Sermon Matthew 13 the parable of the sower Aug 30, 2015 HPMF

Transcription

1 Sermon Matthew 13 the parable of the sower Aug 30, 2015 HPMF Matthew 13:1-9 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 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. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen! 18 Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 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. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 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. 22 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. 23 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.

2 Today we begin five weeks of looking at some of the parables of Jesus. The gospels contain between thirty to forty parables of Jesus, depending on how strictly you define what is and what is not a parable. The gospel of Mark says that Jesus never said anything in public that wasn t a parable. Imagine that you are a poor day laborer in a country village, you work a hard physically demanding job each day which is just enough to get by each day just enough to literally put bread on the table. It might be hard for us to imagine this, but we don t have to look far in our own city or state to see many examples. You could go just to the edge of downtown in Boise to 23 rd street and see people going into LaborMaxx, hoping for a job for the day. Or you could head out to Nampa and drive some of the back roads and see many Hispanic and Latino folks bent over in the fields, weeding and picking wearing long pants and shirts to protect them from the hot summer sun. And so imagine you might be one of these folks, weeding and picking to provide for your family. And you keep hearing about this traveling preacher, he has been all over the country side speaking and teaching about God. Anyone can go and listen to him, he does not speak in fancy convention centers or charge two-hundred dollars to listen to him give his philosophy on life. And you have heard that he has come to your town, and so, the next morning, instead of heading to LaborMaxx or to the field, or to wait out-front of the Home Depot or Sherwin Williams to see if you get hired for work that day, you head to the shore to spend a day listening to this traveling preacher. When you arrive you find that you are not the only one who has come, the shoreline is crowded so much so that you can barely see this teacher sitting beside the sea. You hear from

3 the whispers around you that his name is Jesus and that he has just arrived from a house nearby. And you watch him as he wades out into a boat, a few men help him in the boat. He lifts his hand up and the entire crowd falls silent, waiting to hear what this wise teacher will say what words he might have for them. Utter silence in anticipation. Listen, he begins, out on the water his voice carries, A farmer went out to a field and began to sow seeds. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, the kingdom of God is like a treasure buried in a field it is like a pearl of great price, like a net you put down into the sea. Let anyone with ears to hear listen. I am a fairly concrete thinker. I don t talk much in metaphor or allegory. I imagine that if this was me, I would be thinking, is this a joke? Did I really skip out on a day of work to hear a bunch of stories. Just say what you mean, man. Tell us what you are talking about. Tell us what we are supposed to do. Stop speaking about farmers and fields and pearls and birds of the sky and tell us exactly what it is you are saying. But of course, this is not what Jesus does. It is not how he teaches. Instead he speaks in stories, in parables. The gospel of Mark says that Jesus never said anything in public that wasn't a parable. Jesus parable conceal his meaning even as they reveal it, and some say that is how he stayed out of jail as long as he did. He could have been arrested for talking heresy and treason, for talking about prioritizing God over Cesar for commenting on policy of the Empire or the Church, but for talking about seed and thorns, good soil and bad? Not likely. If the crowds came for lectures in practical theology and what to do about every point and item in their life, then they likely left disappointed. Instead they got stories and images of God s

4 kingdom. Jesus explained God with unexplained stories, most of which lack neat endings or immediately apparent points. It's as if Jesus says that God is met amid the stuff of our daily life, in the tug and pull of the ordinary. One famous commentator describes a parable of Jesus as a story drawn from nature or common life, that captures the hearer with its vividness or strangeness leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application which pushes the listener into active thought (C.H. Dodd). The hope is that its open-ended nature will draw us into the plot, it will force us to examine our own thinking, our own prejudices, our own way of living. Parables also allow people to listen more openly, they are one way to help people hear in a new way, especially those who might have a different point of view. If I begin my sermon by saying, Today, I am going to talk about immigration then you are likely to be prepared, to have your defenses up about whatever it is I might have to say and whether or not I agree with your position on the matter. But, if I tell you a story about penguins traveling the world in search of food, you will likely listen without defense. Or, if my sermon title is what to do with your money, you will be ready with reasons and thoughts about why you make decisions the way you do, but if I read a poem or we sing a song, you are likely to hear differently. When I have been at hearings at the State Capital and I am listening to public testimony, I have noticed how differently I listen depending on how the person begins their testimony. If they begin by saying up front what their position is, whether they are in support of or against a certain bill, I listen much less attentively. Once they tell me their position, I don t have to work so hard I already know if I agree with their thinking or not, if I like them or not. But, when they just start talking when they begin with a story or describe the situation of how this issue

