1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 I speak in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Amen. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:21,000 So this week I encountered some unexpected wisdom while I was scrolling through Instagram. 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:26,000 This is not an entirely unheard of experience for me, being both a good millennial and a 5 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,000 self-professed church nerd. 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:34,000 My social media is rarely free of people posting about their theology or sharing scripture, 7 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,000 quotes, or photos of things that brought them closer to God. 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:43,000 But this week, one of the things that I saw really stuck with me, something shared by 9 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 our Diocesan Youth Department page. 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,000 This month, several of our youth from the Diocese of Alabama have joined hundreds of 11 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:57,000 other youth from around the Episcopal Church at EYE, or the Episcopal Youth Event. 12 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:02,000 It happens every three years, and it largely mirrors the general convention of the Episcopal 13 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:03,000 Church. 14 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:09,000 Youth are invited to make decisions that will affect their generation and the church, and 15 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:14,000 they get a chance to worship together, to learn from each other, and to see what God 16 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,000 is up to in the various corners of this church. 17 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:24,000 Our Diocesan Youth page has been sharing some of the highlights of their experience in Baltimore, 18 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:30,000 including some pieces of wisdom that they received from various preachers and speakers. 19 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000 One that they shared was a short but profound quote from the right Reverend Dion Johnson, 20 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000 the 11th Bishop of the Diocese of Missouri. 21 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,000 And it read, 22 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:47,000 The only gospel that some people will read in this world is you. 23 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:53,000 The only good news that some people will hear is you. 24 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,000 And I'll say that again. 25 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:01,000 The only gospel that some people will read in this world is you. 26 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:08,000 The only good news that some people will hear is you. 27 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:13,000 What a gift I think it is for our young people to hear that they, too, are part of nothing 28 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000 short than the ongoing mission and ministry of God. 29 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,000 A phrase I so often hear is that our youth and children are the future of the church, 30 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:30,000 and while that is true, it misses the greater point that they, like we, are now part of the church, 31 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,000 that they are now part of the ongoing work of God, 32 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:40,000 that they, too, have the ability now to share the good news of God's love with the world. 33 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,000 But I don't think it's just the youth that need to be reminded that each and every day of our lives 34 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 is full of the possibility to keep turning ourselves towards God 35 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:55,000 and then in turn to share the good news that we hear and receive with the world. 36 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,000 As church participation and membership around the country continues to decline, 37 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:06,000 the reminder that we may be the only gospel, the only good news of Christ that others receive 38 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:11,000 reminds us how urgent and imperative it is that we take seriously 39 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 what it means to be part of sharing God's love with the world. 40 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:19,000 In today's gospel reading, we hear the first of a string of parables 41 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000 about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew's gospel. 42 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,000 In fact, this is the first time that Jesus uses the word parable in Matthew. 43 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,000 The parables are profound and prolific in Jesus' teaching ministry. 44 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:38,000 If we ask any random sampling of Christians what their favorite Bible stories are, 45 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,000 I am certain that more than a few parables will show up. 46 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Through the parables, Jesus reveals the nature of God, the nature of God's Kingdom, 47 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,000 and the nature of our place within that Kingdom. 48 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:56,000 The parables are not allegories. They are not one-for-one retellings of a story. 49 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,000 They don't have a simple moral or a teaching easily grasped. 50 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000 Parables are not tall tales. They are not morality stories. 51 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,000 But rather the parables of Jesus are designed and expertly told 52 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:16,000 to help us more fully begin to understand God, who God is and what God is up to. 53 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:21,000 In this parable, like all parables, Jesus will use everyday items 54 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:26,000 in order to make heady concepts more real and more relatable. 55 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:31,000 In this parable, we have things like a sower. We have seeds, soil, a harvest. 56 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Everyday items so ubiquitous to the human story that even we now, 57 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,000 some 2,000 years in the future, have no problem understanding their importance, 58 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,000 how they relate to each other, and the place that they hold in society. 