Proper 10 Year A
July 10, 2005
Fr. Ralph Carskadden

Cliff Mass, the meteorologist who predicts the weather on KUOW every Thursday says that Summer weather usually arrives in the Northwest around the second week in July – and true to form, warm clear days will begin this coming Tuesday.

Summer often brings us into close (oftentimes too close) proximity to family – children out of school, families taking time to go on vacation together – trapped, in some cases for long periods in cars and vans or in seemingly endless lines in airports and amusement parks. There are reunions and picnics. The classic family dynamics of older versus younger siblings, parental favoritism (or perceived favoritism) all can take on a certain intensity in the heat of summer.

Summer is also a time for many of us to bask in the joys of gardening – trying our hand at planting and growing our own produce – and about now harvesting the first fruits, local strawberries are a favorite of mine – not those big flashy pumped up strawberries from California that travel without bruising and last for weeks on the grocery shelves, but the juicy, red all the way through, modest in size but packed with taste local berries from Marysville that have a shelf life of hours but provide a taste that lingers in the memory for years.

Family dynamics and gardening – quintessential summer experiences. And through these experiences we glimpse, perhaps, something about God at work in our lives.

For instance – in the on-going Genesis reading we have the story of the twins, Esau and Jacob. The children of Isaac and his wife Rebecca, the twins began fighting while they were still in their mother’s womb. Like their father, their birth was seen as divine intervention – an answer to prayer. They came out looking different from each other and their lives took very diverse directions. Esau was red and hairy, Jacob was light in color with smooth skin. Esau was the first born – but he came out of the womb with his brother Jacob clutching at his heel. Esau loved to chase game and hunt – and was his father’s favorite. Jacob was more of a stay at home shepherd guy – his mother’s favorite. (Ancient though their story is – it seems so very contemporary – my older brother had red hair, was dad’s favorite, liked hunting and fishing and made a career in the military – I had black hair, still care for my aged mother.............but I digress).

In the Genesis story today we find Jacob at home making lentil stew when Esau comes in exhausted from chasing game. In exchange for dinner Esau sells his birthright as the first born. Sometime later we will hear how Jacob, egged on by his mother, tricked Esau out of their blind father’s blessing. Smooth talking, lying, devious – Jacob, the one who at birth pulled his brother’s leg, is, in many ways, not an attractive character. And yet it was Jacob whom God had chosen to fulfill the promise to Abraham and Sarah. How many times in our families we use our own criteria to decide who God favors, who is best, who is “nice” only to be surprised at God’s penchant for the younger, the weaker, least attractive, the most unlikely. Might this story invite us to look with new eyes at the other members of our families? Might we also look differently at, say, the folks who sleep in the shelter of this church’s front entrance each night? In light of this saga might we revise our list for those we invite to join us for worship and fellowship?

Who, we might ask is fertile ground for hearing of God’s love and bearing fruit in their lives, who might be most receptive to hearing the biblical stories of God’s preferences and finding their own destinies changed and transformed? And that question brings us to consider farming, gardening, and the story of the sower and the various surfaces onto which he threw seed one day – the gospel for today.

The story is part parable and part allegory. As a parable it is a teaching device used by Jesus – it was a story that seemed familiar on one level but it also served as a kind of mirror held before the hearers – who too late probably, recognized it wasn’t a story of sowing seed but an allegory for their own receptivity to God’s message. Most American farmers – and all home gardeners know to prepare the ground before sowing seed. Seed can be expensive and we want results so we prepare the ground, perhaps fertilize and then place the seed – covering and watering as per package instructions. But the sower in the gospel story doesn’t seem concerned about expense of the seed nor prejudging where the ground will be most fruitful. This sower is indiscriminate, prodigal, lavish, wasteful we would say – tossing the seed everywhere he goes. Some of the results are predictable – seed eaten by birds, ground too hard for the seed to sprout, too shallow to sustain real growth – the problem with weeds - have we recognized ourselves yet? But, amazingly, some ground yields a hundredfold harvest– a staggering amount – some yields sixty fold – still remarkable– some thirty – excellent – have we recognized ourselves yet?

Who, we might ask is fertile ground for hearing and responding to God’s love?

Quote from Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian and pastor in Detroit in the 1920’s. Reflecting on his own congregation he said that the church sometimes resembles “ a little paradise on earth in which people are decent but not kind, honest but not sacrificial.” Using the allegory of soil we might say that Niebuhr observed that Christians are often shallow ground – the seed of the gospel can sprout but not flourish, survive but not bear fruit –

or the fruit we bear can be like California strawberries which might look good on the outside, have amazing institutional shelf life – but aren’t tasty, juicy, succulent, flavorful, life imparting, memorable.

Summer will arrive on Tuesday, Cliff Mass has prophesied it and I expect it to come true.

It can be a time for intense family experiences –for discovering God at work in our natural families, our parish family, the larger civic family of which are also members; a time for savoring the first fruits – delighting in all that grows and blooms, being moved to awe, wonder and gratitude to God who has made it all for good, for delight, for sharing and for blessing; and to find our experiences to be parables, allegories, rich with significance, pregnant with possibilities for change – that our lives, as Mother Melissa reminded us last week might be transformed, not just improved! Niebuhr would add: not just decent, but kind, not just honest but sacrificial. In the words of today’s collect, that we may know and understand what things we ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them, through Jesus Christ our Lord.