5 impacts their life, then I am engaged the entire time trying to decide if I agree or not, if I like them or not. I have to pay attention and do the work myself. This is sort of what Jesus is doing with his parables. Stories, art, music these all have the ability to get underneath politics and ideology and hardened points of view. They are sneaky. They can subtlety shake our foundations and allow change to happen. This is what the parables of Jesus helped to do. Jesus did not say, now I am going to tell you why Samaritans are also people who are created in God s image. Rather he told a story, imagine that while traveling you were mugged and beaten within an inch of your life Story by story, Jesus moves us from the safe, secure world we think we know to another world where all is strange; from a firm point of view to a world where things don't turn out as expected, and something strange is at hand. The parables are wanting us to go deeper. To keep asking. Keep searching. Keep growing. And today s parable. One of the most well-known, the parable of the Sower. This parable comes as the first in a line of seven parables, all about the kingdom of God. This is one of the few parables to which an interpretation is offered, where the hard work is done for the disciples where Jesus explains what he means. Though, of course, there are multiple layers of meaning with each parable. In this parable we usually concentrate mostly on the soil, as per the interpretation of the parable, and wonder what kind of soil am I? Am I hardened, am I no longer able to listen and be open to where God s love is being sown into my life? Or have I failed to grow roots of depth? Have I failed to move into deeper relationship with God these past years, have I been unable to find new ways to soak my roots deeper into the ground of God s love. Or, I am that soil in the weeds, my attempts to grow in my relationship with the Divine and with the world

6 keeps getting chocked out by distractions wealth, technology, entertainment, the need to be busy, schedules, s. Or am I good soil? Am I open and growing? This is the question we usually ask ourselves about this parable and I think that is one of the desired questions of the parable. Which soil are we? I think that for most of us, the truth is that we are all four types of soil that we have been all four types. There are times we are like the hardened soil firm and unopen to the movement of God s Spirit. And we are also at times the rocky soil, struggling to maintain our passion and enthusiasm for a more just and loving world struggling to maintain our connection with the Divine despite our desire. And we are the thorny soil, often distracted by many things in our lives distracted and disrupted by wealth and security and other allures of this life. And we are the good soil we have times when we are more open, more willing to change and grow and be nourished; times when we are ready to produce new growth. We are all the good soil. This morning, instead of thinking too much about our own liabilities and struggles, I want us to think about our assets I want us to think about and remember some of our times of growth times when we felt like the good soil, when we have been soft and open to what God was doing in our lives and in the world. What are some of the things that have made our faith stick? That have kept us as part of a faith community? That have urged us to grow deeper in our relationship with God? That have kept us working for a more just and peaceful world? And in-line with the parable method of teaching, I want you to do most of the work! So, what we are going to do is spend some time thinking about the times we have been good soil, when we have been open and grown. Around the sanctuary I have four areas that represent

7 different periods of time in your life, you will have to interpret them as you wish. What I want you to do is write down one or two or three things in each time period that helped you to grow something that helped you be good soil and grow during those periods in your life. It could be a person, a place, a spiritual practice, an event in your life something that contributed to your spiritual growth and development. There are four areas: childhood, teenage/young adulthood, later in life (however you want to define that), and more recently (the past months or years). At each area there are sticky notes and pens/pencils. Please go and reflect a bit on what contributed to your times of spiritual growth and development, what helped your faith stick? [time for writing and reflecting on growth in these areas/periods of time in life] As you finish up and we come back together, I want to encourage everyone to take time after the service to read what others have written as you reflect on your own periods of growth, as well as your continued growth. And now, to finish up this time, I want to say one final word about this parable. It is called the Parable of the Sower and not the Parable of the Four Different Kinds of Soil. It may be that we concentrate too much on the soil and forget about the Sower. The Farmer goes out to the field and throws seed everywhere. The Farmer does not seem to be too worried about where the seed is going he seems to think that their main job is tossing as much seed as possible, wherever it might land, this does not seem to bother the farmer in this story. The Farmer is spreading the seeds of love on all different kinds of soil the firm, the weed-filled, the rocky, and the good. The Farmer does not stop to judge whether or not the soil is worthy or good

8 enough the Farmer just keeps throwing out that seed. I think this is important for us to remember, whether we are currently feeling hardened or distracted or lacking some depth or open the Farmer is still sending out Her seed to us, always planting, always at work. Thanks be to God.