July 13, 2008 — 4:53 PM
Seeds, struggles, and the Spirit of Life
Texts: Genesis 25:19-34
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Intro: As you probably know, for the last month or so the preaching staff has been drawing Scripture texts from the Revised Common Lectionary. This is a schedule of texts to be used over a three-year cycle for each Sunday. There are usually four texts offered for each Sunday: two from the Old Testament (one from the Psalms and one from elsewhere in the Old Testament) and two from the New Testament (one from the Gospels and one from elsewhere). By following this three-year cycle one covers most of the texts in the Bible.
There are many reasons to use the lectionary –
• to help those who preach not to rely only on the texts that are comfortable to them or that support their own point of view
• to show the rich diversity of wisdom that is contained in the Scriptures
• to help those who don’t want to have to search for a text to use each Sunday
• and there are probably many more good reasons to add to this list.
I like all of these reasons, but my favorite is the connection to other Christians that using the lectionary brings. Today, all over the U.S., as well as around the world, Christians of all different denominations are hearing the same Scriptures opened up to them. I find great power in knowing that I am a part of something so much bigger than myself. And so today, we join with others to delve into the texts given to us by those who crafted the lectionary selections.
Now, that was a rather long-winded way to get to my theme introduction! But, I wanted you to have that in mind as we look at three of the four texts for today. Usually people will choose one or two of the texts, but I chose to go with three! Why limit oneself?! I want to look at all three because the people who worked together to come up with the lectionary texts for each Sunday did so with an eye towards combining texts that speak to the same (or similar) issues. Sometimes the connection between texts is very obvious. Other times, not so much.
Today our texts will help us explore the idea of how God works in the world and how we can open ourselves to be used by God.
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Let us pray. God you have called us here this morning and we have come. Help us to open ourselves to the moving of your Spirit in and among us this day. Be in the words of my mouth and in the meditations of all of our hearts as we seek to discern your will for our lives. In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
I don’t know what impression you are left with, but when I first read these texts I thought, “One of these is not like the others.” Two of them had a connection that made sense to me, but with the other it was harder to see why it was chosen.
Let’s start with the two that seem to have a very similar theme (at least by my reading). They are the two New Testament readings. They talk about two ways of living and different types of soil. Both of these texts examine the ways in which people respond to the good news of God’s kingdom. The good news that God’s love is steadfast and is shown in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has the power to bring salvation to all.
As Paul sees it, there are only two responses that his audience – Jewish Christians living in Rome – can have when they hear this good news. Either they reject it and continue living under the law as it was handed down to them from the beginning of the Jewish people or they see that God is offering a new way to be in relationship through believing in Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. Paul describes these two responses as “living according to the sinful nature” or “living in accordance with the Spirit.”
Now it may seem rather harsh for Paul to call those who continued living by the Jewish laws “sinners.” They are, after all, just trying to stay faithful to the covenant that God had made with their ancestors. But Paul wants to help them understand that they are actually being exclusionary toward Gentiles (anyone not born Jewish) by continuing to demand that all who want to worship God must do so by observing the Jewish laws.
Paul understood the Gospel to be for all people – not just the Jewish people – and he wanted to help others understand the new thing that God had done through Jesus Christ. Paul believed that if Jewish Christians continued to demand that all believers must be circumcised and were subject to the laws governing food and social cleanliness then they were sinning because they were, in effect, keeping people from the Gospel – keeping them from experiencing God’s love.
So, according to Paul, we have two ways of reacting to hearing the Gospel: we either hear it and do nothing about it – continuing to live as we have been living all along – or we hear it and we accept it into our lives along with the Spirit who gives life and peace.
Pretty straight forward – either we accept the Gospel or we don’t. Case closed. But Jesus’ exploration of how people react to hearing the Gospel is more nuanced. There seems to be some reactions that fall between these two extremes.
Jesus tells a crowd of people a parable about seeds falling on different types of soil. Later he explains the parable to his disciples. He says that the seeds represent “the message about the kingdom” (the Gospel) and the types of soil represent the ways in which people receive this message.
Jesus lists four types of soil highlighting four ways that people have reacted to his sharing the good news of God’s kingdom. They are:
1) a hardened path representing complete rejection of the message
2) rocky places representing immediate reception but quickly losing interest in the message
3) among thorns representing those who receive the message but it gets drowned out by other concerns, and
4) good soil representing those who hear the message and really take it to heart.
Jesus was hoping that the crowd listening to him would hear his words and think about the condition of their own hearts. How were they receiving the message of the kingdom that he was trying to share with them? Were their hearts like the hard ground that did not receive the seeds but left them out in the open for the birds to come and snatch away? Were they like the ground that had been worked and prepared so that when the seed fell it was welcomed in and grew to plants that bore fruit? Or were they somewhere in between?
These questions were not only intended for those in the crowds who gathered around Jesus. They were intended, maybe even especially intended, for his closest followers – the disciples. He wanted them to really get the meaning of the parable. That’s why he gave the explanation only to them. The crowd got the parable and were left to think on what they heard. But later, when he was alone with his disciples, Jesus explained exactly what point he was trying to make by sharing that parable.
