Rector's Sermon - Sunday, June 5, 2005

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Isaiah 55:10–13	Psalm 65:9–14	Romans 8:1–11	Matthew 13: 1–9, 18–23

        The thirteenth chapter of Matthew contains a large collection of parables. All seemed to be grouped together and intended to be introduced with the words, "the signs of God's world operating into your world is similar to" and continuing with the parable. Hence, the signs of God's new world among us are similar to a sower who faithfully goes out and sows all his fields.

      A normal harvest for a first century farmer of Galilee would have been seven or eight bushels for every one bushel of seed. A bumper crop would have been about ten for every bushel. Yet Jesus suggests an incredible harvest beyond all expectation, a harvest yielding thirty, sixty, and even one hundred bushels. Jesus compares the work of God to such a bountiful harvest beyond all calculation. Note that Jesus does not stress the quality of the seed. Nor was it the particular action of the sower. It was not even the soil itself as the one determinative factor. True, the seed, sower, and the soil were all involved, but it was the work of God, that produced the amazing growth of thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold.  

      A prevailing theme in Matthew was the contrast between those who would accept the yoke of discipleship and those who would not, those who would seek to understand what Jesus was saying, and those who would reject Jesus' message out of hand. The full meanings of Jesus' parables were not necessarily allegories with every detail representing something else. Rather they stretched the imagination and challenged us. Their meaning was not readily or easily apparent, just as the signs of God are not obvious to everyone today. The Gospel reading for this morning skips over a telling passage: After the parable, Jesus offered a revision of a passage in the prophet Isaiah: "people will listen but not understand, they will look but not see, their minds are dull, they have stopped their ears, closed their eyes. Therefore they will not see the healing grace of God." The Gospel assures us that God wants everyone to perceive the signs of love in the world, but not everyone will trust the signs.

      A few chapters back in Matthew, Jesus was teaching among the crowd and a number of people arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a litter. Mark and Luke reported that the crowds were so thick, that the litter bearers finally had to resort to actually cutting a hole in the roof of the house and lowering him down to get the man close to Jesus. Jesus looked at the man on the litter, and those who had made such a great effort on the man's behalf. The Gospel writers reported that when Jesus saw how much faith they had, namely those people had who brought this sick man to him, he turned to the man and said, "Courage, your sins are forgiven." Jesus didn't forgive and heal the man strictly because of the others. However Jesus was emphasizing that when we have confidence in the presence and availability of God's grace, signs of God's kingdom are likely to be manifest. Those who brought the sick man to Jesus didn't necessarily have confidence in their own ability to persuade, influence and somehow accomplish an astounding cure, but they knew Jesus was a healer; they knew signs of the kingdom appeared around Jesus. Like a sower, they sowed their seed as bravely as they could.  

      During the summer months, the pace of parish life changes, but during these months any number of people slip into the pews, to visit, or explore or actively seek a community of faith. Like the sower we can't always tell what and how seed will grow. Ultimately the harvest is God's wonderful gift. Yet the message of the parable involves expecting the Holy Spirit to welcome them here, anticipating God to be working in us, expect us to be conduits of God's grace. Those of the community of faith are those who have confidence in God working in the world.   We are sowers, and we believe that God will bring the harvest. People could do any number of things on a warm summer Sunday morning, but some will choose to come here. Our dependence isn't on the music, however proficient and beautiful it is, or on the sermon, or on the dignity of the liturgy. They are all involved, God uses all of them, but like the sower, depend on God's harvest. Pass the peace with confidence that God works through your hands, smile, greeting, and invitation. That's part of the lesson of the sower, that's part of the so-called mystery behind this and other parables revealing how the signs God's world are present among us.  

    And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.