|
|
|
We’ve just listened to the familiar parable about the sower, a fellow who lavishly sows his expensive and precious seeds indiscriminately and all over the place, whether upon good or bad ground, it matters not. Obviously, however, if his seeds are to sprout and grow to maturity, they must land on good ground, meaning that—speaking strictly in human terms—the sower is completely and utterly foolish, in that he knowingly wastes three quarters of his seeds whenever he sows! But, Jesus tells his disciples—speaking strictly in divine terms—the one quarter of those seeds that fall on rich soil produced fruit in abundance, a hundred- or sixty- or thirty- fold. Speaking strictly in human terms, that’s quite a handsome return on the sower’s investment! “Whoever has ears ought to hear,” Jesus tells his disciples. What does all of this mean speaking strictly in divine terms? Well, if Jesus was giving his disciples advice about how to think as successful venture capitalists do, here’s what Jesus wanted his disciples to hear: “Don’t expect most of your investments to pay off. But, those investments that do pay off must pay off really big time. So, you need to cover all of those losses. That is, if you want to net a big-time return on your total investment.” Is this “gospel of venture capitalism” what Jesus wanted his disciples to hear? I seriously doubt it, although it is sound advice for venture capitalists. Unfortunately, this is the stuff that makes for life in this world, not the stuff that makes for life in the next. I also don’t think the image of “soil” that Jesus invokes in this parable is suggesting there are four different types of people who can be positioned along a continuum. On the one end of the continuum, there are those really “eager beavers” who are ready to receive and nurture God’s word. They’re all whooped up, just like St. Peter. In their minds, they won’t ever fail to stand up for God’s word. Then, on the opposite end of the continuum, there are those who are completely and utterly incapable of receiving God’s word. Like Judas, they’re extremely busy about the things of this world. What counts most is what’s in it for them. Jesus would seem to be saying: “Preach to whomever. Who is not as important as what. Give them God’s word. It’s up to them to respond.” Now, that’s some pretty good advice, too. Whether people want to hear God’s word or not—no matter where along that continuum they are located—our job as Jesus’ disciples is to speak God’s word—“to sow the seeds,” so to speak—whether they want to hear it or not. The problem with this interpretation of the parable of the sower and his seeds is that the only place where those seeds have any chance of surviving at all is in the good soil. Preach only to the good? “No,” Jesus seems to be saying, “go and preach to everyone...to the ends of the earth, if you have to.” But, it might be asked, “What difference would it make to preach to anyone else but the good? Those seeds ‘ain’t going nowhere’ except perhaps to feed the birds.” I think it more likely Jesus was suggesting to his disciples that each of them at one time or another in their lives will be characterized by each of those four types of soil. During the course of their lives, they will run the whole gamut of the entire continuum, from good soil to bad soil. There are those days when Jesus’ disciples receive God’s word and nurture it fully and completely. It will come to fruition in their words as they reveal God’s word to those around them. There are those other days when Jesus’ disciples nurture God’s word for the most part but not completely. It will come to fruition and, yes, they will reveal God’s word to others in the words they utter, but only when convenient. Then, there are those days when Jesus’ disciples will nurture God’s word only a very little bit. While it does come to fruition, God’s word withers and fades almost as quickly as it is spoken. Why? It has no roots because Jesus’ disciples are nurturing other, more selfish and immediate interests. Lastly, there are those days when Jesus’ disciples will not nurture God’s word at all. This will become amply evident simply by listening to them. Vacuous, empty words. Utterly devoid of any semblance of truth and full of selfish reasons explaining “why not.” That was “back then” and this is “now.” What does this teaching have to do with us? This interpretation of the parable of the sower and his seeds reminds me about baseball. Go to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, and take a close look at all of those baseball superstars. Take an especially close look at those who weren’t pitchers and take note of their lifetime batting averages. For most, they are somewhere in the low .300’s. That’s one hit every three times at bat. Wiped from memory are all of those strike outs, ground outs to the infielders, and those fly outs to the outfielders. Those failed attempts at bat comprise seven out of every ten times those guys were at bat in the major leagues. And, they’re considered not just “successful,” but “Hall of Famers.” When one’s baseball career is over, it’s those three out of every ten hits that counts, not the other seven. This interpretation of the parable of the sower and his seeds also reminds me about golf. For hackers like me, it’s that one great shot that brings us back to the course, firm in the belief that we will be able to replicate that one shot on every hole during the next round of eighteen holes. Notice how that one shot obscures all of