Sermon for July
16, 2017
Proper 10A – RCL Track 1
Jesus went out of the house and sat
beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat
and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many
things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed,
some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds
fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up
quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were
scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell
among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good
soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let
anyone with ears listen!”
“Hear then the parable of the sower.
When 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. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the
word and immediately receives it with joy; yet 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. As 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. But 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.”
Today is the first of
three Sundays where we will hear parables from Jesus. This Sunday is the parable of the crazy
farmer – as I like to call it, and the next two weeks we will hear parables
that describe the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is like.... Parables are a form of story that sets two things alongside each other and
in many cases have at least a little absurdity.
They are not at all obvious and if we try too hard to explain them we
will get it wrong. It is best to let
them speak to us fresh each time we read them.
Which brings me
to today’s absurdity! What kind of crazy
farmer is our God! Just read this
parable again. A sower goes out to sow…
and he wildly throws seed everywhere.
Seed scattered onto what any one could tell you was not good soil. The rocky soil, the hard pathway and so
forth. It is an absurdity! No one in their right mind would plant a
field like this.
Then and now we
plant our fields and our gardens with as much precision as we can imagine. The planting equipment today is optimized to
get the seed planted in just the right place.
The soil is prepared to make sure that it is receptive to the seed. The seeds are prepared and hybridized to make
sure that they have the best yields and are best for any given growing
climate. Nothing is wasted. We consult the sunset garden book and look at
our ecological climate and see if the plants we want will grow in our areas. We may consult the old Farmers Almanac to see
when we should plant and if we can expect a cold or hot year, a wet or dry
year, and make our decisions with care.
In Jesus day seed
was not cheap so they too took great care in making sure it was planted in the
best soil possible and tended with care to get the best crop. They, like us, took all the precautions that
they could to ensure a good crop.
And we do the
same thing at church! We plan
carefully. We look at our resources and
figure out what programs we can sustain.
We look at our finances to see what we can afford. We are good stewards of the gifts we have
been given. To do anything less would
not be wise. But we should not ration
God’s love in our planning!
It is hard to
imaging an abundance like that described in the parable. Or perhaps we can only imagine it. In our society there is a huge income
inequality between those in the top 1% and the rest of us. We have to be careful and manage our
recourses and we imagine what it would be like if we had seemingly unlimited
resources. We dream about what we would
do if we won a large lottery prize!
But God’s economy
is different. God is not in a limited
supply! God wants his love spread
recklessly into our hurting world. God
asks us as his disciples not to worry about how and where we spread God’s
message of love of creation. We are told
not to worry about where with whom we sow God’s good news.
Which gets us to
the second part of our Gospel where Jesus tries to explain to the disciples
what he just told the people. And here
we don’t hear about the seed anymore but the soil. Jesus says that there are people who will be
supper receptive to the good news and those that will not be. That there are people who have shallow roots
and will hear and be receptive but will not be ones that will go out and act to
help spread God’s love in our hurting world.
But God does not
care the condition of our soil! In this
parable we are told not to worry about how we think someone will or will not
receive the word of God. It is not our
job to judge. It is our job to sow. And even if we were to judge the receptivity
of the people we interact with we are just as likely as not to get it
wrong. To misunderstand how that person
will receive and how God’s love will grow within that person.
This Wednesday I
am performing a baptism at St. Paul’s.
It is for one of our un-homed parishioners. I am sure that many people would judge that
soil as a rocky place for God’s love to be sown. Many people would look at a small family and
their small dog that camp by the river as perhaps in need of help but not as
fertile ground that will yield fruit.
But I am not going to judge.
Already his request to be baptized has spread to another young man who
attends regularly and now also wants to be baptized later this summer. The yield may be limited by circumstances but
God is telling me not to worry about that.
The Holy Spirit opens the heart in ways that we cannot imagine. And with the Holy Spirit that seed that will
be planted on Wednesday may have a larger yield than we can imagine.
That is the way
God’s economy works. God takes all kinds
of people and grows the kingdom. Jesus
gathered fisherman and tax collectors, women and all sorts and conditions of
people to start and to continue building God’s kingdom on earth. And we are to do the same.
As we continue to
reimagine what the ministry of St. Matthew’s will be in the years going forward
we should remember to sow God’s love with wild recklessness. While money may be in short supply and our
membership currently small God’s love is limitless. And the return may end up being bigger than we
can imagine!
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