14 July 2002 (Proper 11, Year A)
Christ Church Covington
The Reverend Pamela Porter Snare

“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that comes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Words have power. We all know this. A word of encouragement and love can sustain us when we are weary, and enable us to go on when we thought we could not. A word spoken in anger, or a cutting or catty remark can wound us deeply, change our perspective on the day, and zap our emotional and physical energy. Words have consequences. They can build up and sustain; they can demoralize and destroy. Words affect, shape, and mold reality, both people and events.

The old adage, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is simply untrue. Words are, if anything, more powerful than sticks and stones, to bruise and wound us.

This power of words, in the biblical view, is rooted in who God is. In the scriptures, God’s speech, his Word, is a creative and re-orienting reality. We may recall that in Genesis, God speaks, and the created order is brought into existence. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” When God speaks, things happen. God’s speech is a dynamic force. And of all the created beings, it is humanity who was given the most highly developed form of speech. Hence the power of our speech derives from the power of God’s speech. We were, after all, spoken into existence.

Our first reading today from Isaiah has this dynamic and creative power of God’s Word in mind when the author compares the fertile, fruitful, and sustaining power of rain to the effects of God’s Word. Just as rain comes from heaven and causes seeds to sprout, to grow, and to produce fruit to sustain human life and well-being, so, too, does God shower his Word, his speech, upon humankind and human history to direct and shape humanity and human history according to God’s purpose and God’s design for us. God’s Word is a germinating, life-giving and sustaining force which rains down from heaven upon us and the world, imparting and sustaining life.

We must be wary, however, of conceiving God’s Word too narrowly or too literally; as the words of scripture or the written word, or a voice that speaks to us. The words of scripture speak to us of God, even impart his presence; and certainly scripture instructs and guides us in God’s ways. But the scriptures are not God. God’s Word is not to be equated with words spoken or written.

As one commentator on Isaiah notes, “God’s word is less a message and more an event . .”

Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, God speaks, he communicates himself, by what he does; by events that save, forgive, sustain, and empower his people. A few chapters earlier in Isaiah the prophet writes: “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them, [I the God of Israel will not forsake them.] I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”

God’s “answer” to his people’s thirst is, as one writer notes, “not . . . with words, but with actions of wondrous magnitude: rivers flowing atop mountains and in desert valleys and sacred trees of paradise.”

In other words, God speaks to us, communicates himself to us through his saving, forgiving, sustaining, and empowering actions – through events which he initiates and brings into being. Like the “event” of Jesus Christ – his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus is God’s Word to us par excellence. As Paul writes, Jesus is God’s “yes” to us. “Yes, come to me. Yes, I love you. Yes, I forgive you. Yes, I am for you and with you and in you.” In Jesus, Paul says, God’s word to us is always “Yes”.

But what about those events in our lives and in the world, which we do not experience as saving, forgiving, sustaining or empowering? What about the onslaught of a debilitating disease? What about the loss of a job? What about the untimely death of someone we love? What about children kidnapped and murdered? What about September 11, 2001? Who speaks these events into existence? How do we accept and live with these events and remain people of faith? How do we maintain trust in God’s goodness, and mercy, and love when confronted with events of destruction, and hatred, loss and blame, greed and violence? Is being a Christian worth it when it appears that forgiveness and mercy, kindness and patience, long-suffering and self-control are on the losing side? When the world appears to be on a path of destruction, will our small efforts on God’s behalf make a difference, or even bear any fruit?

Jesus was not a sentimentalist, and he did not engage in illusion about the harsh realities of life in this world. The parable of the sower is the first of several parables about the reign of God. This section of parables follows two low points in Jesus’ ministry. First, his forerunner and cousin, John the Baptist, has appeared to have second thoughts about who Jesus is. John is in prison (what kind of a reward is that for a faithful servant of the Messiah?) so he sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus again if he really is the Messiah. Imagine losing the trust of the one sent to announce your coming.

Secondly, the Pharisees have now accused Jesus of being in partnership with Satan; and they are trying to find a way to destroy him. Imagine your fellow Christians maligning and plotting to destroy you. It is in this context that Jesus speaks this parable. Only in this parable, God’s Word is likened not to rain, but to seed. The creative, liberating and saving Word of God is showered upon the world as liberally and generously as seed is scattered in Palestine; not in neatly ploughed and furrowed rows, but on all kinds of earth without distinction; hard worn paths where it can easily be spotted and eaten by birds; rocky ground where there is not enough soil to send down roots for water and nutrients to sustain life; among weeds which grow up quickly and choke out more fruitful plants; and fertile ground, which in spite of all these obstacles does exist, and against all odds, allows for God’s Word to take deep root and actually yield the fruit it was intended to yield.

The odds are one out of four against the event that God’s Word will take root and grow – that it will yield the fruit it was intended to bear. The surprise is not that God’s word fails to grow and bring forth fruit – the odds are against it. The surprise is that there actually is fertile and receptive ground for God’s purposes to take root, his intentions to grow, his master design to come to fruition. But it does. And it does so in spite of numerous obstacles and discouraging odds.

The fact at which we should be astounded is not that there are so many sinners among us – including you and me, nor that there are so many obstacles to the growth of God’s kingdom. The astounding thing is that God succeeds, now and again, in making some of us into saints in spite of all the hindrances to his intentions. Some of us here at Christ Church are even now being made into holy people who allow God’s mercy and forgiveness, love and compassion to radiate through us into the community and the world at large – into lives which are hard-worn paths, into lives that are rocky and shallow, into lives that are choked with greed, envy, materialism, lust, and a host of other weeds which threaten to choke our capacity to receive and respond to God.

This morning we are reminded that the obstacles to the growth of God’s kingdom are many; and many are the failures to allow his Word and his ways to take root and bear fruit. But God succeeds in spite of the odds.

May we become and be God’s successes. May we be fertile ground for the seeds of his kingdom. May we be the means whereby God’s Word accomplishes that which he purposes and prosper in the thing for which he sent it.

 

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