Trinity 6

Sermon

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity

The Reverend Dr James Gardom

Nothing in this morning’s Gospel reading will have come as much of a shock to anyone here.

We learn the Parable of the Sower at Sunday school, because it is easy to teach. There is often an illustration of the Sower in the front of our bibles, if they have been produced by the Bible Society. We know about the different types of hearers of the word that are indicated. The ones who never really listen and the word is taken away almost at once. The ones who are fired with enthusiasm and then give up as soon as it becomes difficult. The ones who make a good start but then the cares of the world strangle their engagement and they fall away. The ones who go on the bear good fruit.

Grey headed groups of clergy mutter together that this what they see, and this, no doubt, is how it has always been. I wonder whether we are missing something. There must be something more to this story than a worthy moralising tale about paying attention, keeping going and avoiding distraction in our Christian lives.

And there is.

The people who put together the lectionary have, at this point, done something really extraordinary. They have decided that they can tell a story better than Matthew the evangelist, and they have left a whole section of narrative out. Let me read it. It comes between the parable and the interpretation of the parable.

Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ 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. 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. 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.” 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. 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.”

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 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.

The point about the parable of the Sower is not that it is a gentle moralising tale, a useful aide memoire for our Christian lives, and a source of reassurance to church leaders when promising Christians drop away. The point of the parable of the Sower is that it is a Parable. There are very many parables in the Gospels. It is one of the most distinctive things about the teaching of Christ The bit left out of today’s Gospel tells us that Parables are there for judgement.

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.”

Jesus tells us that the point of the parables is that people will NOT understand them: Why? Mostly because they choose not to understand them. Parables work as mechanism for judgement because we bring judgement on ourselves by the way we react to them. So, very often the parables are an invitation to see who we are, who is most like us, in the parable.

Am I the sinner or the tax collector,

Am I the prodigal son on the older son,

Am I the Samaritan, the persistent widow, the lost sheep, the lost coin.

If we are primed, open to God and open to judgement then we can recognise who we are. If we recognise who we are, then we are judged by the parables, and we can seek forgiveness, hope, change. If we are not primed and open to God, then they mean nothing to us. That does not mean we are not judged. Our unwillingness to see who we are is our judgement, we are judged by that – but without the longing for forgiveness, hope, change. So what does the Parable of the Sower tell us if we think of it as a story of judgement. To start with you have to understand that we have been given something completely amazing. The Good News.

The Word of God made flesh. The key to the Universe. Purpose. Understanding. The Promise of Glory. Healing for our souls. Oneness with the creator of Heaven and Earth. A pioneer who shows us the sure path to God. Faith, Love, Hope. If you are given a glorious gift, you, we, are judged, defined, constituted by what we do with it. We will become the consequences of our choices and decisions about the gift, the power of the Word that has been sown in our hearts. That is the judgement which we face individually. It is also the judgement that we face as a church, as a community. We have been given the light that scatters darkness, the pearl of great price, the ten talents, the hidden treasure, the new wine.

What are we going to do about it?

That is a real and practical choice for us as individuals and for us as a community, and it is our judgement on ourselves. Faced with this wonderful, but rather demanding glory will we let it go. Quietly setting it aside, pretending that it is an unimportant thing, not really worth the fuss? The judgement is in the parable. Faced with the revelation of the divine presence will we enjoy it as a mild recreation, but not dare to depend on it in times of difficulty and despair? The judgement is in the parable. Faced with the glory of the presence of God will we keep it in play as a side project to our main lives, to be put on one side if another thing seems more engaging and promising? The judgement is in the parable.

To be honest I do not see those as options for this community, which has come through hard times, and has faced down many cares.

So, for the moment, let us see ourselves in the final section of this parable, and be comforted. So let us acknowledge this glorious gift of God in Christ. And let us be hopeful and confident for now and for the future that it will be in us the lifegiving word.

‘For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 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.

But 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.’