Year A
Isaiah 55:10-13
Psalm 65:9-14
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9,18-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s reading from Isaiah\u2026 is a powerful promise from God\u2026 it speaks of water\u2026 and seed\u2026 and bread\u2026 and the rabbis understood water\u2026 as a metaphor for Torah\u2026 for God\u2019s Word\u2026 as the rain comes down from heaven\u2026 and waters the earth\u2026 so shall the Word that goes out from my mouth be\u2026 it shall not return to me empty\u2026 but shall achieve what I sent it to do<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there may be some uncertainty about exactly how\u2026 and when\u2026 and at whose hands\u2026 God\u2019s promises will come true\u2026 spoiler alert\u2026 those promises depend on how we\u2026 individually and collectively\u2026 choose to use our free will\u2026 and act\u2026 in response to God\u2019s invitation\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while we know\u2026 that no parable can bear the entire weight of the Gospel\u2026 we must remember that the parable\u2019s point\u2026 is to get us to think\u2026 and it\u2019s ironic that the first of Jesus\u2019 parables in Matthew\u2026 is about this sower\u2026 scattering\u2026 seed\u2026 because the Gk. word itself\u2026 parable<\/em>\u2026 means\u2026 to throw alongside\u2026 and the sower\u2026 throws seed\u2026 along side four different kinds of soil\u2026 God\u2026 throws God\u2019s Word\u2026 alongside different kinds of people\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some scholars who believe that Jesus\u2019 words ended with v. 9\u2026 or perhaps v. 17\u2026 but that the explanation\u2026 which begins in v. 18\u2026 was added later on\u2026 but even so\u2026 with this explanation\u2026 we tend to focus our vision on only the four kinds of soils\u2026 this explanation encourages us think about these four kinds of people\u2026 in whom the Word is either eaten up\u2026 or withers\u2026 or is choked\u2026 or falls on good soil and yields a great harvest\u2026 and the explanation tends to make many of us wonder\u2026 What kind of soil am I<\/em>\u2026 but as John Shea wrote\u2026 and I think I\u2019ve said before\u2026 although four possible persons are envisioned\u2026 it\u2019s more realistic to understand each kind of soil as belonging\u2026 at one time or another\u2026 to every person\u2026 and as The Rev. Rosanne Anderson writes\u2026 the harvest depends on whether God\u2019s Word falls on our hard hearts\u2026 or our shallow hearts\u2026 or our weed-choked hearts<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while no one person\u2026 can possibly be responsible for bringing God\u2019s Kingdom to fruition\u2026 or be responsible for what anyone else chooses to do\u2026 I understand that every time I choose to NOT do something that brings God\u2019s kingdom one millimeter closer\u2026 I am missing God\u2019s mark\u2026 and when more people than not\u2026 are choosing to NOT do something that brings God\u2019s kingdom a few more millimeters closer to fruition\u2026 we are collectively missing God\u2019s mark\u2026 but none of us can do it on our own\u2026 we need God\u2019s help\u2026 and we need to do it together\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can\u2019t know how people who respond to the Spirit\u2019s invitation will grow\u2026 and knowing this can help keep us from making value judgements about what kind of soil we believe them\u2026 or ourselves\u2026 to be\u2026 because in addition to being varying types of soil\u2026 we can also imagine ourselves to be the sower\u2026 but we tend to be the kinds of sowers\u2026 who don\u2019t want to waste seeds\u2026 we don\u2019t want to be seen as people who waste God\u2019s Word\u2026 we tend to approach our decisions and actions with a perspective of scarcity\u2026 we are frugal with our resources\u2026 we want to give to those\u2026 or to something\u2026 that will give back to us in some way\u2026 provide a good return on investment\u2026 in other words\u2026 we don\u2019t want to throw around any seeds\u2026 we want every seed to be placed carefully in fertile soil\u2026 and germinate\u2026 and provide an abundant yield\u2026 and so let\u2019s remember\u2026 in John 12:24\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 Very truly\u2026 I tell you\u2026 unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies\u2026 it remains just a single grain\u2026 but if it dies\u2026 it bears much fruit<\/em>\u2026 for Jesus\u2026 death meant crucifixion and resurrection\u2026 but for us\u2026 there are many mistaken notions and false truths to which we must die\u2026 before we eat the bread of eternal life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But our egregiously generous God doesn\u2019t worry about wasting the Word\u2026 but