Ninth Sunday after Pentecost 2008

GOSPEL: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!"

18Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

The Adjectives Sermon

(The title "The Adjectives Sermon" was suggested by one of our congregants after hearing it preached and based upon the use of all the adjectives describing who is welcome in the church).

+ In nomine Domini. Amen.

It’s a lot of work to be the church.
It’s a lot of work to be the people of God.
It’s a lot of work to be faithful followers of Jesus.
It’s not easy.

Some days we wonder if we’re making any progress, if there’s any hope for our existence, if anyone else out there knows that we’re here.

Sometimes it seems as if the seed which we try to sow has disappeared, has been eaten up by the birds, has withered away, and we are looking all around us for the good soil to see if there is any good soil and whether anything alive is sprouting in it.

Here we are … our little congregation and on a regular basis …

+ We gather ourselves together each week in the presence of God to listen to the Story and to say our prayers.

+ We put out Bread and Wine and hope that people come to the Dining Table of our Lord.

+ We pour Water into the Baptismal Font with the longing and yearning and constant hope that there will be babies and young people and even old people to be washed in it that water and make our little community grow.

+ We open our doors to the world and say over and over again, “All are welcome in this place (as last Sunday’s hymn was sung). Come inside and you will be part of our community of faith, come here and be loved by God and by each of us, walk with us, hold our hands … and whatever has happened to you in life, whoever you are, wherever you might be from, wherever you are going or even if you don’t know where you are going, whatever your faith may be or may not be, and even if you’re not sure you have any faith and even if you’re not even certain what you believe any more… come inside and be welcomed here.”

+ We say: Whether you believe every word of the Nicene Creed or not, whether you can explain the Doctrine of the Trinity or not, whether you believe Jesus is present in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist or whether you just hope that is true … in some way, some how … We say: come inside and be part of our life, and our love, and our hope.

+ We say: Whether you’re a birthright Lutheran or you’re not certain the word is spelled with an “a” or with out an “a” (as in Luthern … L-u-t-h-e-r-n) … come inside because being a Lutheran is secondary to being a follower of Jesus and if you look around you will see that there are Lutherans and Roman Catholics and Presbyterians and Methodists and … if I were to continue the list I would omit someone, so let’s just say that whatever your journey may be and wherever you have landed from time to time, just come inside, because here it doesn’t matter … just come inside and be part of our life, and our love, and our hope.

+ We say: if you like Bach and organ music by French composers (as the Pastor and the Organist seem to like) or if you are drawn to things more contemporary and jumpy … come inside, the music is a song we all sing and in different ways.

+ We say: if you’re male, female, a family, children, no children, married, partnered, coupled, un-married, un-partnered, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, straight, unsure … come inside and be part of our life, and our love, and our hope.

+We say: if you’re young, old, younger, older, bigger, smaller, gaining, losing, wandering, questioning, drifting, right, left, liberal, not liberal, wide-awake, sleepy, full of energy, caffeinated, decaffeinated, so tired you can’t move … come inside and be part of our life, and our love, and our hope.

It’s what we do on a regular basis, it’s what we say, what we proclaim, it’s our story and it’s wrapped in the fullness of God’s Story.

And yet … the bills keep mounting, the summer offering is off by a lot of money, and in a week or so we are going to be scratching … sowing the seed is hard work.

And where are the children? Where are the young who will not just take our place but who will move the church, the body of Christ, the community of the faithful … move it in ways of justice and love and peace beyond what we have been able to do?

Where are those who need to be here? Where are the ones we used to see, and where are the ones we have yet to see?

And how will they know that we even think about them?

Sowing the seed is hard work.

Jesus understood that doctrine (he would have used perhaps the term “scribal thinking”) … is not where God is to be found … that is why Jesus told stories from everyday life, why he saw sacred text in everyday life.

A sower went out to sow … he begins, and immediately we are drawn into the image. And speaking of the image I want to suggest something … when we hear this story that Jesus told (and we find it in the earliest Gospel of Mark, and in the later Gospels of Luke and Matthew … and today’s version you heard from Matthew) … when we hear this story, we have in our heads I believe a man … the sower is a man … it’s a “he” a farmer with his hand in the bag of seed taking that seed and scattering it to and fro as he walks. It even says he’s a he in the text itself. I’ve always seen the sower that way, maybe you have too.

But lately I’ve been thinking, what if it’s a woman. What might that mean? On our farm when I was growing up, men and women both were the sowers of the seed.

And if you look at the image on the front of this Sunday’s bulletin, you can’t tell whether it’s a woman or a man. What might it indicate … beyond the obvious that for centuries and centuries most of the bible has been interpreted and controlled by men … not all of it (there are actually exceptions, or hints of exceptions), but mostly.

But think through the story again, and read it another way, “A woman went out to sow and some of the seed she was sowing upon the earth seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears … listen!”

Let’s say it’s a woman who is the sower. It might mean that the role in the community is an equal role and that all have a part in what is happening. In other words, it doesn’t work unless you are the ones making it work, allowing each other to be part of the working. You men, you women, all and both. I really think that’s an essential part of the Story.

And so having said that, and having reviewed for a bit this morning just what it is that we do and are urged to do in our living and loving and hoping that we call the church … and knowing that gender doesn’t make a difference in our ministry, let me ask the question: “Where are you going to sow the seed this week?”

Ah, yes, you are the sowers! It’s not the pastors, not alone … there is no Professional Sowers of the Seed Organization in the church which you can pay to do your work. You are the sowers!

So where are you going to do that?

You want to see all those things happen that we talked about in the beginning, the telling of the Story, the praying of our prayers, the baptizing, the communing, the growing? You want to see that … you want others to know about us, our part of the body? You want there to be vitality here to do the ministry of the church? Where are you going to sow the seed this week? Because you are the sowers!

Oh Pastor, I can’t do it, I’m not trained, I don’t know what to say, I don’t have any seed, you do it, form a committee maybe … isn’t there someone else?

Me gnoito! (pronounced "May Geh-noy-toe")

(Well, I had to get two Greek words into the sermon somehow. And these two come from the Letter of Paul to the Romans … Chapter 6, if you want to look it up.)

Me gnoito! By no means!

You are the sowers! Tell the story, tell your story, take your bulletin home and give it someone else and say, “If you haven’t found a place where you can pray and eat and drink and ask your questions about God and of God and to God … or just a place to be … here’s one, it’s where I go. Come with me next week. Let me invite you. Let me bring you. It’s a place of life and love and hope. It’s my congregation.

Do that this week, each of you, every one of you, young and old of you, men and women of you … because you are the sowers of the seed.

+ Deo Gratia
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III