With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding!

Text:  Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Theme:  "With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding"

5th Sunday after Pentecost

July 13, 2014

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.²⁰ The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

He "went out of the house and sat by the lake," it says.  Summer is good for that sort of thing -- getting out of the house and going to the lake.  Some did that on the 4th of Jly!   Were there mosquitoes?  We are not told.   "Summertime -- and the livin' is easy.  Catish are jumpin' and the cotton is high," says Gershwin.  We're in those Gershwin-esque days in the calendar year and the church year.  Where are we at -- at about the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost?  That's right; that's it.  After awhile, the Sundays -- like watercolors --  all start to run together. 

Speaking of color, green is prominent for the days of summer.   Biologically, it's chlorophyll that makes things green.  Spiritually and theologically, it's the Word of God that does that.  It "produces a crop," says Jesus in our text, "yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."  Indeed, with the Word of God the church is going green in the Jesus way of going green.

During summer, the good folks who put together our lectionary give us a bushel basketful of the stories Jesus told.  Everyone loves a good story!  The church, in turn, sighs, sits back, and lets the Lord spin a yarn.  They've been called "parables".  People gobbled them up -- like tomatoes from a farmer's market or from a church friend's garden.  One of the things people said about Jesus was that He "spoke with authority".  Crowds would hear Him "gladly".  One of the reasons why is that He was such the story-teller -- Jesus the raconteur.

One of the big tales he told, arguably one of the most famous, is the "Parable of the Sower."  In agri-business today, they don't speak of "sowing" seed.  They don't call farmers "sowers of seed".  What the farmer does with the seed is plant it.  Sowing -- tossing seeds hither and yon -- sounds careless.  I suppose it's okay if you're just looking for ground cover, but this sower is looking for a crop. So what a waste of good seed we observe in this story.  Isn't it better to plow, till, and furrow the field?  You've got to test the soil and prep the ground if you want to take the best crop to the farmer's market come harvest-time.

By the way, and just as an aside, this whole "soil testing" business was big in the Church Growth Movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Churches were called upon to "test the soil" and "prep the soil".  Simply put, you target the seed -- the message -- to people who look like you, dress like you, make roughly the same amount of money as you, have the same politics as you.  In this way, you can produce a crop.  You can have church growth.  If you see sense something sinister in this, you're not the only one.

Back to the story.  There goes the farmer.  Seeds are flying everywhere!  "Look out!  He's getting too close to the path.  It's seed, not birdfeed!  Whoa, back up!  Don't fling that good seed over in that thorn bush.  Don't spray the seed over that rock pile.  Nothing can grow on that."  The farmer -- or sower -- is really quite reckless. 

"Reckless" wasn't my choice of words.   Martin Franzmann, a theologian and lyricist, put it this way.  Speaking of the seed of the Word of God, and, indeed, putting today's gospel in lyrical form, he writes:

Though some be snatched and some be scorched

And some be choked and matted flat,

The sower sows his heart cries out,

"Oh, what of that, and what of that?"

The sower sows his reckless love

Scatters abroad the goodly seed,

Intent alone that all may have

The wholesome loaves that we all need.

Parables aren't just yarns spun to a yawning audience.  They are earthly stories with divine meaning, with heavenly meaning.  And they always have a point of comparison.  "The kingdom of God is like...," said Jesus so often.  Then He would go on to make a comparison.  Here Jesus compares Himself to the reckless, careless sower.  The seed He spreads abroad is the Word of God, the good news of His Kingdom.

We are not ground cover.  We are created to bear fruit -- to carry the analogy through.  If there is to be fruit, there must first be the seed. 

It's not that the soil is unimportant.  Soil can be receptive or unreceptive -- as Jesus clearly pointed out.  "What kind of fool am I?"  No.  It's "What kind of soil am I?"  What kind of soil are we here at First Presbyterian? 

It's one thing to read the Word of God.  It's another thing to hear the Word of God.  It's yet another thing to study the Word of God -- alone or with a group.  Read it, hear it, or study it?  It makes no difference if it's not met with UNDERSTANDING!  Jesus says: 

The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

I saw a fascinating picture last week; actually it was two pictures in one.  On the left side was a young woman.  Behind her was the American flag.  In her left hand she held the Bible.  In her right hand she held an AK-47 assault rifle.  On the right side was another woman wearing a veil.  In her left hand she held the Koran.  In her right hand she, too, held an AK-47 assault rifle.  Were I to caption that picture, I'd only need three words:  lack of understanding.

Far better than the picture, is a short Bible verse I came across again last week.  Actually, it's about half of a verse.  And forget all the fancy modern translations.  I like the old King James on this one, so I'll read it right out of Grandma's Bible.  It's Proverbs 4:7b:  "With all thy getting, get understanding."

We're all so very much into getting:  we want to get well; we want to get smart; we want to get rich; we want to get a tax refund; we want to get our country back on track; we want to get a job; we want to get a new car; we want to get someone or something that makes us feel better about ourselves; we want to get out of church on time to beat the Baptists to the buffet! 

The writer of Proverbs, likely King Solomon, takes them all on:  "With all thy getting, get understanding."

If we truly wish to produce a crop, to produce goodness for God, for others, and for ourselves, then we seek to understand the Word of God.

That Word will kill you.    "The Law kills," the Scriptures declare.  When a seed is sown in the ground, it dies.  "But if it dies," says Jesus, "it produces much fruit."  What emerges from the death of the seed is a new life altogether.  It is the Gospel that does that; it is the good news that God so loved the world that He gave that Son who told the parable of the sower.  He gave that Son into death and raised Him from the grave gloriously so that we might live free, live forgiven, and live to bear much fruit.

My hope and dream is that we always be a church that understands the Word.  "With all thy getting, get understanding."  When the Word is understood, a bumper crop will soon be ready for harvest.

Amen.