We are sown to life.
Today’s Gospel covers the first of eight parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, each of them having to do with the Kingdom of God. This one has the advantage of an explanation from Jesus himself, so maybe I should just sit down and save us all some time. But, of course, there is a lot to mine here and so we shall.
Jesus says the seed in this parable is God’s Word. On one level, then, we can take it as meaning we’ve got to be receptive to what Jesus says, especially about the Kingdom of God. Fair enough, that is true.
But we should take a closer look at that word, “Word.” The Greek word for “Word” is logos, and logos is a powerful concept. It is the most powerful concept. The power lies in how we use speech. Speech is a form of communication and most animals and some plants communicate, but ours is much more than that. Our capacity for speech is a direct corollary to our being made in the image of God, our capacity to think and the idea of a conscience.
It is with speech that we are able to think, to conceptualize the future and move to enact it. You don’t just pick up a hammer and start hitting things. You envision a house, or a birdhouse, you make a plan and all of your plans are tied to words, to language. Then you cut the wood, you get the hammer and the nails and you set it forth into being.
And if we are going to involve others in a project, which we mostly do, we are able to collaborate and solve problems through speech.
This is an important way in which we reflect God. You will recall that in Genesis God spoke everything into existence. That wasn’t a cosmic magic trick. His infinite mind conceived of everything. The activity of God’s mind causes everything to be, for order to come out of chaos, and then to begin that rarest of phenomena in the universe, life. And then he set forth creatures with a similar capacity for thought, speech, creativity and bringing chaos into order – and bringing a little creative chaos to things that are too rigid. You saw Footloose, right?
It is that Word of God that John tells us came into the world in the person of Jesus. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Jesus, as the Son of God, is the embodiment of the Logos, the Word, and he has come to enact God’s ultimate vision, his Kingdom. This is, as C.S. Lewis puts it, the next and final step in the evolution of the universe and of humanity: a new creation, the new heaven, the new earth.
Instead of bringing chaos into order, the issue now is reception of the Word by people, by us. A few points are to be made about that:
1. When we hear about receiving the Word, we must remember we are talking about receiving Christ himself, no more, no less.
2. The analogy of the seed is an analogy of death. What do we do with a seed? We bury it so that new life can spring from it. As Paul wrote in our passage from Romans this morning, “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.” (Romans 8:11) Jesus died and allowed himself to be planted to bring new life to us all. We die with Christ in baptism so that his new life may grow.
3. While we can think of Jesus’ analogy in terms of evangelism, and we will, it is first a personal issue. The Kingdom isn’t something that happens out there, but rather inside each of us. God is attempting through his Word to create this in you. Will you receive it? How are you receiving it? He means to have all of you and you can’t leave parts behind. So if you have hard, rocky patches, clear them, prepare the ground for planting!
Notice that God doesn’t plant as we plant. We plant in rows: orange trees, cucumbers, watermelons, tomatoes, green beans, corn, everything. We’ve even planted you in rows. God scatters his seed and it grows where it grows, in his time, not ours.
Look at it this way: We ask people to come to a strange place, at a strange time, to hear strange words and (at 10:15) strange music, to see people dressed strangely and to do strange things. Good luck with that.
Yet anyone can hear about the truth of the living God, active and wanting to bless them. Anyone can look soberly at their life and realize “This isn’t working,” or “This can’t be all there is.” Anyone can have that deep-seated need for repentance, even if they haven’t ever heard or thought about it in those words or on those terms. Anyone can hear of the atoning love of Christ, how he died for us and raises us to new life. Anyone can receive him. Anyone can be comforted and aided by prayer.
4. This is not sudden. Oh, how we long for sudden! Fix me, Jesus! Fix the world, Jesus! It takes time to germinate, to sprout, to grow and develop to fruit-bearing capacity. We may feel impatient, but give thanks that God gives us the opportunity to grow. He gives others time to grow. People are often hard of listening, hard of growing.
5. As we grow to maturity, we bear fruit. Fruit carries seeds and provides nutrients and moisture for them to get off to a good start. Our church is not a greenhouse where all come and grow. It is a nursery where we raise fruit to be planted and produce the exponential growth that Jesus describes.
People need to hear, perhaps for the first time, about grace, that God’s judgment is not harsh or manipulative, that true forgiveness and reconciliation and new life awaits them. Bound to the living Christ they will find a church that suits them. It may be here – but does that really matter? Is it the rows? NO! It is the healing love of Christ.
Remember that the Kingdom of God is not some distant dream, it is a living, growing thing within you. I met with some colleagues last week. Rick Luoni, the rector of St. Michael’s in Orlando, shared a line which I’ll close with and I hope you will take to heart and allow to grow within you:
People don’t understand that Jesus didn’t come to get us into heaven when we die. He came to get heaven into you while you live.” The Rev. Rick Luoni
AMEN