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Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 12 2020
Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us.
For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
“A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
The disciples approached him and said,
“Why do you speak to them in parables?”
He said to them in reply,
“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted,
and I heal them.
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
“Hear then the parable of the sower.
The seed sown on the path is the one
who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it,
and the evil one comes and steals away
what was sown in his heart.
The seed sown on rocky ground
is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.
But he has no root and lasts only for a time.
When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
he immediately falls away.
The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word,
but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word
and it bears no fruit.
But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
We have little choice today but to sit in silence and wonder about the many elements in this parable, the first of the great teaching parables that describe how the 'kingdom' works. Matthew has collected five together here; the sower, the weeds, the mustard seed and yeast, the hidden treasure and pearl, and the net. All tell of some people being in the kingdom and some not. In this first, responsibility seems to be laid on those who do not listen, who shut their eyes, refusing to acknowledge the value of what is offered them.
By the citation from Isaiah, Matthew tells us that this is nothing new. And if it goes back that far it will surely be still the case. This is 'human nature'. People resist an invitation if it looks too good. The idea of a 'heavenly' regime in this world looks too good to be true, even if the offer comes from the Source of Being itself. So we keep busy with our things, or distracted with our entertainments, or just stubbornly resistant. The 'hardness of heart' syndrome.
The parable of the sower does not go into the 'Why?' of this. It is rather directed to the disciples who will work with the Father sowing the seed. Some points to note: the seed is good - Certified - for it is the Word of God. If the harvest is smaller than we'd like to see, we cannot blame the seed. Furthermore it is scattered, 'broadcast', with a wide sweep of the arm. There is nothing parsimonious about the sowing. As in nature where seed is produced in superabundance, so God's Word is broadcast over the land even to the extent that some falls on the hard road and some among rocks or thorns where there is little hope it will be productive.
Secondly, as neither the seed nor the way it is sown is to blame for the smaller harvest, so neither is the human helper. Whether it's an individual or the Christian Community as a whole, if progress is slow we are not to take the blame or accuse others of not doing their best. People are free to accept or to turn aside, and we have only to accept the result of our work with patience and humility, glad to have had the privilege of joining in.
This throws wide open the question often voiced: Why is progress so slow? Why have Christians over two millennia made so many egregious mistakes? Why is there such corruption still evident in the communities?
For an answer I go to the metaphor of the yeast in the bread dough. We've been making the occasional loaf of bread lately, and it never ceases to amaze me how long one has to leave the dough standing while it rises. The yeast does its job slowly. A quick rising agent like bicarbonate of soda can make a light textured cake, but only yeast can leaven a whole batch of bread dough, and it seems there is no substitute. As that small spoonful of yeast works away over an hour or so in the silent hidden depth, so the small community of Jeshua's faithful disciples sow the seed of God's Word and tend it quietly over centuries..., and deeply humankind is changing for the better.
We have been treated to two articles telling this same story in the past week. jkk's commentary on Don Cupitt's work that speaks of a world in which the secular is steeped in the divine, which is nothing less than the incarnation of divinity making all things new. [Link] http://www.catholica.com.au/forum/index.php?id=234973
Cupitt has argued in many of his writings (in particular, in The Meaning of the West ) that this so-called secularized West is actually something like the logical and evolved form or grown-up, more mature version of Christianity! In fact, I think it is fair to say that he suggests that the postmodern, humanistic West (which many Christians consider as the evil antithesis of Christianity) should actually be considered <Christianity as it was meant to be>! In short, it is the realized (and important to add) “yet very flawed” “Kingdom of God.”
No lesser scholar than N. T. Wright affirms the same. Looking at the example of the half million people who volunteered in the UK to help in the pandemic crisis, he writes:
'They are doing what the early Christians did in times of plague. In the first centuries of our era, when serious sickness would strike a town or city, the well-to-do would run for the hills.... The Christians would stay and nurse people. Sometimes they caught the disease and died. People were astonished. What was that about? Oh, they replied, we are followers of this man Jesus. He put his life on the line to save us. So that's what we do as well.
Nobody had ever thought of doing that kind of thing before. No wonder the Gospel spread. Even when the Romans were doing their best to stamp it out.
The fascinating thing is that much of the world has picked up the hint. As the historian Tom Holland has argued in his recent book Dominion, much of what we take for granted in social attitudes now was Christian innovation. The ancient pagans didn't do it like that. Medicine cost money. So did education. And the poor were poor (so people assumed) because they were lazy or unlucky. It wasn't society's job to look after them.
The Christians disagreed... Then – long story short – the modern world, touchingly, has borrowed bits of it (medicine, education and social care for all), and sometimes thinks it has discovered this for itself, so the 'religious' bit can now drop away... (N T Wright, God and the Pandemic, pp 3-4)
We are indebted to Bruce for making these same points on our own forum. As I write there are reports on the TV news of people of all kinds flocking to the quarantined high-rise towers with food and other basics in compassion for those so suddenly locked in after an excessive number of cases of COVID-19 occurred in those towers.
There is a tension here that may never be resolved, but one we need to be aware of. On the one hand, the institutional church sees its purpose and role to 'christianise' the world, and to that end works diligently to recruit new members by every means available. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit works quietly through the power of the Word as felt in the living example of those who put the gospel standards into practice to animate and leaven the whole society.
For the one, success is in numbers, in prestige and influence; for the other, the simple following of Jeshua entails nothing more nor less than total self-giving in response to the situation of one's life, leaving outcomes uncounted and unknown, for that is all God's business, not ours. The seed grows and bears fruit of its own energy. And wise farmer or gardener knows to leave it alone once the sowing's done.
It is not by efficient methodologies that the Word of God is planted in human awareness, though it is certainly right to use the best available. The real seeding is done by the witness of one who not only 'believes' but lives happily the life of divine goodness shared with us in its fullness by Jeshua who is the very embodiment of God. As Francis Brown would say, the 'allurement ' of God.
The medium is the message, they say. Nowhere is this more true than in the witness of the disciple of Jeshua whose life speaks of integrity, compassion, truth, joy - in a word, godliness. Joy has featured prominently in the comments on last week's Sunday Reflection. Let it continue to be the inspiration of our thoughts as we recognise that sowing the seed of God's Word of Love among our friends and neighbours is a happy thing to do. Let your joy be seen by all the world, warming your compassion, shining through your truth.