"The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost"

Please enter your E-mail address below and depress "Send" to receive this sermon via E-mail

ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, 7/14/2002

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

The Reverend Vernon L. Suter

As I was studying various commentaries in preparation for this sermon, I found an amazing number of ways in which theologians interpret The Parable Of The Sower, the parable we heard in today's Gospel. The commentaries make a very clear point of how totally different human beings can be in their perceptions or interpretations of stories and, I believe, of life in general.

As an example, one writer points out the hopelessness this parable implies. He points out that upon close observation The Parable Of The Sower paints a pretty gloomy picture because it brings out the percentages involved in successfully living life. From that point of view I suppose it does portray a dim view of things. After all, only one of the four soils described in Jesus' parable proves to be at all productive. The scattered seeds really seemed to have no chance of growing if they fell on the well-beaten path, on the rocky ground, or among the weeds and thorns. Only those that happened to fall on the good soil had an opportunity to grow. One out of four certainly is not very good odds. This theologian even asks if the reader catches the grief and sorrow of Jesus that hangs over the entire story.

Now if we carry these percentages and perceptions with us as we encounter our fellow human beings, it would be all too easy to see three out of four of the people we meet matching the three unproductive soils where little or nothing will grow. As an example, the beaten path where nothing will grow could be the cynic, toughened by the so-called realities of life. What about the thin soil that covers rock? Here we might have the shallow enthusiast who is quick to embrace every new venture, but when the chips are down simply fades away. As far as the ground filled with weeds and thorns is concerned, I think of what I refer to as the gadfly. The gadfly, for me, is a person who embraces every new issue, opportunity or fad. There is no setting of priorities. This person's life becomes a hodgepodge of stunted good intentions. If we perceived three out of four of the people we meet as falling in these kinds of categories, we wouldn't be able to look forward to much in our daily relationships.

Another quite negative way of interpreting the percentages implied by this particular commentator is best summed up in a statement I remember hearing Paul Harvey, the radio commentator, make. When reporting on a person who has just encountered a long siege of unpleasant situations, he jokingly comments, and I quote, "No use worrying, nothing's going to turn out alright." Of course, there are days that really seem like that. I'm sure everyone in this church has seen days when it feels like God simply threw the seeds of life at the earth with great abandon and our seeds fell on the beaten path, or at best, on the thin soil. I think I was feeling a little that way when I preached my last sermon and told you about my flooded house.

Now I could go on and on with this kind of picture and all the implications of the suggested high percentages of failure, but I don't want us to get all depressed. That might help my counseling ministry, but that's not really the goal here.

The truth of the matter is that percentages rarely do anything more than confirm our already perceived doubts and fears; doubts and fears that rarely come to fruition if we are willing to let go of the percentages. There is always a brighter side. Another biblical scholar, whose commentary I read, sees great hope in this parable. He sees it as a ringing assurance for fainthearted disciples.

As I see it, the key to understanding this parable lies in where we put our attention as we read the story. It's kind of like the old question of whether one's glass is half empty or half full. If we emphasize the unproductive soil and the seeds that never have a chance to grow, the result is despair. But if we go beyond the frustrations and failures in the story, we discover a harvest that exceeds all our expectations. After all, Jesus' story concludes with a return of over a hundredfold of what was planted.

Let's think for a minute about our lives with all the accompanying tribulations. At the same time let's keep in mind all the soils of the earth pictured in today's parable. How often have we experienced the feeling of hopelessness or despair simply because we perceived the odds to be against us? Things just haven't been going too well and we are going around announcing, as Paul Harvey would say, that nothing is ever going to turn out right. The old principles of self fulfilling prophesy sets in and when that happens the likelihood is that not much does turn out right.

If we look at the world with analytical, statistical eyes, as our first theologian did, hope is all but demolished. If we expect failure three out of four times, if we expect three out of four people we meet to be losers, we will be attempting to function in a near hopeless situation. We will be afraid to invest ourselves, our time, our money, or anything else we might have to offer, in any part of God's creation.

If God looked at percentages and balance sheets, if God needed to justify giving love, what hope would there be for humanity? Faith, hope and love can never live solely on a calculation of returns.

If we take a close look at this parable I think we will see something quite positive, even though the percentage of clear good soil is small, as the second commentator I read pointed out, a greater potential exists than meets the eye.

Have you ever seen a sidewalk with a crack in it and a sprig or two of green springing up here and there through the crack? - - Are you aware that some of the thickest forests grow over the thinnest soil, under which lie large boulders covering the rich soil? With this being the case, I have to ask, "How does the root system find good soil?" The answer, of course, is perseverance. The good soil is there. By perseverance, by searching for the tiniest crack in the boulders underneath, roots will find good soil. I'm sure we have all seen huge boulders that split in two under the persistent growth of a huge tree root.

I wonder how often we take the time to look for those tiny cracks in the boulders of our lives that are the openings to the happiness and serenity we pray for? I frequently talk to people who raise the question: "Where is this God everybody talks about? He's never answered my prayers." My answer, in one form or another, is usually, "How hard have you looked or listened for an answer?"

When we function out of a negative attitude, when we use "looser" statistics and believe low percentages without questioning them, we miss the answer to prayer that is so often staring us right in the face. God reveals himself in and through his creation. That means you and me, and all of humanity and nature. Doesn't it then follow that if we are perceiving that which surrounds us from a preconceived negative opinion that we will miss the things we had hoped and prayed for?

Each one of us is everything our lord pictures in the story: seed, potential good ground, and the harvest God has created us to be. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must confess that we are not always good soil. There is a beaten path in each of us, a cynicism and an exhaustion hardened by everyday life. For some people, it is because they have worked very hard with little result. For others, it is their refusal to accept the love, grace and, above all the forgiveness which can break up the hardened crusts of our lives and make a place for the divinely planted seeds to grow.

And there is shallow ground in each of us, as well; the superficial enthusiasm which embraces new challenges but burns out all too often as we learn just what is necessary to be faithful.

We can't leave out the thorny ground either. Thorny ground can also be found in most of us. Actually, I believe we exhibit more thorny ground than any other throughout our lives. Thorny ground contains the anxieties and the doubts which erode trust when we are suffering in some way or have encountered some kind of meaningless tragedy.

God's love for us can be all but choked within us by bitterness and cynicism. On the other side, it can be just as choked when life goes so well for us that we scarcely feel the need for God or for his love and forgiveness.

Fortunately, good soil is also in each of us. Planted in every one of us is the desire, the need, and the yearning for genuine peace of heart and mind in the midst of life's insanities. It is this good soil we need to look for in one another. To find it we need to cut through the shallow soil and boulders which house our negative perceptions of the world, so that we can see God's hundredfold return of what has been planted. It's our personal challenge as God's children to defy the odds and percentages, and to risk as much for hope, love, and life as God has risked for us.

Amen.