The Gospel of Matthew begs the reader to interpret. It raises questions pregnant with meaning for people of faith, regardless of their particular perspectives on God's Word.
For some, the seed represents THE WORD, "the law of rightness". The various types of soil represent either faithfulness or unfaithfulness in one way or another. Those with "right beliefs" in the Word are the good soil who receive it, obey the letter of the Law and produce "saved souls" for the Kingdom. The nature of these folk who receive it thus makes them faithful, because they understand it in the "right" way and bring people to the true faith. There are only a few "right ones" who truly obey and produce souls like that. The rest are worthless, for all accounts and purposes of the Kingdom.
For others, the seed represents THE WORD of Grace and Agape Love. The various types of soil represent those who are receptive to Jesus' Good News of Grace and Agape, in one degree or another. Their understanding involves a willingness and ability to apply the Good News of life around them. If they do not have that, it is snatched away. If they have no depth of faith in Jesus and His Good News as a better way to live, they get it superficially but cannot apply it in a sustained way to the way in which they live their lives. If they are duplicitous in their devotion between Jesus and worldly concerns and treasures, they will abandon Grace and Love over politics or economics. If they do understand the wisdom and faithfulness of applying Grace and Agape to the living of their lives in this part of God's Kingdom, they produce more Grace and Agape in the world around them.
The thing about it is this - we approach the Gospel of Jesus either from a perspective of our embedded theologies of law, rightness and merit, or we approach the Good News of Jesus from a perspective of Grace, Agape Love and Mercy. The irony is this - those who approach the Word from a perspective of Law still want Grace and Mercy when they fail to live it. They rely on it and expect it for themselves because they believe they are still the "right ones", though they may be unwilling to live Grace and Agape in the world with others around them - which seems not quite "right" to me. Those who approach the Word from a perspective of Grace, Agape and Mercy sometimes want the Law to apply to those who are selfish, hateful, apathetic or vengeful - making themselves a bit vengeful, I suspect - which seems ungracious, unloving and unmerciful to me.
We are all flawed and broken.
We all need God's Grace and Mercy.
The Sower (presumably the Holy Spirit), sows the seed on ALL types of soil, regardless of how well, badly or non-existent the production of good fruit goes.
This is Grace. It is egalitarian. God does not discriminate. In God's infinite wisdom, omnipresence (presence in the future and present), knowing the outcomes - God still sows the Word in the lives of all, equally.
The truth is that we are all, every kind of soil at one time or another in our lives.
Perhaps we don't understand it at times in our lives and we just stop trying to take it in, apply it and live it.
Perhaps we at times receive it with joy as a surface or superficial, literal understanding and do not explore the depth of all that it may mean for us, and it sprouts but in way not strongly rooted, having been planted in the shallow soil of literalisms, and fails to guide our steps when life gets hard, because it is shallow.
Perhaps we at times receive it but what we see in the world around us makes us believe that it is not realistic to live in this world, or we have itching ears to abandon sound doctrine and look after a twisted version of it designed to get us what we want in this world.
And sometimes perhaps we get it right, when our lives are in balance and we have a sense of well-being, so we consider the depth of the Good News of Jesus and apply it to life, living His Grace and Agape in the world around us, as indiscriminately as the Holy Spirit which sows the seeds, and more Grace and Agape Love are produced in the world around us.
I am sometimes the well-worn path of laziness with regard to the Good News of Jesus, and take the superficial meaning at best or literal ones at worst, or mindlessly parrot the teachings of someone else, or pick and choose the things that support my ideologies, prejudices and biases, or ignore the parts I may not want to hear at the time, and any opportunity to live Jesus' Good News is snatched away.
I am sometimes shallow enough to hear the Good News and let it be about momentary warm and fuzzy feelings, but do not deeply consider its implications for me and those around me in the world, and therefore the Good News is the last thing applied to times of difficulty when things don't feel good, in which I may produce anything BUT good fruit for the Kingdom.
I am sometimes consumed by the myriad troubling things happening around me in the world, which seem to surround and choke me. I do not always live the Good News in these moments, but react from my baser nature. I have also at times been consumed by the insidious desire to consume, to acquire and to value things, rather than God and God's children, which have nothing to do with Grace or Agape Love.
And I have had brief moments when I have been attuned to the Good News of Jesus, driven by the sower of its seeds and active in the living of the Grace and Agape Love that permeate my being, thanks be to God. In those moments, I pray that I have put out in the world what has been poured into me, that Grace and Agape, Mercy and the deep, abiding sense of the Shalom (completeness, wholeness, well-being and peace) that comes with it.
More of that, please. Sower, please continue to sow in me the seed of Agape and Grace.
Pastor Jamie
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