those truly awful shots. Even after a truly awful round, it isn’t the score that’s remembered―painful and embarrassing as it is―but that one shot. That is what changes everything. So, I’d venture to say, I think Jesus is telling his disciples to develop some perspective about themselves. Disciples are human, all too human. They are not God. Imperfection characterizes disciples not the perfection that characterizes God. We’ve not nurtured the seed of God’s word in three quarters of our lives. So what? What’s the standard of judgment being used? What really matters is that the seeds of God’s word are nourished and grow to maturity in that one quarter of our lives because that is what is important—the one success, not the three failures. As Brit Hume said about his colleague Tony Snow yesterday, “It’s not the number of days that’s important, it’s the amount of good we do.” Take, for example, the trouble the Rev. Jesse Jackson got himself into this past week. I’m sure most of you have seen the video clip where Rev. Jackson is speaking under his breath to another fellow at a political gathering. Believing the microphone was turned off—but, much to the Rev. Jackson’s embarrassment, it wasn’t—the Rev. Jackson related his disgust that the presumptive nominee of the Democrat party, Barak Obama, was “talking down to Blacks.” Graphically relating to the other fellow what he intended to do to Mr. Obama for his arrogance, Rev. Jackson’s words have been played and replayed around the world, much to the Rev. Jackson’s chagrin. Here’s one of Jesus’ disciples—a “man of the cloth”—who has done much good to advance gospel values. But, even the Rev. Jackson—just like you and me—doesn’t always nurture the word of God within and the Rev. Jackson’s words—and ours as well—demonstrate that fact for the entire world to behold. St. Paul wrote in today’s epistle that “all creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God” (Romans 8:19). The only way God will be revealed to all creation that eagerly awaits what we have to reveal is as we—the children of God—reveal God to all creation. To do that, we must nurture and allow God’s word to take root in our lives—especially that one quarter of those days—so that it will multiply...thirty-, sixty-, or even, one hundred-fold. That’s why it’s important to contemplate the degree to which our words reveal just how well God’s word has taken root in and matured in our souls. Those ninety days of the year can overcome those two hundred and seventy six days! Now, that’s good news! Think about it… On many days, we’ve all shared jokes and had good laughs. Perhaps some of those jokes were funny and witty. However, some days perhaps those jokes were bitingly barbed, cutting, or sarcastic. Or, perhaps those jokes made fun of or teased someone because of clothing, skin color, body size, or bodily disfigurement. Perhaps we’ve had a tension-filled day and our inability to deal with the stress overwhelmed us and we uttered words and statements that were mean, demeaning, or abusive, intentionally hurled to inflict hurt upon another person. Sure, when we are discovered to be the author of those remarks and it’s brought to our attention, we say “I’m sorry” or “I regret what I said.” But, what we really mean is “I’m terribly embarrassed or ashamed because I got found out.” Like the Rev. Jackson, when we use bad words, we cross the line and, although we say we don’t mean what we said, the simple fact is that we meant what we said or we wouldn’t have said it in the first place. We uttered those bad words—meant to wound or humiliate someone else—because God’s word has not taken root nor has it flourished within. In truth, those bad words reveal absolutely nothing about the other person. No, they reveal our interior spiritual impoverishment—the fundamental lack of God’s word within—portraying the true state of our souls for all to behold. On the other hand, there are people who don’t use words to demean or abuse other human beings and who don’t speak negative and demeaning words to categorize and divide people. Like Jesus, they use good words, give other people hope, and even when the good word they use is intended to correct, it does not offend. The prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading likens good words like these to rain that falls from heaven and does not return without watering and helping the seeds—the word of God—to sprout, grow, and mature in other people. We’ve all experience these people whose “good fruits” have built us up rather than tear us down. The simple fact is that we’re not perfect. We have good days and we have bad days. While we’re striving for perfection as Jesus disciples, he has taught us that nourishing and bringing God’s word within us to maturity just one quarter of our days has all of the power to overcome those other three quarters of our days. Just as the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s bad words of this past week revealed his spiritual impoverishment, so too our bad words have revealed our spiritual impoverishment, because we have failed to nourish and bring into maturity the word of God for which “all creation awaits with eager expectation.” This is the challenge Jesus puts to his disciples by relating the parable of the sower and his seeds. Will that twenty-five percent of our lives flourish in such a way that one day we will be inducted into God’s Hall of Fame? Or, will there be no good fruit and we find ourselves inducted into the “Hall of Shame”?
|
|
|
HOMILY
