be his true disciples;

come, not because you are strong,

but because you are weak;

not because you have any claim on heaven's rewards,

but because in your frailty and sinyou are in constant need of heaven's mercy and help.

Come not because you are fulfilled,

but because in your emptiness you stand in need of God’s grace and assurance.

Come not to express an opinion,

but to seek the presence of God.

Come, sisters and brothers, to this table to partake and share.

It is spread for you and me that we may again know that God has come to us,

shared our common lot,

and invited us to join the people of God’s reign.

(Communion)