A
sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 13 July 2014 by the Rev. Ewing W.
Carroll, Jr. The scripture readings
that day were Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23.
Someone has said today’s Gospel Lesson is
like a lunch buffet at a fancy hotel.
There’s a little bit of everything: a wide assortment of appetizers,
salads, heavy meats – lots of carbohydrates and calories; and jam-packed with
pastries. And don't forget multi-flavors
of ice cream! But frankly today’s Gospel
Lesson is not about fancy buffets.
Rather, it’s about the ways God sows seeds of trust in you and me. How God seeks to use us as messengers of
God’s abiding love and justice in a world that seems to become more dangerous,
destructive and demeaning. This Parable
of the Sower, while not a lunch buffet, does teach us several things about our
pilgrimage of faithfulness.
Firstly:
Sowing seeds of faithfulness may not be popular. Matthew tells us Jesus is sitting in a boat
speaking to the crowd. Before, his
preaching was at the synagogue. Now we
find him at the seashore. The crowd is
so large Jesus finds safety and shelter in a fishing boat. By this time, he’s worn out his welcome among
the religious leaders. The
people, who should most likely have accepted, welcomed and appreciated
his ministry, have now closed the door on him.
Early in his ministry, Jesus has already become unpopular with both
religious and political leaders.
John Wesley knew that feeling back in 18th
Century England. Educated by and
ordained into the Anglican priesthood, Wesley soon found he was not welcome to
preach from Anglican pulpits. In sowing
the seeds of God’s love; speaking frankly and fearlessly about God’s desire for
peace and justice, Wesley was “uninvited” from speaking in his own beloved
church.
You’ve probably either read or heard
about the controversy regarding Archbishop Paul of the Hong Kong/Macao Anglican
Church. In a sermon preached last
Sunday, he suggested Christians should not get involved in the Occupy Central
activity or other so-called political activities. Like Jesus, on his way to the Cross, they
should remain silent! Later one of his
priests told the press the Archbishop was just being funny and witty. Funny and witty? Yes, there are times when ”silence is golden.” For me, this is NOT the time. The Jesus I know was not the silent
type. I just wonder what Bible
translation the Archbishop is reading.
I’m reminded again what a leading church
member in one of Hong Kong’s Methodist churches once said to me: “We welcome
you to preach in our church, but please don’t say anything that might make us
uncomfortable. We’ve had a long, busy
workweek. When we come to church on
Sunday, the last thing we want is to be challenged or disturbed.”
But that’s exactly what happens when we
take seriously the words and life of Jesus. That’s what happens when we
seriously hear and seek to live the Gospel God sows in our hearts and
minds. Christians in the early church
learned this lesson very quickly – to speak out for Christ can easily mean
speaking against political, social and religious narrowness. Daring to sow seeds of God’s grace, strength,
hope and salvation can easily get us into trouble. Not with God, but with other people, usually
church leaders; and in Hong Kong it’s often with government leaders and the
police.
Secondly:
The seeming wastefulness of the farmer. In Jesus’ time, farmers planted seeds in two
different ways: one was to “broadcast” – scatter the seeds, knowing that some
of them would grow; some would quickly wither and die. Another was to put a sack on the back of a
donkey and let the donkey walk up and down the field. The sack had a hole in
the bottom and the seeds would scatter from the sack.
But let’s be clear: this Parable is not about farmers, donkeys or
how to plant wheat, cotton, organic herbs or mango trees. No, Matthew is trying
to tell us: God is the Sower. And what God is sowing is the precious gift
of God’s abiding love. God doesn’t give
up on us. Never, never, ever. God keeps
sowing. How many times have you heard –
or said – “Don’t waste your time on that person. They’re hopeless. They will never change. Trying to help them improve is like
scattering seed on hard, rocky soil.
Forget it.” Some of us grew
up on an old Gospel Hymn “Bringing in the Sheaves”. I love these words, “Sowing in the
sunshine, sowing in the shadows, fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling
breeze; by and by the harvest, and the labor ended, we shall come rejoicing, in
bringing in the sheaves.” It may
seem that God is being wasteful, but both God’s love – and God’s
demands, are poured out for all people.
There’s nothing wasteful about such love!
There’s a third thing about this Gospel
Lesson that intrigues me. Regardless
of the kind of soil, there’s always some kind of harvest. People hear – and respond - to the Gospel in
different ways. Billy Sunday was a
famous American professional baseball player-turned-evangelist. He held
revivals all across America in the late 1800s/early 1900s. A woman once asked him, “Sir why do you
keep holding these revivals? People’s
conversions don’t seem to last?”
Sunday replied, “Why do you keep taking baths?”
Some of us profess a faith of closed
minds – hardened hearts, if you will.
Our thoughts are glued to the past.
Yet others are such activist-minded, God hardly has a chance to be
heard, much less followed. This kind of
harvest is more about convenience than commitment.
Painful as it may seem to us, God does
not just depend upon you or me in order to bring about God’s Kingdom of love
and justice. Someone has written, “The
Kingdom of God [the Reign of God] is not advanced by filling the church with
people; it’s filling people with God.”
I believe God would greatly like us to cooperate in sowing seeds of love
and justice. But God’s will is not
dependent upon us.
Now, finally! The question, “What Kind of duck are you?” Like people, ducks vary in size, shape, color
and attitude. Like us, their eating
habits are also different. Puddle ducks – like a Mallard duck, only eat what
they can conveniently find along the water’s edge. They put very little effort or energy into
finding food. On the other hand, diving
ducks go to great lengths to find food, even diving deep, deep, deep down to
the bottom of a river or lakebed, where they might find food. Their feathers may get torn; their bodies
filthy with mud; they dive with great risk, but the results are wonderful.
God is both anxious and determined to sow
seeds of love, justice, peace and righteousness. That’s part of the nature and purpose of
God. Our response? As I see it, there are two: We can be like the puddle ducks; float along
the surface, reacting, responding through what is comfortable or
convenient. Never stretching too much;
never pushing ourselves too hard; just go with the flow; just enough to make it
through another day. Or we can be like
the diving ducks – willing to risk.
Prepared to go to great depths; to challenge ourselves - and others; to
struggle amidst difficulty and danger; to move beyond the comfort zone; daring
to go to the edge of life.
So what’s your answer? Puddle duck or diving duck? Jesus said, ”Let anyone with ears hear.” Come, Lord Jesus, help us to hear – and to
live and grow as the kinds of seeds you want us to become. Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, July 13, 2014
