|
|
SERMON for JULY 12, 2020
|
SEED FAITH
Text: Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23; Isaiah 55: 10-13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I love metaphors – so hold on and bear with me as I run through fields and forests, mountains and hills, over parched earth, rocky paths, and thorny patches of ground - into beautiful fertile plains as I - and untold numbers of Jesus’ disciples who have followed Him – sow seeds of faith – flung far and wide along the way – without fear of running out of the seeds – without excessive worry about how many are going to sprout and grow and generate a harvest – without counting the cost of any potential loss.
In the parable, at no point does the sower express regret for his actions. He does not say things to himself like, “you are so stupid, careless, reckless. Why did you sow seeds there? What a waste!” is that instinctive, reactive, self-critical mindset that thrives in the heads of far too many people. “If only, if only… I woulda, I coulda, I shoulda…” the tyranny of such words and thoughts is missing from the teachings of Jesus, yet many fine disciples of the Lord are crippled by such patterns of thinking. Maybe – just maybe – that is why Jesus teaches in parables and offers metaphors – teachings that are easy to hear and understand, simple concepts yet deep in meaning, profound ideas that can take root and grow and grow – these seeds of faith scattered across your life path and your own mind that is – well, sometimes, - shallow, hardened, and thorny. O yes – you can trust me on this point – because you as well as I do – that we do not have to search far and wide to discover that there are many minds and hearts in our world – and even in our churches – that are shallow, hardened and thorny. Sometimes we recognize such traits when we look in the mirror. “Prickly” is how one woman described herself with regrets in her senior years. She related that she had many regrets about how prickly she had been in her interactions with others over the course of her lifetime. Awareness is the first step to change.
At any age, at any stage of life, it is never too late to ask the Lord for forgiveness, to believe that with the Lord’s grace and strength we can change, and then to get to work weeding out the roots of bitterness, the thorns of injustice, the actions and habits that choke the life out of us – not to mention others. Intentionally and unconsciously, day by day we are either sowing seeds of faith – or we are withholding them. Like the sower in the parable, our job in this life, our calling as disciples, is to sow seeds of faith, hope, and love, trusting that the good Lord will grow bushels in abundance and will reap a most bountiful and beautiful harvest. We need not worry about how to sow, or how much to sow, or how often to sow, nor do we need to fret about where to sow. As it is well deduced from this parable and said about faith: We do the sowing. God does the growing.
We can also look at this parable from a different perspective: from the ground up. We might reflect on the ground of our being and do some honest soul and soil searching. In what condition does the good Lord find the spaces and places in our hearts and minds, the wandering paths and vast wide plains of our homes, churches, and communities? The sacred sower is still casting seeds of faith, hope, and love far and wide, flinging them out with joyful abandon with the heavenly hope that they may take root and grow and yield an abundant harvest for the glory of God. Remember – that we are dust, and to dust we shall return – or better said in the context of this parable, we are dirt – and what kind of ground conditions are we making. When we wallow in shallow values with hardened hearts and prickly personalities, it makes it much more difficult for God’s love to take root and grow. Impossible? No, with God all things are possible – thanks be to God. We know that we cannot limit the how and the when and the where of God’s power at work in the world. God’s Word can still break through in the most hostile environments and in the most hardened and sinful people, so in identifying these dynamics, in no way am I suggesting that God’s Word cannot take root and grow. Nevertheless, as Jesus taught in this parable, there are laws of nature and external forces at work that can interfere with God’s purposes taking hold in our lives. We humans are limited and sinful after all – thus so great is our need to confess how shallow, hardened, and thorny we are – regularly and often – every single Sunday we gather for worship – early on in the service is our prayer of confession. It comes early in our worship so we can thereby clear away the weeds from the gardens of our hearts and minds once more, again and again, and prepare the soul and soil of our being - so that God’s Word as it is sown, can take root and grow – with abundance – a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold – in our lives.
Abundance is the direction in which this parable about God’s Word moves – not towards scarcity or limitation – not in the direction of deprivation and hardness – not with the intention to scare us into worrying that life and love will be snatched away randomly or be strangled by malevolent forces. Eight hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth shared the Good News about God’s abundance in parables, the prophet Isaiah shared a similar message that we heard in the first lesson for today:
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Rain and snow – how many raindrops – how many snowflakes? We don’t know – and does it matter how many there are? No – of course not! God’s Word goes out like a summer downpour or winter blizzard that blankets the earth – accomplishing God’s purposes in ways we may not recognize or understand – yet our lack does not limit God’s provision.
“For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Isaiah 55: 12
When I hear such words, I recall Julie Andrews playing the role of Maria in the Sound of Music, singing the words: “the hills are alive with the sound of music…” Maybe the words of Isaiah inspired the lyricist of the song, yet whether or not they did, they inspired Jesus of Nazareth who often quoted Isaiah. “All the trees of the field shall clap their hands!” Trees clapping their hands is quite an unusual image to entertain – and thus it is - that word images and metaphors are used by Jesus and prophets before and since to stretch our imagination and break us out of our usual and ordinary ways of thinking and being. The prophet Isaiah’s words were God’s Word, and they, like seeds of faith, grow and grow in truth and fulfill God’s purposes when they take root and grow in our hearts and minds.
