Episodes
Sunday Jul 13, 2014
Native Language
Sunday Jul 13, 2014
Sunday Jul 13, 2014
A sermon preached by
Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC July 13, 2014, the fifth Sunday
after Pentecost.
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” Perhaps you have heard (or said) that before. Words hold all sorts of power and meanings. Sometimes words become more meaningful or less—based solely on what we know (or think we know) of the person using the words. And anyone who has ever been in a human relationship of any kind (and that would be all of us) knows that two people can be using the same words but not be communicating at all. “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." This phenomenon is interesting when applied to the task of preaching. I once discovered after four years of preaching in one community that a member of the congregation had been hearing all sorts of things from me that I had literally never said and were, in fact, the complete opposite of my theology. And why? Because I am from Oklahoma and talk about Jesus a lot. Even in cases where folks may not have such wildly skewed perspectives based on their personal baggage, and even when folks have been engaging with the same preacher for years, on any given Sunday what people hear may have little to do with what the preacher thought she was saying. This becomes particularly challenging in the time of transition between voices in the pulpit. Because it takes time for a preacher to come to know the people with whom she is communicating…and it takes time for the people to become attuned to the preacher’s idiom and style. I’m reminded of when my niece was very young and my mother (Mimi) would be trying to say or do something that was normally handled by my sister. My niece would correct Mimi, saying, “Mommy does it this way,” or, “Mommy says it like this.” Used to make Mimi crazy. But this is normal. We grow accustomed to certain ways of speaking and acting and changes can take time to fully receive.
Today we hear Jesus say, “Let anyone with ears listen!” Jesus wants to be heard. And he certainly has his work cut out for him in trying to communicate the good news of the kingdom. His is a new voice and so much of what he says and does is counter to expectations. He challenges the idea that “kingdom” means worldly power and political dominance; he cares for people others deem unworthy or unclean; he shakes the “family tree” loyalties, so strong in the primarily Jewish and Jewish-Christian context within which Matthew is writing, proclaiming instead that fidelity to God is the thing that makes us family. The message that Jesus proclaims is not the “us versus them” kind of message folks are used to, even though so many folks in his own day right up until our own try to make it so. Jesus shares a word that is not sectarian, but rather for all people, like seed scattered without being careful where it lands. And from the time he first spoke until now, the word that Jesus brings is heard and received in all sorts of ways.
That is what today’s parable is about. It is meant to describe how “the word of the kingdom” is received and the various consequences that follow. The hardened soil of a path, rocky soil, and soil overgrown with thorns are used as metaphors for folks in whom the “seed,” the word of the kingdom, fails to grow and flourish. Good soil allows the word to bear fruit beyond imagination! This seems fairly straightforward and we might all rather quickly say that we “get it.” But what do we “get”? What is the “word of the kingdom” that Jesus wants people to receive?
I would like to suggest that the “word of the kingdom” is not only the wise sayings of a rabbi who lived a long time ago, but is also the PERSON, Jesus, who embodied the word and will of God. Imagine that in our parable today Jesus freely offers himself to everyone, hoping that his love and friendship will be received, take root in “good soil” and bear fruit. If this is the case, then what we’re talking about here is not an intellectual concept to which we are asked to assent, but a kind of relationship that we are invited to cultivate. It is a familial relationship in which we acknowledge our kinship as sisters and brothers, together with Jesus, in the one family of God. This, together with the added benefit of providing a less patriarchal version of the teaching, is the reason I often use the word “kin-dom” to describe the reality of life that we are invited by Jesus to share.
Jesus shows us what life in the kin-dom looks like. He doesn’t just talk about it or tell nice little stories about it. Jesus both speaks the word of the kin-dom and IS the Word of the kin-dom. And that word is love—God’s love in flesh. Today’s parable speaks of the challenges of hearing and receiving this word of love. Why would love be challenging to fully receive? Well, Jesus speaks of three reasons.
