| Sermon, May 16, 2004 |
| "A place to call home." |
| "The Sower" The Parables of the Kingdom, Part 1 [1] Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23 Rev. Matthew M. Fry |
As we continue to experience The Word of the Lord together, let us pray. Eternal Ruler, You
sow your love to all of the world. Grant unto us your wisdom, so that we might learn more
about you. If these words are not Your Word, may they be forgotten and come to naught, but if
they be Thy Word, may they adhere to our hearts, forever transforming us from glory into glory,
into the creatures you would have us be, thou who art our rock and our redeemer, Amen.
sow your love to all of the world. Grant unto us your wisdom, so that we might learn more
about you. If these words are not Your Word, may they be forgotten and come to naught, but if
they be Thy Word, may they adhere to our hearts, forever transforming us from glory into glory,
into the creatures you would have us be, thou who art our rock and our redeemer, Amen.
I’m about to ruin this parable for you; or make it the best thing you’ve ever heard, depending on
how you hear this sermon. Which is part of the point of this passage. As you can see, we skip
a few verses in Matthew 13 today. In those verses, after Jesus has told the parable of the
Sower, he begins to speak in mystery. In seeing they may not see and in hearing they do not
listen, he says.
how you hear this sermon. Which is part of the point of this passage. As you can see, we skip
a few verses in Matthew 13 today. In those verses, after Jesus has told the parable of the
Sower, he begins to speak in mystery. In seeing they may not see and in hearing they do not
listen, he says.
See, the manner in which Jesus comes to this parable is helpful to know. As I preached two
weeks ago, I believe there is a huge difference between right handed, overt, win at all costs,
peace through victory power, and the left handed, behind the scenes, love in all things, peace
through suffering love power. God uses the later. And that is mysterious. Up until this point in
the gospels, Jesus has been aware in a general way that his kind of messiahship is not what
people have been expecting. But from here on he takes this mostly negative perception and turns
it into a positive developmental principal of his thinking. “Well,” he sems to say, “since they’ve
pretty well misunderstood me so far, maybe I should capitalize on that. Maybe I should start
thinking up examples of how profoundly the true messianic kingdom differs from their
expectations. They think the kingdom will be a visible proposition – a militarily established
theocratic state that will simply be handed to them at some future date. H’m. What if I were to
stand every one of those ideas on its head? What if I were to come up with some parables that
said the kingdom was all-embracing, mysterious, already present in their midst, and aggressively
demanding their response. Let me see…” [2]
weeks ago, I believe there is a huge difference between right handed, overt, win at all costs,
peace through victory power, and the left handed, behind the scenes, love in all things, peace
through suffering love power. God uses the later. And that is mysterious. Up until this point in
the gospels, Jesus has been aware in a general way that his kind of messiahship is not what
people have been expecting. But from here on he takes this mostly negative perception and turns
it into a positive developmental principal of his thinking. “Well,” he sems to say, “since they’ve
pretty well misunderstood me so far, maybe I should capitalize on that. Maybe I should start
thinking up examples of how profoundly the true messianic kingdom differs from their
expectations. They think the kingdom will be a visible proposition – a militarily established
theocratic state that will simply be handed to them at some future date. H’m. What if I were to
stand every one of those ideas on its head? What if I were to come up with some parables that
said the kingdom was all-embracing, mysterious, already present in their midst, and aggressively
demanding their response. Let me see…” [2]
This parable has been given a widely accepted interpretation, and we are unsure how the
disciples and people around do not understand it instantly. {Get Down} But the reality is, we
don’t even understand it rightly. {} Here comes the part that either ruins it for you, or opens
your eyes to the most wonderful reality possible. The Word of God, as we understand it from
the gospels, is not the Bible, or instructions on how to live right, or the good life, but is one thing
and one thing alone. The Word of God is Jesus Christ, God incarnate. You remember your
John. “In the beginning was the Word…” and then in verse 14, “and The Word became flesh
and lived among us.” Jesus is the seed. God is the Sower. We are the ground. And the point
of the story is that Jesus Christ as the seed already has everything completed, everything taken
care of, eternally speaking. The seed has everything in it to accomplish the purpose of the seed.
