“THE SEED GROWS”
Saint Luke 8. 4-15
Sexagesima: 15 February Anno Domini 2009
Fr Watson SSP
The first thing that the Word does, is to gather together people. The Word does this of Its own. The Word inscripturated in Hebrew text says so; check Isaiah. The next thing to be cognizant of is that the Word is not the thunder, lightning, raging storm or erupting rocks and earth. The Word is the still small sound. The Word is a tiny cooing baby wrapped up in swaddling clothes. The Word is a humble and very ordinary appearing carpenter's son from the hinterlands. The Word is parable, which is told just dense and difficult enough that smart Pharisees, clever Sadducees, and Powerful Lawyers, Priests and Council Members didn't understand It. The Word is a tiny, seemingly dead and inert seed that…well, that does what It does regardless of how much worry, speculation, and human effort is applied to its resting place.
Saint John tells you in his Evangel that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is the Word. Jesus Who is the Christ, God's Anointed One and Savior, is ALSO the WORD, the LOGOS, GOD HIMSELF, the great I AM! Since the Man Who is telling this morning's parable is also God, then indeed not only is HE the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but so is the story and the interpretation.
Jesus says that the Seed is the Word of God. Does this mean that your Bibles (including the 4 Evangels, Apostle's Letters and the Torah) are the seed? Well, yes, but bear in mind that when God told this parable there was no King James or ESV, nor papyri with Matthew and John's handwriting. The Nazarene Himself is also the Seed, dead on the tree, buried in the ground, harvested a hundredfold on the first Easter-to be re-seeded in His children, His flock, His Church.
"What does this parable mean?"
Jesus explains it for you by way of His spoken words, which were recorded by Saint Luke on paper, after they had been passed on to him by the spoken memory (more words) of probably Saint Paul, and others who were there to hear the tale. So now you, and all mankind, have access to the truths about the types of soil where the word is rejected, resisted and thrust out.
Wayside people are those who may or may not believe the Word (for at least a time) but seem that they do…for a time. They do not resist the devil, as the Lord's kinsmen Saint James says to do; they do not daily drown the 'Old Adam' as Saint Paul and the Blessed Reformer say to do; they reject the seed the way Pharaoh, Caiaphas, Atheists, Jews and Muslims do.
You dear Saints-do not reject the Seed! Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the Word. Read your Bibles, have home devotions and meditate on the Scripture's Rule of Faith, attend every opportunity to be with your family gathered around the table of Grace. "He who has ears to hear."
Rocky soil people are much like wayside people. They too believe for a while, maybe much longer from a temporal view, but they too jettison Jesus and turn their backs on the Trinity the moment the going gets tough. These are the Israelites in the desert with Moses whining the minute the menu gets predictable. These are the "Christians" who curse the Lord the minute the job is gone, the wife is cheating, the child rebels, or the disease hits home. These are rose-garden replicas of real Christians who have never been properly catechized in the Word. They have never come to truly believe that to be a follower of the Word-Jesus, the Seed-Jesus, is to be conformed to His life, His Cross, and His incredible trials and sufferings.
You tender Lambs-don't lose hope and don't give up when you hurt and are put to pain. Let the Holy Ghost bury you deep into the wounds of the Word and let His blood nurse you and His body protect you. "He who has ears to hear."
Many of the same warnings and words of Law (don't, do, resist, fight) could also be used against the last care and worry that the 'soil of sinners' daily encounters-the allurements of mammon. The Word elsewhere says sell all that you have, give to the poor and follow Him, and, set your heart on the things above and not on things here where rust and moth destroy. All true, of course, but more Law.
So, if you in your sinful old nature daily trespass against the Word, against the seed, (and you do) what will become of you?
That's the devil talking, that is Satan trying to have you focus on you, on your faith, on your works, on your status, on your devotion, rigor, toughness and self.
Hear the Word; Hear Christ: "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God." Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior. Unto you a King is given. This day of Sexagesima 2009 the Blood of God and the Body of God are given FOR YOU. The Sacrament of the Altar is the Mystery, for in the Sacramental Union of Christ's Body and Blood with Bread and Wine you are given to possess by faith the real, bodily, and present Son of God, the same Son Who is God-the Mystery of the Incarnation being the greatest of all sacramental wonders!!!
And that is the final interpretation of the parable. The Sower is also Jesus and not you. The Sower is also the Holy Ghost Who gives Jesus through His writings, washings, and welcoming banquets. The words and the WORD are never separable. The Sacraments and the Savior are never sunderable. He Who died is He Who lives and serves and is eaten and drunk. He Who sows is He Who is the Seed and He Who then sprouts forth within you, by faith, and bears a bountiful harvest.
It's all Jesus dear brothers and sisters of Jesus. Brothers and sisters… siblings share the same biological parents and share the same origin, blood and DNA genesis. The fruit which is born in you by faith is the noble and good heart…the noble and good heart of Jesus.
The Sower, The Seed, suffered and bore the rocky ground of obedience to the Law. The Sower, The Seed, suffered and bore the heat of God's Wrath, bore the thorns of Rome's torture, the temptations of Satan's wilderness, and the burdens and cares which you think YOU are bearing all by yourselves. It's all Jesus.
You receive the WORD with joy. To you It, HE, has been given.
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost