Sarx

HE RCL for today, Proper 10, Year A, has in it the Parable of the Sower. And, naturally enough, the homilist today, Fr Peter Wall, Dean of Christchurch Cathedral, here in Hamilton, went right for the obvious: What kind of dirt are you? The collect used (I assume, from the Canadian Book of Alternative Services) even asked God to plant us in better dirt! On 11 July 1999, Donald preached a sermon at St Gregory’s asking us not to wonder about what kind of dirt we are - but rather to focus on the Sower.

The sermon and date stick in my memory because, the Wednesday following, my then-favourite webzine, Suck, posted a comic version of the same story, illustrated by the great Terry Colon:

They had a different point in their comic, but I took the fact that they used it as a sign that - all po-mo protestations aside - someone at Suck went to Church…

Anyway, remembering Donald and Suck, I had a lot of trouble concentrating on the possible idea that it’s all about dirt. The story, you’ll remember, is introduced this way in the Gospel:

And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow…

So the Sower story is only an example. It means, basically, “He taught many things in parables, like this one.

But who is it that provides the commentary? Who says, “Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word…”? Is that Jesus talking? Is that the eponymous author of this Gospel? Is that simply the midrash traadition of the local community on this parable?

It’s rather like the sermon in John 3: where Jesus starts out by saying, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” But then suddenly seems to flip into referring to himself in the Royal Voice that is, in the third person, in Verse 13. Did Jesus say the words of John 3:16 or are they Johannine midrash on the story of Jesus talking to Nicodemus?

Although the RCL does not include it (for reasons of their own bias, I’m sure) the text in Matthew includes a long passage where Jesus says that anyone who hears the good news and rejects it is clearly too stupid to get it: but you Christians are the smart ones. But even including that passage and taking it as authentic, there’s no reason to assume Jesus’ voice continues in verse 18, with the meaning of the sower.

Unlike many other parables, no place here does Jesus say, “the Kingdom of God is like…”

If we don’t read this as history, it’s rather easy to read the entire chapter as some sort of literary construct meaning:

Jesus taught a lot of things in parables, because he said that a lot of people wouldn’t even bother to listen so he told stories (btw here’s an example we rather like). Such stories, he said, give those who might wish it something to think about and dig deeper in. We’ve been digging deeper into the example you’ve just read, and here’s what we’ve come up with… what do you think?

Naturally enough the Matthewite community, feuding with and wooing its non-Messianic neighbours comes up with something at once invitingly mysterious and yet triumphalistically exclusive. Their reading says, clearly, “He’s bad soil, she’s rocky soil, we’re good soil, wouldn’t you like to be good soil, too?” (Drink Dr. Pepper!)

Paul says it doesn’t matter who sows or waters or tends the seeds: it’s God that gives the harvest. If this parable is about the dirt, then it’s God’s fault we’re the wrong kind of ground. But I don’t think this is about the dirt!

Donald’s sermon - and Terry’s comic, now that I think about it - ask us to focus on Jesus. The text is about the sower. Not about the Soil. The sower sows seeds everywhere, “in season and out of season”, to borrow another Biblical idea. The sower never says to the dirt, “Ah, you’re worthless.”

When I was wondering around San Francisco, looking for a community, I went to St Gregory’s and found peace, God and salvation all over again. As some will remember, I went there because of a dare. My friend, Ethan Flad, working at Grace Cathedral in SF, dared me one day to go to SGN because (in Ethan’s experience visiting the place) Gnostics and mysticism were “important” to the clergy there. At the time I was a Gnostic Priest without a community so “gnostic” and “mystic” were good words. But it took nearly a year before I got there, though. Stumbling in and finding home. It was that seed that Ethan had sown - and here it is, still bearing fruit ten years later.

How is that possible?

Because Ethan was (and still is, I think) rather like the sower: not caring where the soil might be “good” or “bad” but rather just throwing the seeds out there all over the place. The garden of the kingdom, in Ethan’s maind, wasn’t enclosed in a rock wall (Πετριος Τειχος)! Rather it’s open to all and sundry, without judgement. Let God bring the harvest!

How do we sow the seeds of the kingdom if we are constantly critiquing the soil? If we think about it too much, suddenly there is no dirt that is good enough at all. Faith requires that we sow the seeds of the kingdom ever and always and that we trust God to bring the harvest home.

Update Barbara Taylor wonders if it’s about the sower too…

Update II Cam’s got it as about the sower as well.