Note, it is not called The Parable of the Ground. It is not called the Parable of the Seed. It is
called The Parable of the Sower. Why? Because it is about the Sower. We learn most about the
Sower, our God, in this parable. That is whom the parable is most about, The Sower, and then
the seed who is in Trinity with the Sower, and only secondarily about the ground. So, hear now
The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the gospel of Matthew. Listen for God’s Word for
you today. Read Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23. The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.
disciples and people around do not understand it instantly. {Get Down} But the reality is, we
don’t even understand it rightly. {} Here comes the part that either ruins it for you, or opens
your eyes to the most wonderful reality possible. The Word of God, as we understand it from
the gospels, is not the Bible, or instructions on how to live right, or the good life, but is one thing
and one thing alone. The Word of God is Jesus Christ, God incarnate. You remember your
John. “In the beginning was the Word…” and then in verse 14, “and The Word became flesh
and lived among us.” Jesus is the seed. God is the Sower. We are the ground. And the point
of the story is that Jesus Christ as the seed already has everything completed, everything taken
care of, eternally speaking. The seed has everything in it to accomplish the purpose of the seed.
Note, it is not called The Parable of the Ground. It is not called the Parable of the Seed. It is
called The Parable of the Sower. Why? Because it is about the Sower. We learn most about the
Sower, our God, in this parable. That is whom the parable is most about, The Sower, and then
the seed who is in Trinity with the Sower, and only secondarily about the ground. So, hear now
The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the gospel of Matthew. Listen for God’s Word for
you today. Read Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23. The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.
I mentioned earlier 4 categories that Jesus begins to show about the kingdom of God in these
parables. For those of you keeping score, they were that the kingdom is all-embracing,
mysterious, already present in our midst, and aggressively demanding our response. To look at
each of those categories briefly sheds light on God’s nature. The point of this series is that by
the end, we will know very well the idea of God building a kingdom that is all-embracing,
mysterious, already present in our midst, and that aggressively demands our response. Those
are the seasonings that will flavor this series. Don’t be surprised when you notice them. So, to
talk about the all-encompasing portion of these parables, simply note where the seed is sown.
parables. For those of you keeping score, they were that the kingdom is all-embracing,
mysterious, already present in our midst, and aggressively demanding our response. To look at
each of those categories briefly sheds light on God’s nature. The point of this series is that by
the end, we will know very well the idea of God building a kingdom that is all-embracing,
mysterious, already present in our midst, and that aggressively demands our response. Those
are the seasonings that will flavor this series. Don’t be surprised when you notice them. So, to
talk about the all-encompasing portion of these parables, simply note where the seed is sown.
Now, like I said, I’m not a farmer. I’m not a good gardener. And the manner in which the
Sower here plants drives me crazy. I can only imagine the cringes this must be giving the
gardener and the farmer. If you have limited seed, and want to be a good steward of it, then you
plant it in a way that assures the maximum possibility of its growth. But this Sower throws the
seed around haphazardly, at best. The only way this method of Sowing makes any sense is to
understand that the Sower is most concerned about making sure that the ground is planted. Not
properly planted. Just planted. The main concern of the Sower is to make sure that the earth is
covered with seed. The main concern of the Sower, read God, is to make sure the earth, read
humanity and creation, is covered with enough seed, read the Living Word Jesus Christ. The
nature of our Sower God is to cover humanity with the grace and presence of Jesus Christ. No
matter what you take from the passage, understand this. God doesn’t have to make sense.
God’s grace spills over, way too much, in part because God will not act like we expect a decent
deity to act. But that is God’s nature.
Sower here plants drives me crazy. I can only imagine the cringes this must be giving the
gardener and the farmer. If you have limited seed, and want to be a good steward of it, then you
plant it in a way that assures the maximum possibility of its growth. But this Sower throws the
seed around haphazardly, at best. The only way this method of Sowing makes any sense is to
understand that the Sower is most concerned about making sure that the ground is planted. Not
properly planted. Just planted. The main concern of the Sower is to make sure that the earth is
covered with seed. The main concern of the Sower, read God, is to make sure the earth, read
humanity and creation, is covered with enough seed, read the Living Word Jesus Christ. The
nature of our Sower God is to cover humanity with the grace and presence of Jesus Christ. No
matter what you take from the passage, understand this. God doesn’t have to make sense.