instead\u2026 lavishly throws it around into all kinds of soil\u2026 into hearts that change and expand and shrink\u2026 that are sometimes open and sometimes closed\u2026 God speaks God\u2019s Word into ears that sometimes hear and sometimes don\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I recently came across a National Geographic story about seeds\u2026 it was reported in 2012\u2026 that a Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla<\/em>\u2026 a flowering plant native to Siberia\u2026 that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel\u2026 near the banks of the Kolyma River\u2026 radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old\u2026 the mature and immature seeds\u2026 which had been entirely encased in ice\u2026 were unearthed from 124 feet below the permafrost\u2026 surrounded by layers that included mammoth\u2026 bison\u2026 and rhinoceros bones\u2026 the mature seeds had been damaged\u2026 perhaps by the squirrel itself\u2026 to prevent them from germinating in the burrow\u2026 but some of the immature seeds retained viable plant material\u2026 the team extracted that tissue from the frozen seeds\u2026 placed it in vials\u2026 and according to that study\u2026 successfully germinated the plants\u2026 which grew\u2026 flowered\u2026 and after a year\u2026 created seeds of their own\u2026 tenacious seeds\u2026 but no more tenacious than God\u2019s Word\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while we can\u2019t fathom how much love and grace and forgiveness there is in God\u2019s Word\u2026 maybe we just have to accept that the way God scatters\u2026 will always seem incomprehensibly wasteful to us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll remember that earlier in this Gospel\u2026 when Jesus sent the disciples out\u2026 and instructed them where to go and what to do and what to take\u2026 you\u2019ll remember he said\u2026 if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words\u2026 shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or town<\/em>\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n I wonder if Jesus said this with a tone of condemnation\u2026 or compassion for those who were missing out\u2026 or simply a neutral one\u2026 after all\u2026 he knew that God\u2019s Word is incapable of returning empty\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let\u2019s not worry about the kind of soil we are\u2026 or what kind our neighbors are\u2026 but let\u2019s ask how can we be more like the sower in the parable\u2026 let\u2019s ask how can we scatter broadly and widely\u2026 without regard to whether we think people are worthy\u2026 or whether the Word will take root\u2026 or whether we think it\u2019s wasted\u2026 instead\u2026 let\u2019s ask how we have been watered and nourished by God\u2019s Word\u2026 and by the Incarnate Word\u2026 and let\u2019s wonder together\u2026 about how we have helped God\u2019s Word accomplish that which God intended\u2026 and succeed in the thing for which God sent it\u2026 and then perhaps we can all be\u2026 tenacious seeds\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Isaiah 55:10-13 Psalm 65:9-14 Romans 8:1-11 Matthew 13:1-9,18-23 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 Today\u2019s reading from Isaiah\u2026 is a powerful promise from God\u2026 it speaks of water\u2026 and seed\u2026 and bread\u2026 and the rabbis understood water\u2026 as a metaphor for Torah\u2026 for God\u2019s Word\u2026 as the rain comes down from heaven\u2026 and waters the earth\u2026 so shall the Word that goes out from my mouth be\u2026 it shall not return to me empty\u2026 but shall achieve what I sent it to do\u2026 But there may be some uncertainty about exactly how\u2026 and when\u2026 and at whose hands\u2026 God\u2019s promises will come true\u2026 spoiler alert\u2026 those promises depend on how we\u2026 individually and collectively\u2026 choose to use our free will\u2026 and act\u2026 in response to God\u2019s invitation\u2026 And while we know\u2026 that no parable can bear the entire weight of the Gospel\u2026 we must remember that the parable\u2019s point\u2026 is to get us to think\u2026 and it\u2019s ironic that the first of Jesus\u2019 parables in Matthew\u2026 is about this sower\u2026 scattering\u2026 seed\u2026 because the Gk. word itself\u2026 parable\u2026 means\u2026 to throw alongside\u2026 and the sower\u2026 throws seed\u2026 along side four different kinds of soil\u2026 God\u2026 throws God\u2019s Word\u2026 alongside different kinds of people\u2026 There are some scholars who believe that Jesus\u2019 words ended with v. 9\u2026 or perhaps v. 17\u2026 but that the explanation\u2026 which begins in v. 18\u2026 was added later on\u2026 but even so\u2026 with this explanation\u2026 we tend to focus our vision on only the four kinds of soils\u2026 this