First, Jesus says that some simply don’t understand it. Real love doesn’t make sense when you have never been loved or when you have never witnessed a healthy, loving relationship. Jean Vanier is the founder of L’Arche, communities where men and women with mental disabilities and their assistants create a home for one another. Vanier powerfully describes the state that some folks arrive—neglected and never treated with dignity, care, or love. He talks about how difficult and painful the journey is to help these angry, wounded souls trust the friendship and love that Vanier and others offer. To believe that you are worthy of love, to believe that you are capable of offering love and having it received is so difficult when all you have experienced is rejection, distrust, fear, violence or survival at all costs. It is also hard to understand the freely-offered love that Jesus gives when all you’ve known is a kind of quid pro quo that requires that love be earned before it is given. In our world where everything’s for sale and very little is free, God’s amazing grace and love often simply don’t compute. I know folks who have been in church most of their lives tell me that they struggle to truly understand what it means to say that God loves them.
Next, Jesus says that some people may understand the kind of love that is offered, but when giving and receiving that kind of love brings trouble, they aren’t able to persevere. The love that Jesus offers makes us vulnerable; it makes us aware of our own, small love and of our dependence. The love that Jesus offers invites us to learn how to receive instead of (perhaps pridefully) always being the one who gives. Jesus’ love calls forth repentance, self-sacrifice and humility. To truly receive the love that Jesus offers means that Jesus’ friends become our friends—and that means we will find ourselves standing in solidarity with the poor, the dispossessed, the oppressed. The love that Jesus offers means that we have to learn to love ourselves even as we love others and sometimes that may bring us into conflict with people close to us. None of this is easy and even those who intellectually understand the beauty and benefits of what is being offered may find themselves “falling away.”
Finally, Jesus teaches that some folks hear the word of God’s love but allow money, possessions, status and other things of the world to speak more loudly until the word of love becomes drowned out. Even when we try not to let this happen, it is so difficult not to fall back, out of fear or habit, into a reliance upon material things for our sense of security or self-worth. It’s not that we don’t need to appropriately care for our needs and the needs of our families. In another place, Jesus is clear that God knows that we need clothes, food, and shelter. (Mt. 6.32) The problem comes when we allow our anxious drive to acquire to take priority over our relationships, when we allow anxiety over material things to strangle our ability to share life and love with others; or when we are tempted to love things and use people instead of loving people and using things. Some may struggle to receive love because they have invested all of theirs in objects with whom they can have no real relationship.
While there are certainly challenges, I would suggest that, just as plants are made to receive sunlight and water so that they can grow and produce fruit, we are MADE with ears to hear and hearts to receive the word of the kin-dom which is the steadfast, merciful, prodigal love of God. Love is our native language, the language that formed us and shaped us and breathed life into us. It is only the painful, complicated, broken ways of the world that cause us to forget, that trample down the earth of our souls, that throw rocks into the garden, that sprout snares and temptations in our hearts that greedily hog the rich earth, keeping new seeds of love from taking root.
The good news is that language can be learned or re-learned and any ground can be cultivated. Even earth that has been abused or neglected can be lovingly brought back to a state in which it can receive and sustain seeds that will grow. I have good friends who are landscape architects. They have taught me a great deal about “native plants” and the wisdom of planting things in a place they are naturally designed to grow. When we worked together on a garden installation, we not only had to prepare the soil that was full of trash, old roots, rocks, and overgrowth, but we also took care to plant specimens that would thrive in that particular location. You should see the fruits of that labor!
This is what I hear Jesus teaching us today: Our hearts are created by God to be open and receptive, to give and to receive love and care, to be in relationship with God, with other people, and with the creation as one family within the kin-dom. While our hearts may need a little cultivation—digging down to remove the debris of violence or neglect in our lives—what we are offered in Christ are seeds that are native to us…the word of the kin-dom, the word of love and faith and trust, is our native language. It WANTS to take root and grow. Jesus the Christ, the very word and reality of God’s love, wants to grow and take root in our hearts, to fill us and form us and give us strength and life.
Even when it seems least likely, God is able to bring new life and transformation, deeper love and mercy, generosity and kindness, healing and peace beyond understanding. It can happen in those we might be tempted to write-off as too hardened, rocky, or thorn-riddled. It can happen in you and in me. And through the seeds of God’s love planted within your heart, a great harvest—or perhaps just one small seed full of possibility—will be shared with others, itself a word of the kin-dom looking to take root in the native soil of someone else’s heart. // What do you hear Jesus saying to you today? It might not have anything to do with what I think I’ve said, but if I’ve learned anything from my study and prayer with this parable today, then I’ll trust that God’s word will land where it needs to land and—by grace most of all—will offer new life and a harvest of love beyond the telling.
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