God’s grace spills over, way too much, in part because God will not act like we expect a decent
deity to act. But that is God’s nature.
To look at the mystery of the kingdom, note what Jesus is talking about. He begins, talking about
the mysterious seed. How does a seed hold within it the power to become a plant? I mean, I know
it does, and I know I’m not a farmer, nor am I a gardener, but I doubt either a farmer or a gardener
or anyone else could explain the science of how a seed produces a plant without some sense of
mystery. At some point, if I really believe that a seed will produce a plant, I will just have to take it
on faith that it will. Pages and pages of data showing how often it has worked would help, but in
the end at least part of it comes down to accepting it by faith. The way that a seed becomes a plant
or a tree or a shrub or a vegetable or whatever is amazing, and I think is in itself proof of a loving
God, but that is a tangent for another day.
the mysterious seed. How does a seed hold within it the power to become a plant? I mean, I know
it does, and I know I’m not a farmer, nor am I a gardener, but I doubt either a farmer or a gardener
or anyone else could explain the science of how a seed produces a plant without some sense of
mystery. At some point, if I really believe that a seed will produce a plant, I will just have to take it
on faith that it will. Pages and pages of data showing how often it has worked would help, but in
the end at least part of it comes down to accepting it by faith. The way that a seed becomes a plant
or a tree or a shrub or a vegetable or whatever is amazing, and I think is in itself proof of a loving
God, but that is a tangent for another day.
Now, to look at the fact that the kingdom is already present in our midst, look at the seed, the thing
that Jesus called The Word, which is interesting since Jesus is the Living Word. What the seed
does is grow. In 3 of 4 of the given situations, the seed does what it is supposed to do, grow.
Granted, in two of those 3, the seed gets hampered by the conditions of the land. But even in those
2, the seed does what it longs to do, what it desires most; it grows. And the seed that falls on the
path ends up in the birds stomach. And what is wrong with the seed as nourishment? Do not the
gospels tell us that God cares even for the sparrow? And look at it even further. Birds do not
digest seeds. They pass them whole, and actually, pass them surrounded with a good bit of, shall
we say, fertilizer. And then, the seed is more ready to grow than if it had been directly planted in
the first place. Evil has no real power against the Living Word. Even the seed that falls onto the
path and is snatched up by the bird has some purpose to it. Whatever warfare might have been
necessary against evil has already been undertaken and won, by the Sower and the Living Word
Seed. Which is another reason why the Sower isn’t careful. If the seed were in real danger, do
you think for one second the Sower would risk losing even one? Nobody, in other words–no evil
power, not the world, not the flesh, not even ourselves–can take us away from the Love that will
not let us go. We can, of course, squirm in God’s grip and despise God’s holding of us, and we
can no doubt get ourselves into one heap of a mess by doing so. But if God is the Word who both
makes and reconciles us, there is no way–no way, literally, even in hell–that we will ever find
ourselves anywhere else than in the very thick of both our creation and our reconciliation. All the
evil in the universe, no matter where it comes from, is now and ever shall be just part of the divine
ecology.
that Jesus called The Word, which is interesting since Jesus is the Living Word. What the seed
does is grow. In 3 of 4 of the given situations, the seed does what it is supposed to do, grow.
Granted, in two of those 3, the seed gets hampered by the conditions of the land. But even in those
2, the seed does what it longs to do, what it desires most; it grows. And the seed that falls on the
path ends up in the birds stomach. And what is wrong with the seed as nourishment? Do not the
gospels tell us that God cares even for the sparrow? And look at it even further. Birds do not
digest seeds. They pass them whole, and actually, pass them surrounded with a good bit of, shall
we say, fertilizer. And then, the seed is more ready to grow than if it had been directly planted in
the first place. Evil has no real power against the Living Word. Even the seed that falls onto the
path and is snatched up by the bird has some purpose to it. Whatever warfare might have been
necessary against evil has already been undertaken and won, by the Sower and the Living Word
Seed. Which is another reason why the Sower isn’t careful. If the seed were in real danger, do
you think for one second the Sower would risk losing even one? Nobody, in other words–no evil
power, not the world, not the flesh, not even ourselves–can take us away from the Love that will
not let us go. We can, of course, squirm in God’s grip and despise God’s holding of us, and we
can no doubt get ourselves into one heap of a mess by doing so. But if God is the Word who both
makes and reconciles us, there is no way–no way, literally, even in hell–that we will ever find
ourselves anywhere else than in the very thick of both our creation and our reconciliation. All the
evil in the universe, no matter where it comes from, is now and ever shall be just part of the divine
ecology.
