Proper 10 (July 10-16)
Texts: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23;
Romans 8:1-11
THE GOOD SOIL OF
SUFFERING
Our congregation is one of about a dozen local faith-based groups who
make up the Michigan
Organizing Project, or 'MOP'. Together, we work to make a difference in
the lives of some of
our community's most powerless people. This year's main project is to
fund a program
addressing homelessness, and MOP is proposing a one-third mill property
tax for a low-cost
housing initiative.
Two weeks ago more than a dozen members of POP joined me for MOP's
annual Nehemiah
Assembly. For those of you who may not have seen it, I'd like to share
the beginning of the
article
that appeared in the Kalamazoo Gazette the following day:
David Artley is the well-respected,
suspender-wearing Kalamazoo County
resource-development director, known for his ability to raise funds and
secure
government grants. But Thursday, Artley showed a more personal side,
one he
rarely reveals publicly. In front of more than 250 people at the annual
Nehemiah
Assembly, Artley told the story of how he was abused as a child while
growing up
in Detroit and how it stole away his childhood. As an adult, he found
himself
divorced twice and an alcoholic, living in a cardboard box without any
place to
go. Now, Artley, 66, who has been sober for decades and recently bought
a
condominium, told the gatherers that helping people find housing is his
passion.
David Artley's passion to find housing for homeless people is a perfect
example of good soil.
The seed of God's Love found good soil in David's life and is
increasing it a hundredfold. And I
think his whole life is good soil, including the abused child
who ended up homeless as young
adult. The good soil began being cultivated when the 8 year-old David
told his mother that his
cousin was sexually abusing him, and instead of helping him she called
him a liar and severely
beat him with a stick. That's where the good soil began to be turned
for the seed of God's love.
Looking at Jesus' life can help us understand why a place of suffering
can be the good soil of
God's love. Under the imperial regime of the Romans, his people were
horribly oppressed. The
Jews were abused economically, militarily, and spiritually not only by
the Roman overlords; but
also by other Jews collaborating with the Romans. The Jewish leaders
generally held one of two
views on how to end their oppression: either through military revolt,
or the belief that, if they
were strictly faithful to the Torah, God would reward their
faithfulness and long-suffering by
crushing their enemies.
But Jesus spoke against both those views, instead planting the seed
that God's power of love
would bring God's kingdom into this world. Through Jesus, God's love
takes root in the soil of
human hearts so that God's children can begin to understand the call to
take care of one another
as brothers and sisters. Instead of using military power or invoking
God to destroy the Romans,
Jesus taught people to experience God as Abba - Father, or more
precisely 'Daddy' - who asks
his children to care for one another in love. Jesus taught that God's
way of love makes sure that
everyone has enough, just like a loving Father does.
But, Jesus' message is an unusual seed that needs an unusual ground to
grow bountifully. Let's
start with the hardened soil of the path where the abusive politics of
the Roman Empire dominate
so completely that the seed never has a chance to take root. The "evil
one comes and snatches
away what is sown in the heart." In the Gospel, the Roman and Jewish
leaders who can see
nothing but power represent this soil.
But they are soil nonetheless. They are children of God. They were not
created bad -- it was the
evil one that snatched away the seeds of love. The difference of Jesus'
message from his Jewish
contemporaries was that they preached hatred and death for
Romans and the Jewish leadership;
while Jesus preached that even though they were oppressors, they still
deserved love. The true
enemy calls for hatred and killing, hardening the soil. So the Sower
generously sows seed
everywhere.
And then there's the rocky ground, where, as Jesus says, "one who hears
the word and
immediately receives it with joy; 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."
In Mark's Gospel, Jesus' own disciples represent this soil. They all
ran away when Jesus was
arrested. Jesus renames Simon as Peter, which means rock. Peter the
Rock? No, rocky soil. The
other Gospel writers redeem Peter and the other disciples to eventually
become good soil. But
their initial failure presents a hard truth throughout history: when we
are faced with armed forces
of imperial domination, it is nearly impossible to have faith in love.
We are more inclined to
either run away, or to mount an armed force of our own. So the Sower
generously sows seed
everywhere.
Finally, there is the thorny ground, the soil in which "one who hears
the word, but the cares of
the world and the lure of wealth choke the word." It is difficult to
hear Jesus' message about
taking care of all our brothers and sisters when one is enjoying the
situation of getting more than
his or her fair share. The rich young man who comes to Jesus asking
what he needs to do to have
real life is an example of the thorny ground. Jesus tells him to sell
everything and give it to the
poor - which seems extreme to us! Jesus offers his answer sadly,
because he knows this man's
wealth makes for thorny ground. The man doesn't want to hear that the
way to truly live and have
a peaceful household where everyone has enough is to share generously
with his poor brothers
and sisters. So the Sower generously sows seed everywhere.
So where do we find the good soil? In Mark's Gospel the good soil is in
the lives of the most
powerless people, those who are suffering. The hemorrhaging, nameless
woman who comes to
simply touch Jesus' cloak in order to be healed. Jesus tells her she
has great faith. The nameless
foreign woman whose daughter is sick - she endures insults from Jesus
in persisting to plead for
her daughter's healing. Jesus tells her she has great faith.
But today we hear from Matthew's Gospel. Matthew took Mark's basic
story and shaped it so
that the good soil is even clearer. We can see this in how Matthew
tells us Jesus begins and ends
his teaching ministry: he begins with the Beatitudes: blessed are the
poor in spirit, those who are
mourning, the meek. Blessed are those who hunger for the rightness of
God's household, where
everyone has enough. Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, the
peacemakers. Blessed are
those persecuted by this world's powerful because they stand
up for the powerless in God's
kingdom, God's household, God's world.
And what are the last words of Jesus' teaching in Matthew's Gospel?
'You saw me hungry and
fed me, thirsty and gave me to drink. You welcomed me as a stranger,
clothed me when naked,
took care of me when I was sick, visited me in prison. Truly I tell
you, just as you did it to one of
the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
This is exactly what we've
been talking about! God, our Lord and Creator, came to us in Jesus to
teach us and empower us
to care for one another as family. And it is the least powerful people
in this world who are most
often the good soil -- just as the life of abused and homeless David
Artley has become good soil.
How then do we become good soil? Not by our own
efforts. We become good soil only by God's
bountiful grace, which sows the seed everywhere, even on the bad soil
in our lives: the hardened
hearts ripe for the temptation of domination that snatches the seed
away; the fear that makes us
flee from trusting the power of God's love in the face of violence; and
the allure of wealth that
causes us to abandon the least of Jesus' family. But the Sower
continues to sow graciously
everywhere that seed may land on the good soil, too -- the parts of our
lives where we are most
vulnerable. The seed of God's love lands amidst our own suffering where
our lives connect to the suffering and death
of Jesus.
Or we let ourselves become more vulnerable by standing with brothers
and sisters who are suffering -- as our youth are doing this week on
their workcamp to Minnesota.
And what does the hundredfold yield look like in our lives? This is
another instance of it
emphatically not looking like going up to heaven
after we die. No, the politics of God's
household has come down into this world in the suffering of
the Risen Christ, and it is truly at
work wherever his disciples are working to make sure that the least of
his family have enough.
Let's go to God's table now, to water and feed the seed that falls into
those most vulnerable parts
of lives, so that we might go forth this week -- and our youth go forth
this week -- to yield the fruit of God's love. Amen
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran
Portage, MI, July 7 &10, 2011