“For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace.” That is the prophecy – prophetic words that rang in the mind and heart of the Lord Jesus, blessing Him as He proclaimed the Good News of God’s kingdom in parables like the parable of the sower, blessing us as we do our part in fulfilling God’s purposes. Whether we are sowing the seeds or preparing the soil for receiving the seeds, let us remember - still – God does the growing! So - let us rejoice – as we plow on through this pandemic – sowing seeds of faith and preparing the ground of our being for yet more abundance in God’s kingdom - even here and now – and forevermore – for the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Text: Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23; Isaiah 55: 10-13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I love metaphors – so hold on and bear with me as I run through fields and forests, mountains and hills, over parched earth, rocky paths, and thorny patches of ground - into beautiful fertile plains as I - and untold numbers of Jesus’ disciples who have followed Him – sow seeds of faith – flung far and wide along the way – without fear of running out of the seeds – without excessive worry about how many are going to sprout and grow and generate a harvest – without counting the cost of any potential loss.
In the parable, at no point does the sower express regret for his actions. He does not say things to himself like, “you are so stupid, careless, reckless. Why did you sow seeds there? What a waste!” is that instinctive, reactive, self-critical mindset that thrives in the heads of far too many people. “If only, if only… I woulda, I coulda, I shoulda…” the tyranny of such words and thoughts is missing from the teachings of Jesus, yet many fine disciples of the Lord are crippled by such patterns of thinking. Maybe – just maybe – that is why Jesus teaches in parables and offers metaphors – teachings that are easy to hear and understand, simple concepts yet deep in meaning, profound ideas that can take root and grow and grow – these seeds of faith scattered across your life path and your own mind that is – well, sometimes, - shallow, hardened, and thorny. O yes – you can trust me on this point – because you as well as I do – that we do not have to search far and wide to discover that there are many minds and hearts in our world – and even in our churches – that are shallow, hardened and thorny. Sometimes we recognize such traits when we look in the mirror. “Prickly” is how one woman described herself with regrets in her senior years. She related that she had many regrets about how prickly she had been in her interactions with others over the course of her lifetime. Awareness is the first step to change.
At any age, at any stage of life, it is never too late to ask the Lord for forgiveness, to believe that with the Lord’s grace and strength we can change, and then to get to work weeding out the roots of bitterness, the thorns of injustice, the actions and habits that choke the life out of us – not to mention others. Intentionally and unconsciously, day by day we are either sowing seeds of faith – or we are withholding them. Like the sower in the parable, our job in this life, our calling as disciples, is to sow seeds of faith, hope, and love, trusting that the good Lord will grow bushels in abundance and will reap a most bountiful and beautiful harvest. We need not worry about how to sow, or how much to sow, or how often to sow, nor do we need to fret about where to sow. As it is well deduced from this parable and said about faith: We do the sowing. God does the growing.
We can also look at this parable from a different perspective: from the ground up. We might reflect on the ground of our being and do some honest soul and soil searching. In what condition does the good Lord find the spaces and places in our hearts and minds, the wandering paths and vast wide plains of our homes, churches, and communities? The sacred sower is still casting seeds of faith, hope, and love far and wide, flinging them out with joyful abandon with the heavenly hope that they may take root and grow and yield an abundant harvest for the glory of God. Remember – that we are dust, and to dust we shall return – or better said in the context of this parable, we are dirt – and what kind of ground conditions are we making. When we wallow in shallow values with hardened hearts and prickly personalities, it makes it much more difficult for God’s love to take root and grow. Impossible? No, with God all things are possible – thanks be to God. We know that we cannot limit the how and the when and the where of God’s power at work in the world. God’s Word can still break through in the most hostile environments and in the most hardened and sinful people, so in identifying these dynamics, in no way am I suggesting that God’s Word cannot take root and grow. Nevertheless, as Jesus taught in this parable, there are laws of nature and external forces at work that can interfere with God’s purposes taking hold in our lives. We humans are limited and sinful after all – thus so great is our need to confess how shallow, hardened, and thorny we are – regularly and often – every single Sunday we gather for worship – early on in the service is our prayer of confession. It comes early in our worship so we can thereby clear away the weeds from the gardens of our hearts and minds once more, again and again, and prepare the soul and soil of our being - so that God’s Word as it is sown, can take root and grow – with abundance – a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold – in our lives.
Abundance is the direction in which this parable about God’s Word moves – not towards scarcity or limitation – not in the direction of deprivation and hardness – not with the intention to scare us into worrying that life and love will be snatched away randomly or be strangled by malevolent forces. Eight hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth shared the Good News about God’s abundance in parables, the prophet Isaiah shared a similar message that we heard in the first lesson for today:
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Rain and snow – how many raindrops – how many snowflakes? We don’t know – and does it matter how many there are? No – of course not! God’s Word goes out like a summer downpour or winter blizzard that blankets the earth – accomplishing God’s purposes in ways we may not recognize or understand – yet our lack does not limit God’s provision.
“For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Isaiah 55: 12
When I hear such words, I recall Julie Andrews playing the role of Maria in the Sound of Music, singing the words: “the hills are alive with the sound of music…” Maybe the words of Isaiah inspired the lyricist of the song, yet whether or not they did, they inspired Jesus of Nazareth who often quoted Isaiah. “All the trees of the field shall clap their hands!” Trees clapping their hands is quite an unusual image to entertain – and thus it is - that word images and metaphors are used by Jesus and prophets before and since to stretch our imagination and break us out of our usual and ordinary ways of thinking and being. The prophet Isaiah’s words were God’s Word, and they, like seeds of faith, grow and grow in truth and fulfill God’s purposes when they take root and grow in our hearts and minds.
“For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace.” That is the prophecy – prophetic words that rang in the mind and heart of the Lord Jesus, blessing Him as He proclaimed the Good News of God’s kingdom in parables like the parable of the sower, blessing us as we do our part in fulfilling God’s purposes. Whether we are sowing the seeds or preparing the soil for receiving the seeds, let us remember - still – God does the growing! So - let us rejoice – as we plow on through this pandemic – sowing seeds of faith and preparing the ground of our being for yet more abundance in God’s kingdom - even here and now – and forevermore – for the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.