Parables - Matthew 13 - Proper 10A

Parables

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23; Romans 8:1-11; Psalm 65

Opening Prayer

Jesus loves to tell us parables. People love stories - ones that are nice, charming and feel good and also ones that shock and scare us. Some like the more intimate settings: stories that convey how we feel, what we did, what is on the mind, and where we think we are going. 

All of these reveal something about us. Sometimes quite intentionally, we are trying to teach and educate, but also when we tell our story, we find connections through shared experiences.  While I may not have understood the whole reason why someone did something, the result from or the feelings that people along their journey are interesting and teaching.

Stories, our stories, are important. They are part of us and they connect us. What is your story? What should I hear about you? What do you want to teach me? Than will you listen to mine…? 

Jesus telling this story about someone throwing seeds everywhere reminds me of “throwing” seeds around my garden as well as grass seed.  I directed my seeds to specific places and pray they prove to be “fruitful” to produce vegetables, flowers or grass. Many times that growth is often accompanied by weeds or critters that want to snack on my work. 

In this story, Jesus says that some seeds land to produce shortly, some never, some become bird feed and still some produce abundantly. That is cute isn’t it? 

A lot of people will leave it there for us consider on our own.

Then Jesus gives the description. The seeds are people and how they come to receive the Word, how they receive God. For we all come to God in different ways. The person to our left and right do not have the same experiences or even same feelings about the same texts. 

I hear the same speech differently than others because my experiences are simply different. That difference isn’t a problem - it just is because we don’t always have to agree. That is where listening is important because that is how we learn.

People listening to stories will start dreaming images in their heads while the story is told. Some might even throw judgment onto stories like this - as to who is chosen and who is not. They may offer reasons why that seems to fit a narrative they have conjured in their minds. 

Why go to judgment right away?

The parable is presented to us as metaphorical and the description further draws distinctions. Yet Jesus does not say who is in each ”group” but Jesus does say that “lure of wealth chokes”; that trouble or discomfort can cause people to immediately jump ship - being less than patient to allow things to grow.  

The person that only cares about what they accumulate but shares nothing gets stuck in a mindset that is never satisfied. They get caught in constant hunger and thirst for the wrong things because wealth, status and privilege are fleeting. Then they fight (sometimes violently) to keep the broken promises. They exclude so they can hoard their “rewards.” 

…Until they realize that is all they have - or don’t.

Some don’t want to endure anything. I don’t want to have to go through pain, but discomfort is a necessary teacher. It helps understand when not to do something again or how we might be able to help someone else going through similar as me. It doesn’t have to be constant nor should it be the expectation of life, but avoiding pain and discomfort is how some find themselves addicted to poisons to escape that possible. 

The impatient person: That is the person who plants a seed in the ground and then shakes fingers - telling “now grow,” but they will assuredly be denied a quick resolution. We, in this day and age, are quick with judgment, and with expectations. We like to have the Burger King “have it made our way” and delivered when we want. 

We have been primed by marketing to get things tailored to us and our desires when we want it and how we want it. It doesn’t matter whether that is reasonable or not or who it impacts. We have been lied to by corporations that say we can have it all and we dont have to struggle. That money shines and feels warm, comforting - above all else. 

That is a lie and we know it. The world doesn’t have to work like that. God doesn’t work like that.

There is something for you and me and is more sustaining than any of those broken lies. 

God offers us a field of opportunities, a garden for us to tend and a life to lead with purpose. That purpose has nothing to do with wealth, status or comforts. Jesus tells us more than enough times that following him will lead to discomfort. Being part of the “Jesus way” will have some friction because the world will be luring, enticing and even spiteful for our realized faith and comfort in Christ. 

We know our neighbors can irritate us and will. We know things happen that cause anxiety, but they don’t have to control us no more than the lure of materialism. 

When we let God be for us and with us and with our neighbors, we find all that we need and we find it abundantly.

You are a seed in the hand of God. You have been planted and you have been tended by our Creator. You are loved. You are hope. You are faith. You have everything you need.

That is part of your story.

Thanks Be to God, Amen