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9th Sunday after Pentecost
July 13, 2008 Sermon by Sally Maxwell, Priest
                                                                                       Readings                                                                                    

It's great the way the lectionary cycle puts the parable of the sower, right in the middle of the our growing season. We gardeners can relate to the weeds and the rocky soil and the secret life of seeds. I have been amazed at the way that ungerminated seeds from years past, suddenly take off in this years garden. Some of my best zucchini patches have come about that way. Last year a tomato plant self seeded and positioned itself right in the middle of the wax beans and it did very well. This year Dean commented that there were peas coming up randomly allover the garden. So you never know what might happen. It seems that no seed is ever really lost.

Jesus has much more to say about seeds in his metaphor about the Kingdom of God, so lets go there.

In this parable, I first hear it that God is the sower and God is also the seed. God is planting the seeds of God's self, which are God's love and God's word. God puts the seeds in different environments, like the path or the rocky soil. We, God's people, are those different environments, those unique receptive or not so receptive places for seeds.  And it doesn't matter when Gods' word finds itself in an unsupportive place, because the abundance of the seeds in the good soil is going to make up for everything.. None of God's love is really lost on bad soil, instead it is magnified by the seeds that produced the grain a hundredfold. So I think that this first part is about God, that God is always about excess love. 

Then Jesus goes on to interpret the parable to the disciples and I hear the next part a little differently:

This time I hear God as the sower; but the part of the people has expanded. They are what was sown, the seeds. And God is what was sown, The people now have God's love sown on their hearts, and they are the plants that take root, and they are the ones who bear fruit. There is an imbeddedness that has happened, and the dividing line between the divine and the people is now a gray area. What was characteristic of God, has become part of God's people. God just can't help sharing God's excessive loving self!

Jesus is talking about the Kingdom, the presence of God in the world, God's transformation of the world.  It changes everything beyond our imagination and it involves us. God does this kind of loving extravaganza, no matter what, but what will we do? There are clues to discipleship in the story, so I will take these right from the verses of the parable.

First, hear about the kingdom and understand. I think this means a commitment to scripture study and learning from each other as to what we think the scriptures are revealing to us, and what God is revealing to us. It means acknowledging that the Kingdom of God is right here, right now.

Secondly, have joy in God's love, but don't bolt when the going gets tough. I imagine that the first disciples and the Matthean disciples really needed to hear this. As Jesus said to his disciples earlier in this gospel, do not be afraid. Be grateful, and give thanks to God, even when it seems that your life is not what you want it to be. Especially then. In your deep gratitude you will be able to see God's tremendous abundance in the world, perhaps in a way that was hidden to you before. Have patience. Hand to God the burdens that you carry. These are all Jesus's teachings in the Matthean Gospel.

A third teaching: Do not let the lure of wealth, the pull of upward mobility destroy your spiritual life. Do not let the consumer drive of our society overshadow the true humility that comes from loving God first, loving God more than your own achievements, more than the things that you own or want to own. Loving God more than your own marketable image. God looks better on you than Abercrombie and Fitch!

And finally, when you are in essence "bearing fruit", give thanks to God and continue to give out of your own abundance and excess. Give back. As Jesus instructed earlier in the Matthean gospel, let your light shine. Exercise the gifts that God has given you.

Well we aren't supposed to try to earn God's love and grace. That is not possible. God's grace and love are free to us. God's abundant nature, sewn in our hearts is going to take hold and grow and make new beginnings. Believe me: BIG new beginnings. But as a disciple, do what you can to prepare yourself. The Anglican theologian Urban T. Holmes coined the term "receptive spirituality." Do what you can to be receptive to the divine.  Carve out that space where God surely will enter in. Increase the amount of time that you spend just listening; listening to people talk about things, listening to your inside self, listening for God in the world, listening to creation, to birds and wind and rain. Learn to listen and to be.

This is part of being a disciple; to prepare ourselves. Then our prayer from the Book of Common Prayer will be answered: "May we do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in." Amen.


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