Rev. Peter K. Ackerman
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church
Proper 10, Year A
July 10, 2011
The Moveable Seed
Back when I was starting out as a Production Assistant, I was working freelance in making television commercials. I was hired by one company and on the day before filming began they asked me to go up, early in the morning to the rooftop of the Million Dollar Hotel where we would begin shooting the spot the next morning. My purpose was to stand in the same place every half an hour and take a picture of the roof so that the director could understand which direction the shadows from the hotel’s giant sign, which rose above the rooftop, would travel. I was to arrive at 7am and take four pictures, one every half an hour for two hours. Easy enough.
Thus, as instructed I checked in with the desk clerk and found my way, via elevator to the roof level, and as instructed I went through the doorway and onto the roof. So far so good, until I realized that once the door closed behind me, that it was locked, and I could not open it up from the outside. I was basically trapped. I took my pictures, but used the time in between to try to figure a way out; a safe way out. Except for a rickety looking emergency ladder, which to get to meant taking a small leap downwards, there was no good option for me but to wait.
So I took my four pictures, and some additional ones until suddenly the door to the roof opened as a hotel maintenance person came out to do something. Imagine my elation. I was free! With my new found release I was able to get back to the rest of my day. That feeling of movement from a place where one is trapped to an area where goodness abounds is shared within our Gospel reading this morning.
Jesus tells us about a sower who scatters seeds extravagantly on the ground, and those seeds find themselves in varying conditions which relate to their ability to take root and grow. Some are carelessly strewn about upon ground where there is not soil. Others are in conditions of partial soil where they can begin to sprout, but never quite have enough room to go any further, while we are reminded of the good and abundant soil where roots can anchor, nutrients can feed the organism, and the plant can grow and flourish.
Jesus explains that this parable is an example of our own spiritual journey. Like the seeds we may find ourselves in various types of soil throughout our lives. From this we may get the understanding: “if I spend time in worship, reading and prayer; if I concentrate on living out what Jesus teaches me; and if I positively respond to the movement of the Holy Spirit and more then I am putting myself into that fruitful ground and because of that all that I am, and all that I do will have the opportunity to flourish.
Likewise, we can say that if someone pays no mind to their spiritual welfare, if they ignore any sense of a moral compass because it does not feed their individual desires, and simply ignore the needs of anyone else in the world, that person can be considered to be not on the best ground.
One trap we can fall into is the if we take this parable so literal that we come to the conclusion as seeds that we are stuck where we are, and there is no way out of the ground we happened tossed upon. Like being locked onto a rooftop, feeling helpless and trapped in our life is not a good thing, and our lectionary this morning helps us to see the grace that abounds.
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul reminds us that we are more than an immovable seed; in fact we are more than just merely trapped in our humanity. Paul writes: “…you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.” This is the grace that we can celebrate today. We are more than flesh, bone, and blood; we are adopted by God, loved by God, and given the opportunity to bask in the Good soil that contains God’s Word and Sacraments.
Returning to our Gospel, it will be helpful to understand that a parable is meant to hearken in them a sense of understanding for the hearers of the story. As author and Episcopal Christian Educator Jennifer Gamber put it is “(parables call) to mind our own experiences” (Your Faith Your Life, Jennifer Gamber, Morehouse Publishing, 2009, p.42).
So the use of the seed and ground imagery in this story is to assist us in understanding what it is like to be in areas of our life that feed spiritual growth and action as well as those locations that do not. Can you imagine areas in your life where the location does not allow your faith to take root and grow? Are there areas that have potential, but due to you, the circumstances, or the location that God’s fruitfulness gets choked off? Are there areas in your life, in addition to your parish, where the ground is good for the kind of grown God calls in and around you?
The good news is that the parable does not ask us to be immovable; the story does not suggest that we are stuck where we are. Instead as humanity we have the choice and the ability to move us to the best area we can for God to work in us and through us in this world. As always, the model of how to do this can be found in Jesus’ action in the reading this morning.
In the opening of our reading we are told that Jesus is sitting beside the lake, but the crowd was so great we can imagine that, with him on the ground, surrounded by so many people only a few could see and or hear him. Thus his message would, like the seed on so-so soil, would not spread to too many members of that group. Jesus does not allow what he has to say to be choked off, so what does he do? He moves his location; he puts himself on a boat in a lake. He goes to a place where all of the multitude can see him he goes onto the water where the natural acoustics of the water allow the gathered to hear him, he adjusts his location ever so slightly to that the seed of information he scatters falls upon the abundant and has the potential to bear good fruit.
The Good News this morning is that we do not have to feel trapped in our lives as we can follow Jesus’ example and make whatever necessary course corrections to guide us to the good soil. With God we are not trapped on a figurative rooftop unable to get out and to be of any use. With Jesus a door is always open for us to go through, the doorway is always available to take us to those locations Christ can take root, bear fruit, and bring forth God’s holiness into the world around us that needs it so badly.
Amen.
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