sermon-parable-of-the-sower

Sermon- Pentecost IV, July 10, 2011

Fr. Gerry Swieringa

Today’s Gospel, the parable of the sower, is one that seems so transparent that any further explanation will only muddy the waters. But I’d like to take that risk, and using a few cues from Robert Capon’s book “The Parables of the Kingdom,” see if we can’t delve into Jesus’ words with a goal to know and understand as we prayed for in the collect.

The first problem we have with the parable is understanding it on a literal level. Simply speaking, we don’t sow anymore, we garden. You will not find the word “sower” in Word’s dictionary. So the picture of the sower scattering seeds every which way is foreign to us. We diligently prepare the soil, fertilize it, water it, all before the seeds are planted. We don’t run the risk of seeds falling on anything less than fertile, receptive soil. But this is not the picture Jesus presents to us. In the parable, the sower seems to have a complete indifference to where his seed lands. Indeed, it lands on every conceivable piece of earth: pathways, stony ground, thorns, and yes, finally “good ground.”

And there are consequences depending on where the seeds land. Those on the pathway get picked up and carried away by birds. Those on the stony ground take root but quickly die for lack of nourishment. Those among the thorns grow but are eventually choked out by the competing thistles. And finally those on good soil reproduce themselves a hundredfold, or sixty, some thirty.

Then Jesus says, “Let anyone with ears listen.” And that’s the end of the parable for those on the shore that day listening to Jesus teach. It’s more of a riddle than a parable. He doesn’t tell them what it means. He doesn’t say, “This is an allegory for…” It is only later when the befuddled disciples ask him what it means that he provides an explanation.

This should be a clue to us that the conventional way of interpreting this parable may not be all there is to it. Conventionally, the sower is whoever preaches the Word to the nations. And then the parable is about how the Word is received by the world. That might make for a useful illustration and an enlightened interpretation of mankind’s follies, but does it present to us a picture of the Kingdom of God? Is Jesus making a statement on how he has been received, or is he telling us something about himself, and the nature of his Kingdom? Viewed in the conventional light many commentators are troubled to call it a parable at all, and explain it away as Jesus first efforts at this new style of teaching, and that he would get better at it and eventually master its complexities and use it to speak profound things about himself and His Kingdom. But this parable is just a meager beginning, a trial balloon if you will.

The biggest problem with that interpretation is that this particular parable is treated centrally in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Robert Capon calls it a watershed moment in the ministry of Jesus that is entirely consistent with the great parables to come. All of Jesus parables speak directly to the question of what the Kingdom of God is like.

If that’s so, are we to ignore Jesus’ seemingly simple explanation for the parable? Now in the Gospel selection for today we immediately jump to Jesus explanation. But in Matthew’s account, Matthew 13: 10-17, Jesus says some very important things. The disciples ask him, challenge him might be a better description, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

Jesus answers, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Matt 13:11-13.

This answer is a lot broader than the question, why do you speak in parables? As a matter of fact, it doesn’t really answer that question at all. Instead, it opens a door into how the kingdom of God works. There are haves, and there are have-nots. The haves will live in abundance with more of the benefits of kingdom citizenship than they can ever use. But the have-nots will lose everything. They may think they possess a knowledge of the Kingdom of heaven, but they do not. And they will be made completely and opaquely aware of that.

Jesus goes on to quote from Isaiah “You will be ever hearing but never understanding: you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” Matt 13: 14-15.

There is a statement of condition. This is the way it is in this world. But then also a promise. This is the way it could be.

Back to the parable. The sower sows his seed everywhere. What is the seed? The knowledge of the Kingdom of God. For Robert Capon that knowledge is Jesus himself, the incarnate Word. The sower then is God the Father who sows the seed of his Son in all the world, indiscriminately into the hearts of all people. But those hearts are not all the same. Some are so under the power of Satan and his legions that the Word is snatched away before it even germinates. These are the truly tragic ones. The ones who by their associations and life styles have barricaded themselves from Jesus promise that he could heal them.

