13 July -- IX Pentecost
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
I am a person who loves to see beautiful gardens. I love to look at the fruits of other people’s labors. But I am not a gardener myself. I look at pulling weeds and spreading fertilizer and watering plants as work rather than as a joy. I think that real gardeners get a great deal of pleasure out of those activities. Perhaps in another time in my life I will learn to enjoy such things, but for now the concept of being a master gardener is not in the cards.
Jesus uses gardening as a metaphor in this morning’s gospel lesson. I would like to look at how we are Jesus’ garden and how He is the Master Gardener of our lives.
I very rarely look ahead at the scripture readings. I like to see what the readings for any particular Sunday will have to say to me in the present moment.
It is interesting to me when a preaching series begins to emerge. Last week I spoke about the war that St. Paul described between his interior and exterior lives and how we need to pay more attention to our interiors lives because our exterior lives are so full of over stimulation.
It seems that much of what Jesus has to say about being His garden has to do with our interior lives. First, He speaks about the seeds that are scattered along the path. This seed is quickly snatched away by the evil one, He says.
As I said earlier, I am not a gardener, but I do know that for any planting to be fruitful, there is a bit of preparation which needs to happen. The soil needs to be prepared. If the ground is has hard as a rock -- which it often is next to a pathway, because people may have walked on it and packed it down -- then that soil needs to be loosed -- tilled, or dug up and turned over -- so that it is ready to accept the seed. Otherwise the seed will simply sit on top and nothing will happen, unless perhaps it is eaten by the birds.
So, too, we -- if we are to accept the seeds of growth in our relationship with God in Christ must prepare ourselves. Or, if Jesus Christ is our Master Gardener, then we must allow Him to prepare us.
The hard thing is that sometimes this might mean allowing Him to dig us up or till us. This might be a painful thing. But, just as a good gardener only does the things which are meant to help the seed to grow, Jesus only does those things in us which are meant for our good.
Next, Jesus speaks of the seed that falls on rocky ground. This, He says, has no root and does not live for long. Roots are one of the most important parts of a plant. Without them the sun, water ,and vital nutrients from the soil will not be able to feed the plant.
This is true for us as well. Our roots are those which our found in our Faith. The Faith which has been handed down to us from generations of Christians, descended from the very apostles. These roots are found in the words of the Creeds. We say them so often that perhaps we do not notice how important they are.
Jesus, our Master Gardener, not only prepares our interior soil -- which co-incidentally sound very much like soul. He not only prepares our soil, but He gives us roots. Roots that run as deep as nearly two thousands years of Christians can run. Without these roots, the sun will burn rather than feed. Without roots water can wash away rather than irrigate.
In an ever-changing world, it is important to have deep roots. Jesus has given us deep roots. He has prepared the ground and He has given us the roots to keep us stable and to give us what we need to grow.
Next, Jesus speaks of the seeds which are sown in the thorns. These seeds sprout and begin to grow, He says, "...but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word and it becomes unfruitful."
It is at this point, at least in my mind, that this parable leads us to the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. As the soldiers mocked Jesus before they lead Him away to be crucified, they made a crown of thorns and placed it on His head. These are the thorns of our lives which Jesus takes upon Himself in His passion and death. These are the thorns of our lives which Jesus overcomes by His resurrection.
Jesus, our Master Gardener, cuts down the thorns and takes them upon Himself. The ground is made fertile once more. He has prepared it for us. He has given us deep roots to feed us. It is then that we become the seed that is sown in good soil. Of this seed Jesus says:
As for what is sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, in another thirty."
As we look at our lives, particularly our interior lives, what is the condition of the garden? Has it been trampled on so that the soil is not ready for seed? Have we cut ourselves off from our roots so that the sun may burn or the water may wash us away with the tide of the world? Is it filled with thorns which will choke the word which Jesus wants to grow in us?
The good news is that Jesus can fix all this. He is the Master Gardener. He knows what is best for His garden. All we need to do is to live what we say. If Jesus is truly Lord of our lives, then what is to stop Him from doing the work in us so that we might be fruitful for Him? Ultimately, this is sin. That which stops the Master Gardener from doing His work in us.
