Listen To This
Text: Luke 8:4-15
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
The
farmer has to be crazy or maybe reckless, for who in their right mind would
take handfuls of seed and liberally scatter them upon hard paths, rocky ground,
and thorny earth? This is wasteful and
foolish at best, maybe even insane! Yet,
this is what we hear in our Gospel reading from this morning. The sower – that is to say, a farmer – goes upon
some land and casts seed upon hard paths, rocky ground, thorny earth, and dark
soil. He casts this seed everywhere –
big scoops of seed thrown far and wide – without seeming to care where it
lands.
We
should be thankful though that this farmer is not selective or stingy when he
scatters of the seed. Yes, we should be
thankful that this farmer scatters the seed far and wide, for the seed represents
the preaching of the Word of God into the ears, minds, and hearts of
mankind. That is right, the scattering
of the seed represents the proclamation of the Word of God and the different
types of land represent different hearers of the Word. Simply stated, right now as I preach,
metaphorically seed is being cast out upon you – the land. Indeed, from hundreds of thousands of pulpits
across the globe, seed is being cast onto various types of land and the Word of
God is proclaimed.
Considering
all of this, we are now confronted with a sobering question to consider. That question is this, since the Word of God
has been cast into ‘your’ ears, ‘your’ hearts, and ‘your’ minds, will it take
root or has it taken root? If it has
taken root within you, will it remain to the end?
Dear
friends, the Word of God has been cast upon you. It has been proclaimed into your ears; you
have heard the Word of God from this pulpit and lectern. However, if we are not careful, this Word
will go in one ear and out the other.
Yes, like seeds bouncing off of a hard path, the Word of God can bounce
off of us when we are careless, when we daydream, and when we don’t pay
attention to it. In other words, when we
are unmindful of the Word of God, the devil comes along like a wicked bird and
snatches it away, so that it is not received or remembered by us. Beware dear friends, Satan – the hellish bird
of prey and his despicable cohorts – love to come and snatch the Word of God
from inattentive ears, so that we do not believe and are not saved.
It
is most certainly true that there is a danger of you and me carelessly hearing
the Word of God, which leads me to ask: has the Word taken root, will the Word
take root, and will it remain with you? Has
the devilish bird of prey been devouring seed – the Word of God – that has
entered one ear and fallen out of the other ear?
There
are other times that the Word of God has been cast upon you from the pulpit and
you have heard it, resulting in your faith being strengthened. However, in this circumstance be mindful that
this faith can dry up and die. Yes, the Gospel-seed
is planted in you and me when it is preached; faith is created and grows;
however, this faith that is planted in you and me must be tended to – it must
be watered. The Word and Sacraments serve
that function though; they are given to you not only to create faith but
sustain it as well. As for all of this,
you and I must be watchful, because sufferings and struggles and trials will
come. As they come, they will scorch the
faith and we may forget to have this faith watered. Case and point: tragically, mankind has a way
of pulling within himself when trials come; it is easy to pull back and run
into hiding when pain comes upon us. But
beware that when the heat of trials come our way, that this faith is watered
and sustained, for without the Word and Sacraments faith dies.
There
is a danger of trials and suffering for you and for me, which leads me to ask,
has the Word taken root; will the Word take root; will it remain? Have the heat of trials and the heat of suffering
cut you off from the Word and Sacraments?
If
it isn’t the hellish bird stealing the Word of God or the lack of water and the
heat scorching our faith, then my friends, it is the thorns.
As
it has been stated before, the Word of God has been cast upon you. It has been proclaimed into your ears; you
have heard the Word of God from this pulpit and lectern, but as soon as it is
heard be alert, for weeds and thorns will come to choke and strangle your faith. Like thorns and weeds that choke a growing
plant, worries and pleasures of the world attack faith. Undeniably, this plant of faith cannot grow and
be sustained in the thick thorns of unbelief attached to worries about the
materials of life. If you are obsessed
by worldly cares and if your sole concern is how high you can climb and how
much you can establish your place in this world, faith will be choked out within
you. You see, nagging worry, the desire for empty pleasure, and chasing the
breath of cultural actually punctures and shreds faith, as well as the body and
mind.
