Pentecost 6 Lessons and Meditation
6TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 07-12-2020
FIRST READING: Isaiah 55:10-13
The first part of the Book of Isaiah contained announcements of God’s judgment against his unfaithful nation, the southern kingdom of Judah. When Isaiah began his work as a prophet, the nation seemed strong and wealthy. But Isaiah saw injustice and unconcern toward the poor, religious “lip service” to God that never transitioned into faithful obedience and outside threats by nearby neighbors and faraway monster empires. Isaiah declared that the only true hope for the future was God’s mercy and intervention, not material wealth, religious pretense, or political alliances. Chapters 1-39 are often called “The Book of Judgment”. The prophet Isaiah outlasted four kings of Judah, but he finally offended one beyond repair. Tradition records that King Manasseh (who practiced infant sacrifice) didn’t like Isaiah’s strong words at all, so had him fastened between two planks of wood and sawed in half.
The second part of the Book of Isaiah, comprising Chapters 40-66, is often called “The Book of Comfort”. These words are either from the prophet Isaiah looking forward 150-200 years or from a group or “school of Isaiah” who tried to follow in Isaiah’s footsteps. The situation changed. The people were now in exile under the Babylonians. This Sunday’s text is a message of hope to people who are defeated and scattered and at the edge of despair. The Word of the Lord is likened to the rain and the snow that come down from heaven, without fail, to water the parched earth, causing it to bring forth food. The prophet Isaiah or the prophetic school (sometimes called Second Isaiah) declares that God’s powerful Word will surely accomplish that for which it was sent – in this situation the deliverance and redemption of Israel. The return to the Holy Land will be cheered by loud-singing mountains and hand-clapping trees!
Farmers are dependent upon the rains for their crops. In what ways are we dependent on God’s Word?
Isaiah 55 does not relay details of the “how” and “when” of God’s harvest, just the promise of it. What can we do as we await the accomplishment of God’s purposes?
God’s Word is powerful! When God speaks, the world changes. What God says, will happen. When words come out of God’s mouth, they “shall not return to [God] empty.”
SECOND READING: Romans 8:1-11
Paul had explained that, in spite of our best intentions, no human being can ever please God by living in complete obedience to God’s will. In Romans 7:24 he had cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And in the next verse, he began his answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
In Chapter 8 (sometimes called one of the greatest chapters in the Bible), Paul begins to talk about the new life that comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit, which has come to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and was gifted to us in Holy Baptism. Jesus has brought us into right relationship with God by delivering us from ourselves, from our “human flesh”. Now we walk according to the Spirit (verse 4); now we live according to the Spirit and have our minds on the things of the Spirit (verse 5); now we are in the Spirit (verse 9); now we are led by the Spirit (verse 14); now we pray by the Spirit (verses 16, 26); now we possess the first fruits of the Spirit (verse 23). And the sum total of new life in the Spirit is hope – hope in the present and hope in the future.
In truth, no one is “good enough” for God. We are spiritually incompetent. But the greater truth is that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (verse 1). The character of God is revealed in the actions, the sacrificial love, of Jesus. If we want to think right, say right, do right, and be right in our life’s journey here on earth, then we will humbly seek and faithfully respond to the Holy Spirit as it fills us and fuels us for faithful living and fervent loving. Let the Spirit, not sinning, define who you are and seek to become.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
This Sunday a small-town carpenter is sitting in a fishing boat and talking about – of all things – farming. As a young adult, when Jesus became a traveling preacher – teacher – healer, throughout the region of Galilee, throughout the region of Judea, at about the age of 30, it was apparent that he knew much more than just the trade of carpentry. There was something else in his personality, in his character, in his words and deeds. There was something more in what he offered and what he was asking for. In Matthew’s Gospel, some people are already seeing “servant of God” – maybe even “Son of God” – qualities in Jesus, some people are listening to him and following him, taking their cue from him, finding direction, discovering life.
Jesus offers two messages in what has been called “the parable of the sower”. One message is to the crowd, one that they might or might not understand. The other is to the disciples, a message that they must understand. For the crowd, this story is about fertile seed in different soils, and the overwhelming abundance of fruit when the good seed is in good soil. The crowd may or may not figure out that Jesus is the sower sowing the word of God among them.
For the disciples, the parable explained suggests why there are different reactions in any crowd to the sowing of the word among them that is done either by Jesus or by his disciples. Some of the crowd will lose the message almost before they hear it… they are too hard-hearted and there is little comprehension. Some of the crowd’s confidence in God is too rocky to support the growth of a seedling… their shallow faith will quickly wilt when troubles come because there has been no real conversion, no deep roots. Some of the crowd will be good enough soil but cannot survive the “choking” thorns all around them that distract and prevent them from bearing much fruit. Finally, some of the crowd will truly be good soil, and they will receive the word eagerly, grow deep roots and strong stalks, and bear much fruit… which is to say, they in turn will produce more seed, and thus more fruit.
What gives you strong roots of faith? What worries have the potential to choke your growth in Christ? What crop does Jesus want believers to yield, and how might you increase your “crop productivity”?
Jesus speaks of varied yields of “crop” – 100-fold, 60-fold, 30-fold. It is important to understand that we disciples are not enrolled in some sort of competition to earn the biggest prize for being the most fruitful. What is important is to be receptive and responsive. “Lord, let my heart be good soil, open to the seed of your Word.”
A MEDITATION
Are you right now a “hard path” soil, a “shallow rocky” soil, a “thorny” soil, or “good” soil?
Sisters and brothers, you have to be good soil to be Christ’s faithful and fruitful disciple.
Pray each day for your heart to be good soil.
To become good soil requires listening to Jesus with our hearts and opening up our entire
lives to his Word.
If you truly want to be a Christian in your heart, Jesus can make you one!
If you really want your faith to grow, God can do it!
And if you sincerely try to serve Christ, something good is gonna come from it – inside of you
and all over around you in others! There’s gonna be some fruit!
May you SEEK the Word, SAY the WORD, and DO the WORD!
Lord, let my heart be good soil.