He had been working closely with this group of people for a while and he had seen first-hand the reception that his message was receiving. He knew the state of each of their hearts, but he wanted them to be aware of their own condition as well. Each person needed to identify for themselves what type of soil represented the state of their own hearts.
Now, I’m curious to know your impressions of this passage. How does the metaphor of different types of ground resonate with you when thinking about how the message of God’s love is received in the world? Do you think people progress through these different types of soils – going from hardened hearts to completely open hearts? Or do we start as hard ground and then move directly to being the ground that bears fruit? If and when we become that last type of ground do we stay there or do we bounce back and forth between different types of soil? Do you see yourself in this spectrum? Do you care to share where you feel you are?
Okay. That’s a whole bunch of questions, but jump in wherever. What struck you about this passage and what it says about how we receive the message of God’s kingdom?
[Get comments from people.]
For me, personally, I would have to say that I have been all of those types of soil in regards to receiving God and God’s Word for me – all within the last year. Sometimes I am open and ready to hear God speaking to me and helping me to discern where I should be headed with my life. But other times, if I’m honest, I would have to admit that I am pretty sure where I should be going and so I am more like the hard ground where God’s words just bounced off of me. And, I’ve been everywhere in between.
We are on a journey with God – one that often resembles a line dance where you take one step forward, then two back, do a spin and end up somewhere completely different than where you began. It would be easier if our journey progressed in a straight line – from not receiving God’s message to us straight to always receiving it. But, like we talked about last week, sin gets in the way of that. We lose our focus on God and in the process our ears go tone deaf to God’s call and our hearts become more like the hard ground on which the seeds bounce and lie out in the open for the birds to pick up.
What are ways that help you to be open to hearing God speak? Ways to be open to the movement of God’s Spirit in your life? Ways to more closely follow the example that Jesus gives us for how to live? Do you have special disciplines you follow that help you to feel closer to God – more open to hearing how God wants you to live your life?
[Get comments from people.]
So these are the texts that seem to work together from our lectionary selections for this morning. Both encourage us to examine our hearts to see how we are receiving God’s message. Both show us that opening our hearts to be receptive to that message brings about good things – life and peace given by the Spirit and fruitful lives. I get why the committee chose to put these readings together.
But then there’s the passage from Genesis – the story of Jacob and Esau.
From this story we learn that Isaac and Rebekah were having a hard time having children. And then, the Lord blessed them with twins. I’m not sure how much of a blessing that is… as I’ve heard from friends who have twins, having twins is not just two times the amount of work, it’s like have a child squared (child to the 2nd degree!) – it’s a whole order of magnitude different to have two (or more) children at once.
And then look at how these twins are described – they definitely didn’t make life easy for their parents! They fought in Rebekah’s womb. They fought on their way out. They fought as they grew up. Oy! They were as different as different can be. And, as children will do, they cozied up to a sympathetic parent to find an ally.
What did you notice about how these twins were describe? Did one seem to be portrayed in a more favorable light than the other? Did the passage seem like it was kind of judging one or the other of Jacob and Esau?
[Get comments from people.]
To my reading, Esau seems to be shown here in a more negative light because he is willing to give up his birthright so quickly. Being the eldest son was (and is still in many cultures) a very big deal and carries a lot of responsibility with it. But Esau handed it right over to Jacob for a bowl of stew. He was impulsive and irresponsible, we might say, and not living up to the standard that had been set for him.
How does this idea go along with our theme of being open to God’s message from the New Testament passages?
[Get comments from people.]
I believe it is put together with these passages from the New Testament to remind us that God is able to work in and through people and situations even when it seems like they are at odds with what God is trying to do. This passage offers us a very important reminder that a life of faith is really about what God is doing, not what we are doing.
If we were only to consider the texts from Romans and Matthew, we might be tempted to focus only on our spiritual disciplines and what we are doing to open ourselves to hearing God’s message for our lives. But the story of Jacob and Esau comes along and reminds us that God works as God will – whether we are on board or not.
Now, this doesn’t let us off the hook – allowing us to act however we want because God will work regardless of our actions. God does call us to be partners in this journey. We enter into covenant with God when we accept the message of salvation that God offers us. Covenants are two-sided. Both parties have to hold up their end for the covenant to have any merit.
But I find it comforting to know that God will continue to work in and through us even when we aren’t completely in tune with what God’s will for our lives is. And now, we’re back to last weeks discussion of sin and grace (or forgiveness).
When we lose our focus on God and close our ears and hearts to God’s message, we sin. But God, in God’s amazing love continues to call to us, encouraging us to get back into the covenant with God, to make things right. That is grace. That is forgiveness.
So what type of soil are you right now? God wants us all to be good soil, ready to welcome the seed of God’s message of love so that our lives can bear fruit that will share that love with a hurting world. But take comfort, even if we aren’t exactly there, God can still use us to do good in this world.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
Let us pray. God of amazing love, thank you for calling us into covenant with you. Thank you for working in and through us, even when we are out of step with you. Help us to be open to hearing your will for our lives. Help us to live as Christ taught us to live. Fill us with your Spirit and give us peace. Amen.