Other hearts hear the Word but are overwhelmed by Satan’s lies and fear. Before the Word has a chance to grow in these hearts, they are seduced into skepticism, agnosticism, mysticism, paganism and an arrogant and inflated humanism that prevents them from grasping the truth. The time of trial arrives and they fly away to hollow comforts and false gods. To turn for these hearts means a baptism, a death to their old life and a reemergence into the new life of Christ. For them the promise is extended and it is their own selves, their own pride, that stands in the way. To be a Christian demands courage. Pray that they may have the courage to invite the Holy Spirit into their lives.

Then there are hearts who hear and believe and experience the joy that comes with believing. Only to find out that the price was too high for them. What they have to give up is worth more to them than what they are promised in return. These at least have a taste of the Kingdom, but getting them to turn is never easy. They have made their choice and it is the choice of the flesh, as Paul says in today’s epistle from Romans, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” But there is hope for these hearts. They may yet see with their eyes and hear with their ears and return to the faith they once knew. We must pray for them. And our prayer should be that God’s Word will not return to him empty. That once planted, it may yet again flourish in lives committed to his service.

Finally, we come to the good ground. Isn’t it curious that Jesus’ sower receives returns of a hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirty all from the good ground? Does that mean that some ground may be better than others? These are the ones who hear and understand. They take the Word and produce a crop. But your crop and my crop are never going to be the same, are they? For at the basic level all our understandings are different. The dark glass we see through has many different shades of darkness. This is to say that all our efforts are striving and not achieving. We all labor under the measured hand of the Holy Spirit who gives us what we are able to bear, who imparts to us the knowledge we need, and who brings into our lives only those whom we are able to lead. That’s all God’s work. Our work is to be the good soil.

So what does all this say about the Kingdom of God?

First, that it is at hand. The presence of the Word is and always has been recognizable everywhere to those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear and the open heart to receive.

Second, that it is not universally recognized. There are those who will not enter the Kingdom because they fail to see it. Anyone who believes in a universal salvation had better spend some time with this parable.

Thirdly, that membership has its rewards. And that reward is none other than life itself. As Paul says , “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” Rom. 8:11

Finally, there is a price for failure. “Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

The life of the Spirit of the risen Christ is offered to us. How we receive it, whether it flourishes in us or is choked out, is up to us. Pray that we may all be the good ground.

But something is still missing isn’t it? If the Kingdom is truly at hand, that is the Gospel message: Repent, rejoice, proclaim the Good News to all the world. Then this parable of Jesus has to be about more than what awaits those who will inherit the Kingdom at the end. It needs to speak to us today, in ordinary time. And so it does. For if we consider the soils of the world as the times of our lives, this parable becomes hauntingly personal.

How many times has the presence of the risen Lord, the seed sown by our heavenly Father, filtered down all around us and we haven’t even seen it? Is it because in a moment when we should have been looking we were instead locked in an embrace with sin, oblivious to our Lord’s presence?

How often have we felt the keen joy of the Word dwelling among us, only to lose that joy when the time of trial arrives and we feel cut off, ignored, rejected by the very God who loves us? Betrayed by the lack of depth to our faith?

How has our faith been timid and overshadowed and afraid to express itself in the thistle field of competing ideologies? There may be a daisy in that field of thistles, but you can’t see it. It bears no fruit.

And then the seed falls on good ground. Good ground, like Cavin and Misty and the team of 5 Talents just returned from Miramar. Good ground like Bob and Darlene and all those who gave up their weekend to pray and watch and walk this weekend at The Relay for Life. Good ground like Susan Doubler’s and Lyle Shrag’s words of assurance to a sick priest this week. I could go on, but this is where the seed comes alive and reproduces itself some hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirty.

Pray that we may have the eyes that see, the ears that hear, and the hearts that are open.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.