Farmer Jesus and How He Works with Us

Three great lessons today, 

            but I’ve limited my sermon to the Gospel reading.

We are in Matthew 13, a chapter full of Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven,

            and this is a series of 3 Sunday gospel readings from this chapter, 

                        starting last week and continuing next Sunday.

Now when it comes down to it, the parables are about Jesus.

And he tells them to his disciples to bring them into awareness 

            of the spiritual process he is working in them.

They most often start with “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”

here, about a man who planted wheat, 

but his enemy added seeds for the weed often called darnel. 

Initially when all the seed sprouted, 

the wheat and the weeds looked the same.

But when the plants got big enough to start producing grain,

then the wheat could be distinguished from the darnel.

Good and bad mixed together, 

profitable and unprofitable, 

wheat that can become useful for bread and nourishment 

and darnel that gives no nourishment, is worthless and useless.

Typically our thought as expressed by the farm hands in this story

            is about what can we do to get rid of the darnel, 

            so that just the beneficial wheat is left.

That’s what the slaves ask the householder.

But the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner, the one who sowed the seed, 

and he says wait.  

He is not going to risk destroying the beneficial along with the worthless, 

destroying the life nourishing along with the harmful.

It all belongs;

            and one could even say 

                        that the enemy’s action actually serves a purpose.

            It shows the reality about what all is included in creation.

Only at the end will it all get sorted out.

I am going to suggest to you that this parable 

            is not about a moral judgment 

            that separates the good people from the bad people.

The reason for that:

The parable last week that immediately preceded this one in Mt 13

the ground, the soil represented

the hearts of the people hearing the seed of the word of the Gospel.

This parable is placed right after that, 

      and so there are intentional connections and parallels.

Jesus is the sower, proclaiming the Kingdom.

We are the soil in which grows the word of the Kingdom 

and also words which are worthless,

            withering, diminishing to the soul.

The growth of the seedlings 

            is either for the expansion of the Kingdom within us, 

or for the diminishment and frustration of fruitless labor within us,

                        what sucks the life out of us.

We look on the one hand at what in our lives promotes 

life and growth and goodness and compassion and love 

and other such characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven,

and on the other hand we look at what in our lives is diminishment,

is choosing death instead of life, is a contraction of the heart.

If we are honest, we may see that we are not at all successful 

                        in making the spiritually healthy choices,

             but that what is life-giving is a gift.

Both wheat and weeds grow together within our hearts, 

                                                                        and we are in need of help.

But can we keep our hands off and wait for the grace to work in our lives?

            Or are we going to pull up what WE guess are the weeds?

In last Sunday’s gospel the parable of the sower is a parable of grace, 

about the abundance of grain produced 

beyond the capabilities of each stalk of wheat, 

the abundance of fruit produced beyond human capabilities.

But instead of living in this grace,

our tendency is to want to manage our own salvation,

to deal with what is unfruitful and harmful in our lives ourselves,

through self-improvement programs, 

working our own transformation,  

and putting it all in moralistic frameworks.

This, we may see, has limited success

and more often than not results in a lot of self-condemnation.

            “I failed, I couldn’t change myself.”

And we are back to Romans 7 from a couple of weeks ago,

                        the conundrum over the propensity to sin.

- And the trouble with self-condemnation is that it often overflows 

into judgmentalism about others, making it doubly noxious. - 

So we identify ourselves with our inner struggles, 

that we may call noxious weeds,                        

            but this is not the Kingdom of God.

If Jesus is the farmer, 

then what does he do to save, heal, transform, liberate the situation?

He purifies the hearts of his own.

                        Where do I see that in this reading?

We need to look at some other passages in Matthew’s Gospel.

Matthew identifies Jesus right from the beginning as the One who purifies.

In the 3^rd chapter John the Baptist describes Jesus 

as the one who baptizes with fire in contrast to John’s water baptism.

            “His winnowing fork is in his hand,” John the Baptist says in Mt 3:12, 

“and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor 

and will gather his wheat into the barn; 

but the chaff he will thoroughly consume with unquenchable fire.”

The process of purification in our lives gets done 

finally, thoroughly and with great purity 

                                    in a poof, a flash of divine radiance,

if not in this life time, 

then when we come face to face with the Divine Radiance

                         in our last dying breath, 

            and that burden is eternally lifted .

Now we may have a little trouble with this, 

because of such deep involvement that we have had 

with this matter of suffering over the weeds in our lives.

If this is where we have had our self-identity all tied up, 

then we will actually have a hard time letting go of the suffering.

