The Gospel for October 8, 2004
Luke 8:1-15
Now it happened that after this he made his way through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve, as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources. With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, he told this parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed. Now as he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell in the middle of thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into good soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!’ His disciples asked him what this parable might mean, and he said, ‘To you is granted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God; for the rest it remains in parables, so that they may look but not perceive, listen but not understand. ‘This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God. Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up. As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and never produce any crops. As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
For once, Jesus tells a story and explains it. There are some questions, of course, for the inquisitive. Why for example, would such a straightforward story require an explanation?
A Reflection
Why, indeed?
Do we see here perpetuated the Jahweh-istic "hardening of Pharaoh's heart," in that parables were intended to be understood only by the few select? Perhaps that was a cultural jingoism required to compete with the mystery cults of the day, each of which had some secrets that initiates were let into only after they were fully in?
The whole thing feels so much like fraternity-boy secret handshakes that it is almost repelling on its face.
And that, of course, is a red flag. Because whenever something from Jesus is so apparent that it needs no explanation, we can be certain that it does!
Consider that Jesus and this band of 12 apostles and a small entourage of women had known each other for only a short time. They had already encountered the Pharisees, men who were counting on perfect obedience to every scruple of the law as their tickets into whatever Paradise they were imagining. There were as well the Saducees and the Herodians. We know of the Essenes, not from the Bible, but from archaeology. Each of these sects of Jewish thought, philosophy, and religion was absolutely certain that they had figured out exactly the right formula for salvation -- and everybody else was wrong, to be left on YHWH's scrap heap.
Now suppose that Jesus was trying to use this simple story about a sower, something that everyone could understand, to explain that not everyone was going to resonate with His message -- perhaps even less so when it was not Jesus preaching, but one of them. Jesus didn't talk about the quality of the seeds, or the fact that there might be some weed seeds in and among the good, or the accuracy of the sower's arm, as well he might have. Instead, he spoke only of the quality of the ground on which the seed fell.
To someone who was soon to be called to proclaim this new good news, these must have been words of comfort. All the burden had been shifted to the listener.
Of course, the lamp story comes next. Jesus wasn't going to let these new preachers off the hook that easily!
A Collect
Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
6:17:22 PM 
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