59 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:51,000 In this chapter of Matthew alone, over the course of the next several parables in this chapter, 60 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:57,000 Jesus will use things like weeds, crops, mustard seeds, yeast, buried treasure, 61 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,000 pearls, and fishing nets to help his listeners both now and then 62 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:06,000 to begin to more fully grapple with the nature of God. 63 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,000 Unlike most parables though, our parable in today's Gospel, the parable of the sower, 64 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,000 includes a handy interpretation guide. 65 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:20,000 In fact, potentially most biblical scholars think that this might have been added on later by the early church, 66 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,000 but regardless, more often than not, we do not get a parable explained to us. 67 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,000 Jesus usually leaves them unexplained. 68 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:34,000 And thereby, Jesus gives it greater power and greater ability to speak more fully 69 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:39,000 into the many different situations and times in which it will be told. 70 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:46,000 The parables invite us to question. They invite us to wonder and to ponder and to parse. 71 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:51,000 What does this parable mean for followers of Christ around the world? 72 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:57,000 What does this parable mean for the church as a whole as we seek to more closely follow Christ? 73 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:03,000 What does this parable mean in my own life, in my own ever-changing context? 74 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,000 In the case of the parables, the cliché does hold true. 75 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:11,000 The point is truly the journey, not simply the destination. 76 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:20,000 Grappling with the meaning of the parable reveals more to us than simply digesting a moral at face value. 77 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:25,000 In this parable, Jesus tells of a sower scattering seeds liberally and abundantly, 78 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:33,000 letting them fall on all sorts of soil, some good and conducive to growth and others not so much. 79 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:37,000 Broadly, this parable is about the hearing of God's word. 80 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:44,000 Some will hear and it will change their lives and it will change the world because of it. Others not so much. 81 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000 From that view, this parable becomes a conversation on the kind of people that we are. 82 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,000 This conversation might invite questions like, what's the soil of my heart like? 83 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,000 How can I make my heart more conducive for the growth of God's love? 84 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,000 How can I help those around me cultivate their own soil? 85 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:06,000 What are the things that I need to add and what are the things that I need to take away? 86 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:15,000 Of course, on top of these great questions, our own context and our own lenses can be overlaid. 87 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:19,000 In the light of my stumbling upon my unexpected Instagram wisdom, 88 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:27,000 I read this parable with a lens of how we sow God's word in the world around us. 89 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:34,000 If Jesus can be understood to be the sower scattering seeds of the knowledge of God's all-encompassing love, 90 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,000 and if we in our own time are invited to take up the work of Jesus, 91 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:44,000 then we too are called to spread God's love liberally and abundantly in our own lives. 92 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:49,000 The sower is not concerned about where the seeds land. 93 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:53,000 The sower is not concerned about the condition of the soil. 94 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:59,000 The sower is not worried about the growth. The sower knows that God will give that. 95 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:05,000 The sower is not worried about deciding who is worth it and who is not. 96 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:10,000 The sower is not concerned with judgment or with prudence or with distinguishing what is what. 97 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:14,000 The sower is simply sharing the word of God with the world. 98 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:21,000 And that sharing is extravagant. That sharing is almost wasteful, wonderfully so. 99 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:26,000 And that sowing is secure in the knowledge that there is always more of God's saving word, 100 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:31,000 that it will never run out, that that sharing can and will and should continue 101 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:39,000 until every last one of God's lost and beloved sheep hears their own name and finally returns home. 102 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,000 Like the right Reverend Dionne Johnson reminded our youth, 103 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:46,000 there is a world full of people who need to hear the gospel, 104 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:51,000 a world full of people who need to know that they are also called beloved and cherished. 105 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:57,000 And perhaps you are the one being called to tell them that. 106 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:05,000 That's what this parable said to me this week and I sincerely wonder what the parable is saying to you. 107 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:10,000 What are you hearing in the parable as you grapple with it, as you let the lens of your own life 108 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,000 help you interpret where God is calling you? 109 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:21,000 The nature of God and God's kingdom is vast and it is wonderful and it is impossible to grasp on this side of heaven. 110 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:28,000 But God invites us to try anyway, to keep seeking and to keep searching. 111 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,000 We've got several more weeks of parables in our lectionary 112 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:36,000 and I cannot wait to hear how God is speaking to each of us through them. 113 00:09:36,000 --> 00:10:02,000 Amen.