Think about this in your own life – 

            what events have indelibly defined you?

                                                marked your identity from that time forward?

Very often it is those events that caused us much suffering.

More than once Jesus had to ask a person who came to him for healing 

if they really wanted to be healed, 

if they really wanted to let go of their suffering.

If they said yes, then poof, it was done.  

They were healed, and life had suddenly changed radically for them.  No more identity with lying by the Pool of Bethesda for 38 years, 

no more blind begging by the side of the road in Jericho.

Jesus baptizes us with a fire that cleans out the chaff in our lives.

But this is not a fire to fear, unless we are afraid of a shift in our identity.

The chaff, the weeds are about our self identity.

            We may discover that what we have built our self-identity around 

            is what gets burned up 

            when Jesus shows up with all his fiery radiance.

The fire baptism of Jesus gives us a new identity in him.

This is what Paul wrote about in Romans 

            that all creation waits with eager longing 

            until we are refined by this fire baptism 

                        and realize new identity in him – as children of God.

John’s baptism was of repentance, action that we do.

Jesus’ baptism is of fire and the Holy Spirit.

He does all the action.  His baptism is the sum of his irresistible work in us.

Now, this matter of the second half of today’s Gospel reading, 

the part in which the disciples ask Jesus to explain the parable.

The key verse in this part of the reading is verse 41.  This translation reads:

“The Son of Man will send his angels, 

and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 

(Matt. 13:42) and they will throw them into the furnace of fire…”

Now here is a more basic translation closer to the Greek:

“The Son of Man will send his angels, 

and they will collect out of his kingdom

all those things that are stumbling blocks, snares, traps,

and the ones operating out of lawlessness.”

The ones doing lawlessness are not doing the will of the Father.

They are out of sync with the created order around them.

They are out of harmony with the whole flow of the Spirit.

They are, one could say, a spiritually ecological mess.

But the righteous, those purified by the fiery baptism of Jesus, 

will shine like the sun, 

will be ablaze in this fire with divine radiance, 

will be transfigured and appear like Jesus did in his transfiguration.

So what do we do with this parable?      How do we apply it to our lives?

This is a parable that reminds us that all is a gift of grace,

            that God has taken care of it all,

            that we can’t even come close to saving ourselves.

But can we cooperate with the Spirit of Jesus at work burning within us

            through a willingness to let go of what is noxious and weed-like 

                        when we see it rear its ugly head in our lives,

                        when we get convicted by our conscience?

That is, can we recognize, let come to conscious awareness, 

            that which is deadly in our lives,

and then turn to our Lord for dealing with it 

            and let the Spirit’s purging process work?

When we recognize the weeds,

            don’t ignore them, acknowledge that they are there,

            and ask for that abundant mercy 

                        which is always there for us.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like the One who plants good seed in his field.

            It’s all about Jesus.

And he says, “Wait.

        It won’t be your own action that will save you and change you to the good.

            Wait, it all will get sorted out.”

So where are we focusing?  What are we identifying with?

            with our problems and suffering?

            or with Jesus?

The parables are always about the truth that Jesus is living out for us.

The parable of the sower and the seed – a familiar parable, isn’t it.

            Seems pretty straight forward.

The seed is the word of God.

The problems of what happens to the seed 

when it falls on the road or among the stones or weeds is obvious.

The idea is to get that seed into good ground so that it can produce.

So a congregation can take this parable to heart

and make sure that it is a place of good soil for the seed to grow.

It can have worship that fosters participation.

It can have a way to welcome people that is encouraging for growth.

It can have a Christian education program for both children and adults 

that fosters faith development.

It can have programs that reach out into the community in service.

And especially a congregation can have a church growth program 

that increases membership, 

and thus the seed will grow and produce even more.

Isn’t this what this parable is all about?                        Well, no.

These are all good ideas and fine goals, 

but it isn’t really what the Gospel reading for today is all about.

Most of us are too familiar with these parables to catch the outlandishness.

I really sort of wanted to say to you all just before reading the Gospel

            to listen to the reading in a different way.

Put aside what you know, and listen with you body,

            that is, try to note where in your body 

you are reacting to the words you are hearing read.

How are you reacting?

Where in the story, for example, do you feel 

uncomfortable, anxious, angry, puzzled, joyful, confused, encouraged?

When in the parable do you feel 

the sensation in the pit of the stomach, 

the brows knit together, 

the heart opening and expanding?

The parables are always about the truth that is in Jesus, 

that he is living out for us.