There
is a danger with the cares and riches and pleasures of life, for they can choke
faith – smothering it into inexistence.
This lead me to ask, has the Word taken root; will the Word take root;
will it remain? Have the thorns and
weeds choked your faith?
Dear
friends, our parable from today’s Gospel reading is meant to show us that the seed
is not only lost when it falls on the beaten path and is eaten up by birds, but
that it is also lost when it withers without moisture and dies when it is
smothered in unbelief and worry. Furthermore,
the Lord in this parable does not want to show us why some believe and others
do not, but wants to deliver us a warning.
That warning is this: do not hear the Word of God in vain. You, who allow the Word to go into one ear
and out the other, listen! You, who are
within trials and risk your faith dying, listen! You, who spend more time worrying about the
checkbook than the Word of God, listen!
Yes, repent! You, who have ears, listen
and hear the Word of God!
Now,
it would be easy at this point for you and me to believe that we should try to
make our hearts into fertile soil. We
could say to ourselves, “I shall no longer be a harden path; I shall be rid of
rocky soil; I shall avoid the thorns.
Yes, I will be that good soil, so that the Word of God can prosper!”
Dear
friends, do not believe this lie that you can make your heart good; do not
believe that you can exterminate the pesky birds; do not believe that you can
rid yourself of the rocks in your soil; do not believe that you can kill the
thorns and weeds! No, the truth is that
when the farmer came to you and me to plant the Gospel-seed, it actually fell
on a hard-rock; and where there were not rocks, there were weeds; and where
there were not weeds there were birds in the air ready to devour the seed.[1] However, contrary to what you might think,
something profound happened. You, who
have ears, listen! God’s Word came to
your hard-heart. It came to your
ensnared ears. It came to your dried up
mind. The Gospel-seed was ‘driven’ into
you, and no matter how hard and how twisted and how dried up you were, the Word
broke through and granted you living faith.
You,
who have ears, listen! God’s Word is
like a mighty plow that comes to you and me.
Through the Law our hard-hearts are ground into a fine powder; the
conscious is heated and scorched to fine ash in repentance. The mighty plow of the Law brings you and me
to nothing and as nothing more than poor miserable sinners we shall not despair. We shall not despair for the Lord does not
despise the contrite of heart and He does not despise the broken hearted.
Dear
Baptized Saint, hear this most profound news of the Gospel that is 100% for
you. The Lord does not look for good
soil to fall into, but rather, He creates the soil for the Word of God to be
planted into - no matter how rocky, no matter how weedy, and no matter how
thorny. Yes, He chose you. Christ Jesus chose to endure sacrifice rather
than endure eternity without you. He
“chose to be devoured by the demons, strangled by the weeds of justice, buried
in the earth, that He might have and keep you as His own.”[2]
Furthermore,
God did not cast this seed into your ears, hearts, and minds one time and then
abandon you. Heaven’s no! God – the Holy Spirit – has called and
gathered you and me, placed us in this Christian church and promises to keep us
with Jesus Christ. As we are kept in the
one true faith in Christ Church we are daily and richly forgiven of all of our
sins. From the church, the seed of the
Gospel is generously scattered to you and to me week after week after week,
despite the attempts of the devil. From
Christ’s church, we are reminded of our baptism, despite the scorching trials
of life. From Christ’s church, we are
given the body and blood of Jesus so that our faith may be strengthened,
despite the thorns and weeds of the world.
From Christ’s church we are made into hearers and receivers of God’s
gifts until the Last Day when we are raised from the dead and given eternal
life.
You,
who have ears, you have heard.
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
[1] Chad L. Bird, Christ Alone: Meditations and Sermons (Chad L. Bird © 2014), 131.
[2] Ibid.
[2] Ibid.
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