Saturday, February 7, 2015

Sexagesima 2015 "The Sower"



Sexagesima 2015
“The Sower”
Rev. Stephen E. Stults
St. Paul’s Anglican Church
Feb. 8, 2015

Luk 8:15
“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”

In our Gospel for the day, Our Lord uses an agricultural or “organic” analogy as he tells us the parable of the Sower.  St. Luke 8:5-8: ”A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold.”

Biblical commentators have remarked on the Lord’s use of these types of analogies in the parables.  I suppose one could write a masters’ thesis or doctoral dissertation on Jesus’ use of agricultural analogies and their implications to the Gospel; no doubt, this has already been done many times by Christian scholars.  Suffice it to say that there are at least three reasons why Our Lord would use such analogies.  First, his use of common agricultural references made it easy for his hearers to grasp his message, at least on one of its levels.  After all, everyone can understand a growing plant or weed. The second reason is not as transparent.  Our Lord is concerned about our growth in holiness and righteousness; thus, He uses “growing” analogies a great deal.  We Christians are to be the “good soil” from which good works do spring, not as a justification for our salvation, but rather as a natural outgrowth of our faith, trust and love in Jesus Christ.  Good works should spring from a Christian, naturally, as a plant springs from good soil.  Notice the simplicity here. 

Second, plants come from good soil naturally.  They do not grow because the seed says to itself, “Hmm, I think that I shall grow today.” Rather, in the Mind of the Creator, a plan was set in motion millennia ago that determined that when a seed meets good soil, water, and sunshine, it will grow.  In exactly the same way, a Christian should bring forth good works when he or she is planted in the good soil of the Church, watered with the Word of God, fed by the Sacraments and enlightened with the Grace of God, like the sunshine.  We are living organisms of faith, hope and love that are intended to blossom in righteousness.

The third reason Christ uses agronomy or agriculture for his teaching examples reflects the Great Plan of Creation itself.  Each plant, each plot, each park reflects man’s desire to get back to the Garden, which Man lost through sin. All of us, deep in our natures, be we “city” or “country” folk, have this desire to “get back to the Garden”.[1]This may be one reason why deep, simple faith is often more prevalent in the countryside, when contrasted to the cold, concrete cynicism of the city.

Note, the parable of the Sower is central to our understanding of Christ’s parables.  In fact, this is considered by many Biblical scholars as the “root” parable of parables.  That is, it is central to understanding Christ’s mission and ministry.  Also, this importance is underscored by the fact that this particular parable is related in all three synoptic gospels: being found in Matthew 13 and Mark 4, as well as Luke 8, from which our Gospel for the day is taken.

 Remembering that the word “synoptic” comes from the Greek root “syn” (spelled s-y-n, not s-i-n), meaning together, and “optic”, meaning seeing, these three Gospel accounts allow us to “see together” the message of Christ.  Note, each synoptic Gospel was targeted to a different audience:  Matthew to the Jews, Luke to the Greeks and Mark to the Romans.  Each had their particular style of writing and expression and nuance aimed at that group.  The point is that we Christians are to use the synoptic Gospels both to confirm our common understanding of the ministry of Christ, while appreciating its universality at the same time.

Thus, our Lord speaks of the Sower, who is Jesus himself, casting some seeds in the World.  Some fall on the wayside and are devoured by birds, some fall on a rock and wither from a lack of moisture, and others are choked out by thorns.  In all these cases, the environment wasn’t right for growth.  In the last case, however, some seed fell on good soil and sprang up, bearing fruit “an hundredfold.” 

If we see the seed as symbolic of the soul, this parable makes a great deal of sense.  Just as a seed must be given a good place to grow, the Christian soul needs a good spiritual environment.  For example, the young soul should not be exposed too early to the devouring forces of the World, which is why we try to shield our children until they reach some measure of maturity and thus can withstand the spiritual onslaught around them.  In addition, the soul cannot grow in isolation or barren-ness, as the seed on the rock.  Rather, it needs the seedbed of the Church for its moisture and nourishment.  The idea of the solitary Christian, apart from the worship, fellowship and communal feeding of the Church is always doomed to failure, except in the rare cases of the anchorite monk in his cave or the holy hermit in his hut.  Instead, God meant for the Christian “seed” to grow in the Church, being fed by her and returning good fruit to her and to the community at large.

Just as our Lord had to explain this parable to his disciples, this Word is meant for us, the household of faith.  Although the message and call of Christianity is universal, in the mysteries of God’s grace some hear the call and respond to it, while others do not. We, in a thankful and humble posture, need to accept this with thanks and praise, while looking on our works in the same humble way. 

In this vein, notice the pre-ordained nature and distribution of fruit.  First, as noted, fruit doesn’t decide to grow consciously; it just happens according to the Plan.  Plants don’t plot and scheme to produce fruit, thus hoping to curry favor with the Gardener.  In the same way, note the caution against so-called Works of Supererogation in Article 14 of our Articles of Religion:
“VOLUNTARY Works besides, over and above, God’s Commandments,
which they call Works of Supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety: for by them men do declare, that they do not only render unto
God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake, than of bounden duty is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable servants.”

Thus, we are to keep watch on our attitudes towards our works.  Any time we begin to feel the swelling of pride, or the corresponding sin of petty martyrdom, we need to take care lest our Adversary is using this to attack us spiritually.  On one hand, we might say, “Look what I’m doing for the Church!” or on the other hand, “Poor little ol’ me.  I’m the only one who does this.”  Both are spiritual traps, leading to evil seed taking root in our souls.  Satan will certainly use them if we allow him to do so.


Perhaps the lesson for us is that our Christian fruit is to grow naturally and to fall naturally from the tree, as is the nature of fruit.  Not with plotting or planning, to curry favor with God or man, but with simplicity we should produce fruit organically, naturally, as an out springing of our Christian faith and love.  God means us to be “good” soil: planted, nurtured, and tended by the Church.  God desires us to be bountiful: producing sweet, delicious fruit for our brethren and for the World.   This is our Garden (gesture to encompass the congregation).  He (point to the image of Christ) is our Gardener.   In the words of our Lord from Luk 3:8 “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

Our fruit is the result of the grace of God in our hearts, not from own designs. 
Pray always, therefore, that whatsoever you do for the Lord, do it with a pure motive.

As St. Paul tells us in Rom 12:8: “he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity”.  May all our acts be done with simplicity, never with duplicity; especially those done in the name of the Lord. 

Luke 8:15: “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”

Glory be to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, now and for ever.   AMEN


[1] Crosby, Stills, Nash, “Woodstock”, Deja Vu

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