Grow; Live; Become

6th Sunday after Pentecost – Yr A

Today's readings: Isaiah 55:10-13 & Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Allow me to paraphrase what God says through Isaiah in our first reading from today,

‘Just as sure as the rain and snow falls and nourishes the earth with water which germinates the seeds that

will bear fruit and produce food for you to eat, so shall my Word go out and accomplish what I set out for it to do. It will not return to me empty, but it shall fulfill its purpose. And not only will you reap the benefits, all of creation – the hills, mountains, trees – ALL created things will burst with joy, clap their hands and rejoice. And all that exists will be like a memorial, for me and for you, a sign to us both, that my Word does not come back to me empty.’

What a beautiful image. What a passage of audacious hope. Can you believe in this vision? Do you believe this? Or is this just wishful thinking.. a utopia, unrealizable in our human life?.. Is this a dream or is it reality? It may be easy to pass off as a dream, an unrealistic fantasy; reserved only for naïve optimists and the innocence of children. I know it would have been laughable to the Israelites in Babylonian exile, who would have been the original audience. As they lived in great despair, oppression, and suffering they might have cocked a smile, let out a small laugh, but ultimately cast it aside as wishful thinking. OR.. as people of God who knew their history and God’s faithfulness to God’s creation could they have been audacious enough to believe it? To live in the hope of such a paradise.. trusting in God who says it will be so?..

If they had not of chosen the latter, would we still be sharing this vision two thousand years later?.. In the midst of our own exile of sorts, would we still be finding hope in the faithfulness of our God and Savior? Perhaps its very existence, the very fact we are still sharing this vision today, is proof enough that this seed, the Word of God, is still producing life. The Word in fact has not gone out and returned empty, but has produced sevenfold, a hundredfold! The vision, the hope, lives on. God IS present, dwelling with us, among us, within us.. and accomplishing God’s purpose. I stand in awe at the gift of just being able to be a part of such a beautiful creation.

But when I turn on the news, I so easily forget. I start to think that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, everything is on fire, all hope is lost! I forget the good. I lose sight of the vision. I let hopelessness creep in. I feel as if my roots are shallow and I am soon to wither up and blow away with the wind.. Sometimes.. heck, a LOT of the time, it’s hard to see where God is at work in the world. It’s hard to remember that I am in the presence of God RIGHT NOW; that God has made a home here on earth, a home right here in you and in me.. It’s hard to see.. the seed in which God originally planted me (planted YOU) has been shaken off and I no longer recognize the form in which God made me or the world around me.. I wonder what is right and what is wrong.. I struggle to see the life all around me. Maybe you do too.

But if the seed is the Word, that means the seed is Christ. And if we are the seed, then we are one with Christ; which means that love and redemption are still at work in us and in the world.. regardless of our ability to see it or not. As it grows a seed becomes unrecognizable.. it dies and disappears.. giving life to something greater. Jesus died. Jesus rose like a beautiful flower.. and then disappeared. But how foolish it would be to think he disappeared forever. For don’t you know, when your favorite flower blooms and then goes dormant again that it is still alive? That it will still bloom again when the conditions are right? So is God; Jesus may have disappeared, but certainly never left our midst. Jesus is still present, just in different, unrecognizable forms. Our God dwells with us always. Nature stands as a memorial, a reminder of this truth.

In Christ Jesus, God sowed the Word into the world. There is not a place we can go on this earth that Jesus has not been sown. God made sure to scatter that seed everywhere. Even on the rocky and thorny ground, Jesus has been there. Even on the ground exposed to predators, Jesus has been there. And wouldn’t you know that the birds who ingest the seed not only gain fuel for life, but reproduce it in their digestion and therefore encourage more life and growth?! Let me tell ya, there is nothing from which God cannot produce life! This is the God whom we sing praises to this morning and every morning, clapping our hands, and shouting with joy! What a miracle!

What a miracle that Jesus has made any of us grow, let alone produce a hundredfold! What a miracle. I love Robert Farrar Capon’s books on the parables, he is so good at helping me understand them in new and different ways.. and about this parable of the sower, he explains how we don’t decide if the Word will achieve it’s purpose. It will, in one way or another, for it is from God. We simply decide whether we will enjoy the Word’s achievement – it’s fruit – or live in opposition to it. A seed doesn’t bear fruit as a result of it’s own efforts nor as a reward for it drinking enough water or doing the right things.. rather it is righteous because of how it’s made. To be righteous simply means to fulfill the purpose for which you were made, to be in right relationship, whether that’s with yourself or your Creator – hopefully it’s both. So a seed is righteous by nature, by the way it was made, but it could miss out on reaching it’s full potential.. on maturing.. it could fail to become it’s full, true self.

So it is with us. We are righteous in essence - we were born righteous. And to oppose our nature, God’s Word within us, might lead to some broken relationships.. some barren paths, some rocky times, some thorns, or some redirection of purpose.. (but just like God uses the seed eaten up by the bird, God, no doubt, will work good out any bad situation). But when we live into our nature, or rather get out of the way so God can live in us fully, we bear the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23): love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, generosity, self-control. We bear witness to the God of love, mercy, and grace. We point to the goodness that is designed into everything. We continue to pass on the hopeful vision of paradise Isaiah started us off with today.

God created a righteous world from one, tiny righteous seed. God has spent millennia nurturing that

seed, watching over it, tending it’s soil, and boundlessly springing up life through it in many forms. God called this creation good. God the Creator even became the creation for a short time! God has proven God’s faithfulness; God’s love and devotion to this seed. God has set out with creation a purpose and God promises to see to that it will succeed in the thing for which God sent it; it cannot and will not return to God empty. How then can we not believe that God’s good and redemptive work is at play in this world? Bringing the world to wholeness, to paradise. What a privilege it is to be part of that.. to be invited to participate in such holy work.

God is at work. God will bring this world to fruition. Growth can sometimes be painful.. the birth-pangs that bring forth life are never comfortable.. but my-oh-my is the life it produces unimaginably beautiful. The trees shall indeed clap their hands, the mountains and hills shall burst forth in song, we shall be filled with joy. For God’s Word shall accomplish that for which God purposed.. and succeed in the thing for which God sent it. I believe. Call me naïve, call me foolish and optimistic, but I do believe it shall be so.

Amen.