explanation encourages us think about these four kinds of people\u2026 in whom the Word is either eaten up\u2026 or withers\u2026 or is choked\u2026 or falls on good soil and yields a great harvest\u2026 and the explanation tends to make many of us wonder\u2026 What kind of soil am I\u2026 but as John Shea wrote\u2026 and I think I\u2019ve said before\u2026 although four possible persons are envisioned\u2026 it\u2019s more realistic to understand each kind of soil as belonging\u2026 at one time or another\u2026 to every person\u2026 and as The Rev. Rosanne Anderson writes\u2026 the harvest depends on whether God\u2019s Word falls on our hard hearts\u2026 or our shallow hearts\u2026 or our weed-choked hearts\u2026 And while no one person\u2026 can possibly be responsible for bringing God\u2019s Kingdom to fruition\u2026 or be responsible for what anyone else chooses to do\u2026 I understand that every time I choose to NOT do something that brings God\u2019s kingdom one millimeter closer\u2026 I am missing God\u2019s mark\u2026 and when more people than not\u2026 are choosing to NOT do something that brings God\u2019s kingdom a few more millimeters closer to fruition\u2026 we are collectively missing God\u2019s mark\u2026 but none of us can do it on our own\u2026 we need God\u2019s help\u2026 and we need to do it together\u2026 We can\u2019t know how people who respond to the Spirit\u2019s invitation will grow\u2026 and knowing this can help keep us from making value judgements about what kind of soil we believe them\u2026 or ourselves\u2026 to be\u2026 because in addition to being varying types of soil\u2026 we can also imagine ourselves to be the sower\u2026 but we tend to be the kinds of sowers\u2026 who don\u2019t want to waste seeds\u2026 we don\u2019t want to be seen as people who waste God\u2019s Word\u2026 we tend to approach our decisions and actions with a perspective of scarcity\u2026 we are frugal with our resources\u2026 we want to give to those\u2026 or to something\u2026 that will give back to us in some way\u2026 provide a good return on investment\u2026 in other words\u2026 we don\u2019t want to throw around any seeds\u2026 we want every seed to be placed carefully in fertile soil\u2026 and germinate\u2026 and provide an abundant yield\u2026 and so let\u2019s remember\u2026 in John 12:24\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 Very truly\u2026 I tell you\u2026 unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies\u2026 it remains just a single grain\u2026 but if it dies\u2026 it bears much fruit\u2026 for Jesus\u2026 death meant crucifixion and resurrection\u2026 but for us\u2026 there are many mistaken notions and false truths to which we must die\u2026 before we eat the bread of eternal life\u2026 But our egregiously generous God doesn\u2019t worry about wasting the Word\u2026 but instead\u2026 lavishly throws it around into all kinds of soil\u2026 into hearts that change and expand and shrink\u2026 that are sometimes open and sometimes closed\u2026 God speaks God\u2019s Word into ears that sometimes hear and sometimes don\u2019t\u2026 I recently came across a National Geographic story about seeds\u2026 it was reported in 2012\u2026 that a Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla\u2026 a flowering plant native to Siberia\u2026 that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel\u2026 near the banks of the Kolyma River\u2026 radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old\u2026 the mature and immature seeds\u2026 which had been entirely encased in ice\u2026 were unearthed from 124 feet below the permafrost\u2026 surrounded by layers that included mammoth\u2026 bison\u2026 and rhinoceros bones\u2026 the mature seeds had been damaged\u2026 perhaps by the squirrel itself\u2026 to prevent them from germinating in the burrow\u2026 but some of the immature seeds retained viable plant material\u2026 the team extracted that tissue from the frozen seeds\u2026 placed it in vials\u2026 and according to that study\u2026 successfully germinated the plants\u2026 which grew\u2026 flowered\u2026 and after a year\u2026 created seeds of their own\u2026 tenacious seeds\u2026 but no more tenacious than God\u2019s Word\u2026 And while we can\u2019t fathom how much love and grace and forgiveness there is in God\u2019s Word\u2026 maybe we just have to accept that the way God scatters\u2026 will always seem incomprehensibly wasteful to us\u2026 You\u2019ll remember that earlier in this Gospel\u2026 when Jesus sent the disciples out\u2026 and instructed them where to go and what to do and what to take\u2026 you\u2019ll remember he said\u2026 if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words\u2026 shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or town\u2026 I wonder if Jesus said this with a 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