<\/p>\n
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2<\/sup> Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3<\/sup> And he told them many things in parables, saying: „Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4<\/sup> And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5<\/sup> 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. 6<\/sup> But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7<\/sup> Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8<\/sup> Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9<\/sup> Let anyone with ears listen!“ 18<\/sup> „Hear then the parable of the sower. 19<\/sup> When 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. 20<\/sup> As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21<\/sup> yet 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. 22<\/sup> As 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.<\/p>\n 23<\/sup> 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.“<\/p>\n (Mat 13:1-9,18-23 NRSV)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Today we have as our Gospel lesson one of the more memorable parables, often called The Parable of the Sower<\/em>.\u00a0 What makes this parable so memorable is that not only does Jesus tell the parable, but he explains the parable.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t happen with all the parables recorded by the Gospel writers.\u00a0 Matthew records Jesus telling 6 more parables following The Parable of the Sower<\/em>, and only one has an explanation (The Parable of the Weeds<\/em> is found in Matthew 13:24-30 and its explanation is found in Matthew 13:26-43).\u00a0 So that makes our Gospel today fairly unique.\u00a0 You may notice that the lectionary combined the parable with its explanation by omitting vs. 10-17.\u00a0 In those verses Jesus explains the purpose of the parables, which is to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to those who listen to his words.\u00a0 This brings me back to our lesson for today.\u00a0 Although often entitled The Parable of the Sower<\/em>, is that actually a faithful title that describes the parable?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jesus himself actually gives the parable this title in verse 18, which is the beginning of the explanation.\u00a0 As believers in the Word, we can quickly look at this parable and see that perhaps we don\u2019t really need an explanation.\u00a0 This parable is pretty straightforward.\u00a0 Jesus is the sower, the seed is the Word of God, and the ground is our response to the Word.\u00a0 But as I read this parable, I always thought that perhaps this parable should be called The Parable of the Seed<\/em>.\u00a0 After all, it is the seed that is scattered by the sower that seems to be the focus of this parable.\u00a0 In other words, it is the Word that is scattered by Jesus.\u00a0 How it is scattered is very important, because it isn\u2019t always scattered in neat little rows in a field.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This parable makes it seem as though the Sower himself was actually a little careless with the seed.\u00a0 Jesus didn\u2019t say that the sower carefully picked out good seed to sow or made sure that he wasn\u2019t dropping it in the wrong places.\u00a0 It\u2019s scattered everywhere; among the good soil, the rocky soil, the path where everyone trods, and even among the weeds.\u00a0 While this seems careless, in reality this gives me hope for the world.\u00a0 If God spreads the Word everywhere, then there is no place in the world in which the Word has not been cast.\u00a0 How humanity receives and responds to the Word is a different matter. Keep that in mind as we break down the parable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jesus tells us that as the sower sows, the seed falls upon the path that is walked daily.\u00a0 A path is dry, hard, compacted land.\u00a0 The seed would be easy prey for those who are hungry, in the case of the parable that would be the birds.\u00a0 The birds come and eat the seed off the path because the seed is not buried.\u00a0 There is no depth.\u00a0 In the church today we find people who are still hungry for the Word.\u00a0 They are looking for some instant nourishment to fill a void.\u00a0 But like the birds, they fly away when they have had their fill.\u00a0 The seed also falls on rocky ground.\u00a0 Rocky ground usually has good soil mixed in.\u00a0 Add water and the seed sprouts quickly.\u00a0 But because the ground is rocky, the seed cannot find the depth needed to sustain itself when the hot sun comes along and burns it.\u00a0 The seed withers away.\u00a0 In the church today there are people who for some reason or another are not finding the depth of the Word that they are seeking.\u00a0 It leads to burn out in the church, and they wither away until they can find brief nourishment again.\u00a0 The sower continues, and some of the seed falls among thorns.\u00a0 Thorns grow up and choke the seed.\u00a0 Thorns also grow in good soil.\u00a0 Sadly discord and arguments happen in the church.\u00a0 Sprinkled in the good soil of the church are thorns.\u00a0 Those with the loudest voices usually win, and usually are what we would call weeds.\u00a0 Thorns are incredibly hard to get rid of, and cause more damage than good. \u00a0We could probably all name an example of the church being choked by a thorn.\u00a0 And yet the church still exists.\u00a0 No amount of thorns can overcome the Word.\u00a0 Thorns are persons that the church continually holds in prayer, hoping that their ways of choking will turn to ways of producing goodness.\u00a0 Finally the seed falls on good soil, absent of rocks, people walking, and thorns.\u00a0 This seed brings forth good grain, many times more than was planted.\u00a0 The seed multiplies and becomes a rich harvest.\u00a0 The Word multiplies.\u00a0 It finds depth.\u00a0 It provides nourishment.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t get trampled or choked. \u00a0The sun doesn\u2019t burn it out. \u00a0And out of it comes a harvest that will continue to blossom.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the church today, we always want the Word to fall on good soil.\u00a0 But perhaps we should be more like the sower, and not be as concerned where it falls.\u00a0 Instead, embrace the work of the Holy Spirit and do our part to spread the Word everywhere, perhaps even a little carelessly.\u00a0 We always want it to be on the good soil, but if it hits the paths of daily life, the rocky ground, or even the weeds, that is ok also.\u00a0 All places need to be touched by the Word of God.\u00a0 And so spread the Word knowing that it may take some time for the seed to grow, the roots to take hold, and depth to be found.\u00a0 This is because to produce the fruit of God takes time.\u00a0 And so after we sow, we do our best to care for what has been sown.\u00a0 The Spirit has given us all the tools we need to receive and to respond to the Word that has already been sown in us.\u00a0 \u00a0Let us be an example then to everyone else, so that as we all receive and respond to the Word we produce a bountiful harvest which bears the fruit of the kingdom for all to see and share.\u00a0 In the name of the Father, and the +Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pentecost 6A – July 12, 2020 | A sermon on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 | by the Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell, STS | That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,157,108,110,235,430,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-3007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matthaeus","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-judson-f-merrell","category-kapitel-13-chapter-13-matthaeus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3008,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions\/3008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=3007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}