And this parable is a story about a process at work in us.

It is about our relationship with Jesus,

            the experience of the disciple in relationship to the Beloved.

The point of the parable is that 

despite the inefficient method of broadcasting seed 

and the seeds that therefore landed in places doomed to failure, 

in the good soil the outcome was abundance 

way beyond expectation or usual possibility.

We don’t have to be agricultural experts to get this.

One seed produces one stalk of wheat.

How many seeds of grain will appear on that one stalk of wheat?

100?!                        In your dreams.

Well then, how about 60?            Still way too high.

30?                        That would still be an incredible yield, 

even for today with genetic engineering.

Yes, the parable is about abundance – this is the outlandish part of the parable.

There was a section left out of the reading, 

            a section crucial to understanding:

Matt. 13:10-17  ¶ Then the disciples came and asked him, 

“Why do you speak to them in parables?” 

Matt. 13:11 He answered,

“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 

Matt. 13:12 For to those who have, more will be given, 

and they will have an abundance; 

but from those who have nothing, 

even what they have will be taken away. 

Matt. 13:13 The reason I speak to them in parables is 

that ‘seeing they do not perceive, 

and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ 

Matt. 13:14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:  

            ‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, 

                        and you will indeed look, but never perceive. 

Matt. 13:15             For this people’s heart has grown dull, 

                        and their ears are hard of hearing, 

                                    and they have shut their eyes; 

                                    so that they might not look with their eyes, 

                        and listen with their ears, 

            and understand with their heart and turn— 

                        and I would heal them.’ 

Matt. 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, 

and your ears, for they hear. 

Matt. 13:17 Truly I tell 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.”

Now how do you react to the parable when you hear these added verses?

The disciples ask Jesus,

            Why do you speak in parables to everyone else?

            But for us, we get more explanation and teaching.

            They get parables full of paradoxes, riddles in place of explanation.

And Jesus replied,

            Because to you it has been given to know

the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, 

but to them not.

Some are going to get it, and some not.

That’s why, Jesus said, the ones having ears, let them hear.

This is not about judgment or predestination.

This is stating the observation of their condition at the moment.

We can hear the words and understand them on one level,

            and then hear them again and something inside of us shifts,

            and we hear them in a whole new way 

that opens awareness and comprehension of deeper spiritual reality.

So the parable is about Jesus,

            and about his relationship with us,

            and about grace.

The parable of the sower is a parable of grace.

The seed is the proclamation of the Gospel about the Kingdom of God

            or the Kingdom of Heaven, this different reality.

Jesus, the sower, flings out the seed of the word, the proclamation, 

in flamboyant abundance,

where it would be expected to grow

and where one would never expect much to come from it,

            cast out in receptive ears and unreceptive ears.

And where it is received, it flourishes,

            and the result is incredible abundance beyond logical expectation,

                        beyond what we are capable of on our own.

That is grace at work in our lives, for those who hear and perceive clearly.

The purpose of hearing and perceiving, “getting it,”

            is to bear fruit,

but it is not those perceiving 

who are producing the good outcome of their own, 

but the seed growing in them.

You see, if we are hearing with ears that can get it, 

we are the good soil, not the seed.  

The soil is not increasing in abundance. 

The seed produces the abundance.  

It is the work of God, God’s Spirit, within us 

that accomplishes the fruit bearing.

That is why the abundance of fruit is possible

way beyond our normal capacities 

if we were to do this on our own.

In fact, even the process of listening and perceiving, of getting the message,

             is part of the fruit that is born, 

this arising and expanding awareness.

The disciples were getting the message.

That is why they were called to be disciples, and were following Jesus.

Now the Gospels are full of stories about the disciples not getting it,

            being thick-headed and slow on the uptake.

So that is good news for the rest of us,

            in case we’re worried that we might be among 

those to whom were applied the words of Jesus:

‘seeing they do not perceive, 

and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’

The point is that this is a statement of observation 

of their – or our – condition 

at the moment.

I would ask you to remember that the parables are always about 

the truth that the Teacher is living.

He broadcasts his seeds of words of Gospel good news everywhere,

            flamboyantly, with great generosity and abandon,

            in likely places and very unlikely places,

and the seeds of grace planted in our open and receptive hearts

            bring with them their own abundance.

In some open hearts one hundredfold abundance, 

and some 60 and some 30, 

but in all abundance beyond our own capability.

The parable is about relationship with Jesus,

            the experience of the disciple in relationship to the Beloved.