Sunday, July 10, 2011
Ordinary 15A
Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton) Warsaw VA
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.”
What would be considered a ‘wise’ farmer? Scripture itself speaks of wisdom expressed in the careful assessment of the pros and cons of a situation, and acting accordingly.
So I think we could agree that a ‘wise’ farmer would be one who made a clear-eyed assessment of the land to be used, and to plant accordingly. To avoid the rocky soil, the soil that is too hard, the soil that is prone to be invaded by thorns and weeds, choking the tender shoots of the grain to be harvested.
So it almost seems contrary to the rest of the Gospel to read about this Sower, who heedlessly tosses his grain behind him, seemingly not paying attention to where it falls.
After all, we have to ask, is that a wise use of what he’s been given? Is he acting as a responsible steward of the resources God gave him?
We need to be reminded of a couple of things in this reading: first, it is a parable. It is a story with a moral or a teaching purpose. Second, the Sower is, at least at first glance, a representation of Jesus, and through him, of God. So we need to pay attention to the details, and we need to pay attention to the deeper truths that might be found in the story.
Wednesday evening I shared a thought that came to me as I was reviewing the passage, and it is that, contrary to our inclination to assign each type of soil to a particular type of person, which usually results in US being the ‘good soil’ (funny how that works, isn’t it?), I suggested that we begin to think in terms of each type of soil being present in each of us at different points in our lives – whether due to circumstance or personality – I think an argument can be made for the possibility that, at any given moment, for any given teaching that Jesus presented, we can be one or the other kind of soil.
I know that even now there are some teachings for which I would be, at best, rocky soil, that receives a teaching with joy, but that doesn’t allow it to take deep root in the soil of my heart, and it withers and dies because of that. I’d more readily enjoy sharing with you a teaching that ‘fits me’, that I can readily agree with, and thus become good soil for, allowing it to grow deep roots into my being and produce a hundred fold fruit in my life.
But it’s not quite that simple.
In order to be fallow, soil has to be turned, tilled, somehow disturbed, and made ready to receive the seed. The first soil that is described is the hard soil of the path. Paths are those lines, if you will, of hard packed soil that can be as hard as concrete. Paths around the Neck are what were first made by animals – deer or other foraging animals – who made their way from one place to another, and were eventually followed by people, walking along those same paths, which just naturally followed the lay of the land, followed the path of least resistance (no pun intended), and eventually turned into roads, and roads turn into highways, and highways get paved.
It is the story of constant use making a walkway unsuitable for anything else – locking in an area of otherwise fertile soil and making it useful for only one thing – but not for … change … for nurturing growing, living things.
On the one hand, I can appreciate the need to have space to MOVE, to go from one place to another. On the other hand, what growth are we choking off by the simple fact that we close that ground off to the possibility of nurturing life?
Beyond that, and in confessional mode, there are teachings that I read of Jesus’ and it is an almost conscious decision to receive them conditionally. ‘We’ll see how it goes with this one’. If it is too challenging, then I’ll set it aside and (maybe) come back to it later.
So it is with this whole business of ‘sacrificing myself’ for another. It is THE central teaching and example of Jesus’ life – and today it is exemplified in what we are observing as a central part of our worship service – celebrating communion.
What is our attitude towards this most central part of the Gospel? Are we hard soil, packed down by years of wear and routine? Or are we rocky soil, willing to entertain the notion that we DO need to be willing to sacrifice OUR wellbeing for the wellbeing of a brother or sister, but when the rubber meets the road we find out that our priorities … shift? Or we find ourselves to be thorny soil, more susceptible to the whims of our culture and society than we would care to admit, until again we come to a point of having to choose, and in a moment of weakness we choose … the easy way, the comfortable way, the … popular way?
What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?
It means that what we choose today isn’t set in stone, that choices we’ve made in the past don’t define our future. They do INFLUENCE it, but they don’t define it. God the sower of all good seed is a God who continues to toss the see out to his people, continually renewing his call on our lives to germinate and grow, to become that strong stalk of wheat that produces thirty or sixty or a hundred fold of what was planted … we serve a God who is extravagant both in expectation and in generosity of Spirit – who pours out his Spirit and lets it germinate where it will – even in the unlikeliest of places, in places that might not have been welcoming before, but which are welcoming now.
We serve a God who keeps calling us regardless of the kind of soil we’ve been in the past, who keeps giving us a chance to be that good soil that he keeps looking for, and preparing for, and who actually DOES the preparing OF …
Let’s pray.
(communion)
