Chaos & Fertile Ground
THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Genesis 25:19-34 • Psalm 119:105-112 • Romans 8:1-11 • Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
I love to listen to folks talk about something they’re passionate about. My husband Casey went with me to a Hendrix event last week, and he enthusiastically talked about computer science and cloud architecture with a prospective Hendrix student, even though Casey is a UCA alum. I love listening to an author talk about their upcoming books and grad students talk about their dissertations. Others might glaze over during lengthy descriptions and minute details, but I enjoy the enthusiasm and excitement.
So you can imagine how much I enjoyed listening to Tom Long speak on a couple of different occasions. Tom is someone who has been an ordained Presbyterian pastor longer than I’ve been alive and is placed in the same category of preachers as Fred Craddock, Billy Graham, Barbara Brown Taylor, and William Willimon. [1] Through all these years, Tom has fostered a passion for the gospel and for teaching and preaching. When he speaks, you listen. His words conjure unforgettable images. On one occasion, one such image was about Jesus and the sea, and I’m fairly certain he was referencing this reading from Matthew.
When we picture Jesus taking a moment to relax on the beach of the Sea of Galilee, that’s perfectly understandable. When crowds surround him, getting into the boat makes sense. From the boat, out on the water, he has more space, and maybe he can tap into better acoustics for teaching those who have sought him out. This is our contemporary, rational thinking and projection. But for the people at that time, Tom offered, the sea with its deep waters represented chaos. Without a word but with deliberate action, Jesus gets into a boat and goes out into the chaos, sitting and addressing the crowd from a place that embodies uncertainty, fear, and death.
I knew I would remember that image of Jesus sitting in a boat in the sea, amidst the chaos, the crowds on the beach gawking at him, some incredulous, others marveling, some frightened, others curious. Even from out on the boat Jesus could read them like an open book, and some are ready and willing to learn. He offers them the Parable of the Sower, and our lectionary today includes Jesus’s concise explanation of the Parable of the Sower, making sure those with ears to hear truly understand what he is saying about the reign of God or—in this case more specifically—the Word of God. This parable is among those that illustrate for the disciples how God shows up in our lives.
We can be so focused on the words that Jesus says that we could miss what Tom Long pointed out: it wasn’t just what Jesus said, it was also what he did, how he did it. Jesus has gone from the comfort of a house and solitude, moved himself—with everyone watching—into chaos, and spoke to them in a parable, in a manner intended to “tease the imagination.” [2] I don’t know which speaks louder, his actions or his words, but he commends them to “Listen!”
Listen and notice that Jesus is not afraid. Attend to Jesus entering the sea calmly as far as we can tell. Notice how he sits in the boat (and sitting is a typical posture for rabbis when they are teaching). From the place that mystified if not terrified those among the crowd, Jesus spoke to them, especially to those who were seeking, even if they didn’t know themselves exactly what they were searching for.
In the parable, God is working in the lives of everyone through God’s Holy Word, and I encourage you to take the bulletin home or pull out your Bible during prayer and reflection this week and consider through this parable where you are in your life of faith. What kind of environment are you in? What is the ground of your being like right now? How likely is the presence of God, the Word of God, to flourish in your life right now? Because the truth is that God is always in conversation with us, always abiding with us.
Jesus is still sitting in a boat in the middle of the chaos, teaching us.
Just as being out in the sea challenged concepts of what is safe and expected and Jesus’s sower with such widespread scattering of seed challenged conventional, conservative farming practices, so, too, does Jesus invite those listening to make themselves available to the fertile ground, whoever they are and wherever they are in their pilgrimage of faith. Go deep enough beneath a path, get beyond the rocks and overcrowding crops, and the good soil is there, readily available to everyone if they have the figurative or spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear.
We are all affected by the conditions around us. Unfortunately, life in this world will not always be conducive to our spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental flourishing. According to Paul, our flesh won’t allow it, thanks to others’ and/or our own lack of self-discipline and self-control that helps us do what we ought not to do more often than not. Our saving grace, however, is the Spirit that dwells within us and gives us life and peace. Our flesh, our humanity alone would lead us into sin and death, estranging us from God, one another, and Creation. But through our baptism we are born into life in Christ, and there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
And here, in this place, we are both with Christ in the boat and seekers of God’s presence. We’re lucky to have architecture to remind us of the boat. Of course it’s overturned because what in this life isn’t in upheaval? The light at the aumbry reminds us that the Real Presence is here in the Sacrament. The church is a physical structure in the midst of our lives, a tangible reminder of the presence of Christ in our lives, in our community, and in our world. Here we seek refuge. Here we seek wisdom and understanding. Here we seek healing, fellowship, and companionship along the way because we know that the world outside those doors is frightening and chaotic. And for those who have experienced religious trauma at some point in your life in the very place where we should experience sanctuary, I am sorry, and your care demands extra diligence and repentance.
And Jesus is always showing us the way, even when life seems to be taking us where we would rather not go or when we feel like we are going nowhere. Jesus is with us in the chaos. Your community of faith is with you. If you feel like life is too much or too full, or that there’s nothing meaningful or not enough, we have the Word of God reminding us that we are not alone. Even when the conditions surrounding us are not ideal, there is fertile ground beneath us, even within us. And just when we think it is Jesus out there in the boat in the eye of the storm, we realize he’s had us with him all the while. The life and peace we seek are present to us here and now.
As disciples, we become teachers, too. And one day, with passion and enthusiasm, we’ll get to share with others the story of how we discovered the truth of that life and peace for ourselves, so that others might also know and experience the presence of God in their own lives, wherever they may be along the way.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_G._Long
[2] Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV, Dennis C. Duling’s note for Matthew 13:3, p. 1690.
© 2023 The Rev. Sara Milford
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Fayetteville, Arkansas