As we look at the beautiful flowers and fields which surround us, let us take them as a metaphor of our lives in Christ. Let us allow Jesus to be our Master Gardener, knowing that He will only do what is best for us so that we might be fruitful for Him. AMEN.
July -- VIII Pentecost
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
Let me begin with a few thoughts that may seem unrelated, and then -- by God’s grace -- I will put them together. First -- Have you ever noticed how much information is given at one time during a show on a twenty-four hour news network? At times you may have a person speaking in one box, a picture of what they are talking about in another box, a snippet of what they just said in a scroll just below those boxes, and then additional news and information on a scroll on the bottom of the screen.
Second -- Have you ever noticed that more often than not, people who take walks seem more and more to be talking on cell phones? Third -- at the last two funerals at which I have officiated, an announcement was made by someone of the funeral home staff that people should turn off their cell phones before the service begins. This was also the case just before the start of Sasha’s fifth grade band concert.
Fourth -- keeping with the area of cells phones and funerals -- about a year ago I had lunch in a local restraunt and all the while a table of ladies sitting behind me spent their entire lunch time calling members of their family to plan their father’s funeral.
Finally -- in the lesson from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes:
"I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members..."
To sum up -- it is my observation that we are overly stimulated in the exterior life, which may lead to an interior yearning for sustenance. In other words, this war that St. Paul is talking about between his inmost self and his exterior self is just as relevant today as it was when St. Paul wrote it to the Christians in Rome two thousand years ago.
As a wise woman once said to my class in seminary -- "There is nothing new under the sun." The idea that we live in a post-modern world which is so highly sophisticated and different from the world in which the Scriptures were written may be true on the surface, but at its core, the world of today -- both our personal lives and our lives as a community of Christians -- is not all that different.
So it is, I believe, with the idea that St. Paul describes about himself. He is at war with himself. To pull out yet another old saying, St. Paul is saying that he is his own worst enemy.
We live in a world that is filled with exterior stimulation. We are surrounded by noise in many forms. We are given little bits of information -- those famous "sound bites" -- over and over again. When we enter most retail establishments and many restraunts there is background music.
With the ever-growing use of cell phones, the lines between personal and public space are blurred, if not obliterated. And it is my contention that all of this exterior over-stimulation is leading to the starvation of our interior lives.
In fact, the subject of the interior life is rarely spoken of in the church today. We are so distracted by the exterior things of the world that we give little thought to the interior. I apologize if I am making an assumption which does not describe your life as an individual. But, I am convinced that the first person to whom I must preach the Sunday sermon is myself. And, I have become increasingly aware of the fact that our culture has been over-stimulated.
When I have gone to All Saints’ Episcopal Convent in Catonsville, I (and those who have gone with me) am aware of a silence which is more that just an absence of noise. An absence of noise is rare enough in our day and age, but the kind of silence of which I speak is even more rare. When this type of silence is experienced, one becomes aware of just how much the exterior noise has made its way into our interior lives.
What are we to do? If I might quote my first spiritual director, he told me, "Remember MOM." That is M-O-M -- Mass, Office, and Meditation. Mass -- that is the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is important to our interior lives because it is the very food of the soul. The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Literally taking Him into ourselves.
If you saw someone on the street who only eats a meal once a month or twice a year, you would be able tell. Unfortunately that same can not be said for those who starve their soul. They may look fine on the outside, but their interior is not.
O -- stands for Office, that is the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer from the Prayer Book. At the very least, each of us should set aside time each day for prayer. The Daily Office is a good way to have prayer and scripture reading, but if that is not "doable", at least time set aside specifically apart for God in prayer is important.
The final M is for meditation. That is the type of prayer were we are listening rather than speaking. This is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do. If you are anything like me, I find it easy to talk to God and let Him know the people, places, and things that are on my mind. But, taking the time to sit and listen quietly is much more difficult.
One of the reasons this is so is because of something that I mentioned just a moment ago. That is in trying to achieve an interior silence to be able to listen to God we become aware of just how much the exterior noise has made its way into our interior lives.
St. Paul writes: "I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
In the battle in our own lives between our interior and exterior lives, take the time to focus on the interior life and remember "M.O.M.". AMEN.