And this parable says that. The seed eaten by birds is as much seed as the seed that produced a
hundredfold. The snatching of the Word by evil – and the rejection of it by the shallow and the
choking of it by the worldly – all take place within the working of the kingdom, not prior to it or
outside of it. It is the Word alone, and not the interference with it, that finally counts. True
enough, and fittingly enough, the most obvious point in the whole parable is that the fullest
enjoyment of the fruitfulness of the Word is available only to those who interfere with it least.
Which is the point about the kingdom of God demanding our response. But even in making that
point, Jesus still hammers away at the sovereignty and sole effectiveness of the Word. Those on
the good ground, he says, are those who simply hear the Word, accept it, and bear fruit; some
thirty-, some sixty-, and some a hundredfold. It’s not that they do anything, you see; rather, it’s
that they don’t do things that get in the Word’s way. It’s the Word, and the Word alone, that does
all the rest.
hundredfold. The snatching of the Word by evil – and the rejection of it by the shallow and the
choking of it by the worldly – all take place within the working of the kingdom, not prior to it or
outside of it. It is the Word alone, and not the interference with it, that finally counts. True
enough, and fittingly enough, the most obvious point in the whole parable is that the fullest
enjoyment of the fruitfulness of the Word is available only to those who interfere with it least.
Which is the point about the kingdom of God demanding our response. But even in making that
point, Jesus still hammers away at the sovereignty and sole effectiveness of the Word. Those on
the good ground, he says, are those who simply hear the Word, accept it, and bear fruit; some
thirty-, some sixty-, and some a hundredfold. It’s not that they do anything, you see; rather, it’s
that they don’t do things that get in the Word’s way. It’s the Word, and the Word alone, that does
all the rest.
And there, it's either just been ruined, or you’ve just been liberated. Because this is mostly about a
God who loves us enough to sow in such a haphazard manner. It is about a salvation that is out of
our hands. It is about a seed, the Living Word, that desires to blossom, and will do so whether
confronted with evil, whether rejected by the shallow, or whether strangled by the worldly. It is
only secondarily about what we should do. And when it does come to that point, to the 4th point
of the kingdom, demanding our response, it says the less we do to get in the way, the better. Amen
God who loves us enough to sow in such a haphazard manner. It is about a salvation that is out of
our hands. It is about a seed, the Living Word, that desires to blossom, and will do so whether
confronted with evil, whether rejected by the shallow, or whether strangled by the worldly. It is
only secondarily about what we should do. And when it does come to that point, to the 4th point
of the kingdom, demanding our response, it says the less we do to get in the way, the better. Amen
Let us pray. God of all creation, you hold not only us, but also our whole being in your hands.
You hold our salvation, as well as our purpose. Help us to let you rule, so that we might really
experience the flowering of your love. In the name of your Son, The Living Word, Amen.
You hold our salvation, as well as our purpose. Help us to let you rule, so that we might really
experience the flowering of your love. In the name of your Son, The Living Word, Amen.
[1] This Sermon, and this series is based largely on the book by Robert Farrar Capon, The Parables of the Kingdom.
Awesome book, part of an awesome 3 part series, which includes The Parables of Grace and The Parables of
Judgment. Read them. The particulars of the book follow in this endnotes.
[2] Capon, Robert Farrar The Parables of the Kingdom, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids
Michigan, 1985, pp. 63-64.
Awesome book, part of an awesome 3 part series, which includes The Parables of Grace and The Parables of
Judgment. Read them. The particulars of the book follow in this endnotes.
[2] Capon, Robert Farrar The Parables of the Kingdom, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids
Michigan, 1985, pp. 63-64.
| IMPORTANT After reading the translation: Click on the [X] in the box in the upper right corner of the translation window. That will close it. You will then return to the English version. |
| Posted May 19, 2004 |
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