SERMON
NOTES FOR PENTECOST NINE (July 13, 2008,
PROPER 10, Isaiah 55:10-13; Psalm 65: 9-14; Romans 8: 1-11; Matthew 13: 1-9,
18-23).
Many
of you have been working in your yards and gardens, planting trees, or flowers,
or sowing seeds. Terry and I have focused on a larger perennial bed to attract
more birds and butterflies. This bed actually is new so much work had to be
done removing grass, laying down top soil and mulch, planting and fertilizing.
There is much effort put into the new garden; those of you, who have
experienced this, know what I mean. The work does not end there for after the
planting, comes the watching and waiting, the weeding, the watering. There is
an expectation of hope that the labor will bear fruit (or flowers) as the case
may be. Our neighbors completely re-worked their front yard, removing the
circular drive, bringing in top soil and seeding. Yes, they were out there with
sacks of seed, tossing the seed out, not knowing how it would scatter; once the
seed was thrown, there was no controlling where it would land. I did tease them,
that I would read the gospel story as they worked. They continue to watch
patiently, hoping that more seed will sprout than be eaten by the birds. We are
all beginning to see the fragile green sprouts, the fruit of their labor.
From
the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, the word seed is found. “A seed is a
product and a producer, a small investment with large potential value, an
essential detail, a step in a continuum of reproduction. Through one, it
becomes many through death. It is a treasury, an allotment, an investment whose
yield depends on its environment. Having central importance in agriculture,
which is common to all nations from Adam, the seed yields fertile imagery for
both OT and NT principles and events. At a physical level, the image of seed is
preeminently of the potential for life and generation.” (p 770) Likewise, the
word sowing can be found. “In an agrarian economy, the sowing and planting of
crops is a major event, the timing of which depends on the type of seed, for
which there is always a time. In the Bible, God is viewed as the One who
instructs the farmer how to do his work rightly. Sometimes plowing the soil and
planting went together; at other times one followed the other so that some seed
fell on paths, rocky ground or weed-infested soil.” (p 809)
In
today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable, a simple story with a second
level of meaning. He simply took a familiar activity of his time and used it to
illustrate an important truth. From this perspective, the lessons are as
important today as they were 2,000 years ago. Though our agricultural
techniques are much different from those of former centuries, our process is
not so different from those who lived in Biblical times.
Jesus
pictures a man who spreads seed, but the soil, not the sower, is closely
described. Some seed fell on the pathway. It was hard and packed. Those seeds
never germinated at all. Birds ate them. Some seeds fell in the shallow soil on
the edges of the field. These did germinate. But they were never able to
develop roots adequate for survival. As soon as it got hot, they wilted and
died. Some fell in the weeds. They did germinate. But the weeds choked them and
they never matured. And some fell in the deep, well cultivated, weed-free soil.
These germinated, matured, and bore grain.
The
story is not really about growing crops, but it is used to illustrate an
important factor in human life. Sowing is spoken of figuratively for setting
various things in motion. Jesus interprets his own parable this way. The seeds
are sown. Some hear but the evil one snatches the words from them, these are
the people represented by the seeds that fall on the path. Those people
represented by the seeds that fall on the shallow soil are able to hear and
respond, but the Gospel never really takes root in their lives. So the new (un-rooted)
Christians wither away and never reach maturity, they fall away when trouble or
persecution comes. Where seeds fall in the weeds or thorns, the word is heard
but the worries of this life and deceitfulness choke it out, making it
unfruitful.
Some
of you have been blessed to have had a cultivated foundation, tilled and
fertilized and watered. Here the seed falls on the deep soil and bears grain.
These are people who hear the Gospel. They respond. The Holy Spirit and grace
take charge of their lives. They grow and mature into Christians.
What
kind of soil are you? All of us have parts of our lives like the path, or the
shallow soil, or the tangled place where there are weeds. The degree to which
we focus on these troubled areas of our lives is the degree to which we will
not “get it.” Give those areas to God and then don’t take them back. Instead,
live in the part of your life that is deep and well cultivated so that the
Gospel can grow there. God’s love and your best can bear the fruit that will
feed the world.
What
can we do to help those who don’t get the message? Shall we continue to
proclaim the Gospel even if everyone doesn’t get it? Yes, we must focus on the
cultivation of love.
We,
as Christ’s “cultivated” disciples are called to “go out to sow”, to try to
live as our faith calls us to live; to try to share our faith in word and deed
with those whom God puts in our path; to share the love of God so abundantly
given to us each day of the week. We are sent to reach out to people, to serve,
care and take risks. We are to offer ourselves, our time, our energy, our
caring to others. Each week we read together the post communion prayer, …”And
now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and
serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord” and I send you out
into the world with the dismissal “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” At
times our efforts seem wasted, like the sower tossing the seed. Is it all worth
it? Is anything of value going to come from all our efforts?
By
the grace of God, the harvest will be great beyond measure, great beyond
belief, great beyond imagining. What God will make of our efforts is more than
we can imagine. Much will be wasted, but that is alright.
The
perspective of hope and confidence is the gift of this parable. Isaiah tells us
“As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without
watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for
the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve
the purpose for which I sent it.”
We
are the sowers scattering the seed, God’s Word. The Rev. James Liggett shares
this, “Each one of us individually, and our parish itself, all of us together,
have at our feet fields to walk and seed to sow. We are called to do that. This
parable is a gift to lighten our step and extend our reach. It gives us the
wonderful gift of perspective. So we can wave at the birds and smile at the
weeds—they are not our concern.”
The
love we offer in the Lord’s name is the word of the
AMEN.