Today in the Spirit: Proper 10A
In this early stage of Year A, with the Gospel of Matthew as our guide, we are walking with Jesus through the early stages of his ministry in Galilee. Starting with Proper 10A, for three consecutive Sundays, we will sit with the crowds to whom Jesus tells his parables focused on planting, sowing, and growth in the kingdom of God, and with the disciples as Jesus interprets the stories privately. Matthew 13:1-52, where these parables are recorded, makes up the third major teaching discourse of our Lord in that Gospel.
The appointed Gospel reading for Proper 10A, Matthew 13:1-9,18-23, narrates what Jesus himself calls “the parable of the sower” (18) and its interpretation. Many preachers and commentators call this story “the parable of the soils because of the content related to various places where the seeds fall.
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The Old Testament reading from Isaiah 55 contains words of gracious invitation from YHWH to the Judean exiles in Babylon. Coupled with the parable in the Gospel reading, we might imagine in our worship the words of Isaiah like the prayer of the sower in the parable as he spreads the seed of God’s word: “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good” (2) and “Seek the LORD while he may be found” (6).
The assigned Psalm 65 is a song of praise filled in the latter verses with agricultural images appropriate for the day: “You visit the earth and bless it; you make it very plenteous. The river of God is full of water; you prepare the grain, for so you provide for the earth. You water its furrows; you send rain into the little valleys; you make it soft with the drops of rain and bless the increase of it” (9-11).
Building on earlier themes in the first half of Romans, the assigned Epistle reading from Romans 8:7-17 contains Paul’s teaching on the contrast between life transformed under the influence of the Spirit of Christ and life snuffed out under captivity to the sinful nature: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (14).
The collect for this week is one of a group of prayers in the Ordinary season focused on how God hears our prayers as “humble servants,” with the petition that, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we might learn “to ask only those things that are pleasing to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Collect
Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and, that we may receive what we ask, teach us by your Holy Spirit to ask only those things that are pleasing to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the same Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
Come, Everyone Who Thirsts (Isaiah 55)
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
Isaiah 55
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
It appears Isaiah 55 is the last of Isaiah’s oracles directed to the exiles in Babylon. (Beginning with Chapter 56, the tone of the writing becomes more corrective as if addressed to a more stayed religious community like those who have returned from exile to Jerusalem). The winsome and repetitive invitation to “come” (1), we note, is one from lesser things to greater things (as to those who have found prosperity in a new home): from acceptable worldly “thoughts” and “ways” (8) to something higher–far higher–and infinitely more satisfying; a new life now not apart from the will of God but inside it, accomplishing his purposes and completing his joy.
Here, perhaps, is the most compelling invitation in Isaiah to western Christians in a relatively prosperous environment. Imagine yourself like one of the exiles of Israel in Babylon, faithful, hanging on, but thirsting for more: “Dear Lord, you have come to me, and I know you through my faith in Jesus. But I confess to you that I am lost in my own exile, away from home, comfortable but restless. Though I walk with you, I admit I am still not settled in my skin. I fret about many things when I know I shouldn’t. I am, though a child of your choosing, still very insecure, even after many years. You say here, if I am thirsty, to ‘come to the waters,’ and then again, ‘Incline your ear to me and come to me; hear that your soul may live’ (3). Last week we heard you say much the same thing in our worship: ‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). I want to live; I want to rest in you.”
Holy Spirit, enable us to do what we cannot do for ourselves. Today, in response to your invitation to “come,” assist us in taking one step closer today to the door, to the border out of our Babylon.
Praise Is Due to You (Psalm 65)
1 You, O God, are to be praised in Zion, *
Psalm 65
and unto you shall vows be performed in Jerusalem.
2 You who hear our prayer, *
unto you shall all flesh come.
3 My misdeeds prevail against me; *
O be merciful and blot out our sins.
4 Blessed is the man whom you choose and receive unto yourself; *
he shall dwell in your courts, and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of your house, even of your holy temple.
5 You shall show us wonderful things in your righteousness, O God of our salvation, *
for you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the isles that are far away.
6 You in your strength set firm the mountains, *
and are girded about with power.
7 You still the raging of the seas, *
the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples.
8 Those who dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth shall be in fear of your wonders; *
you make the morning and evening to shout with joy.
9 You visit the earth and bless it; *
you make it very plenteous.
10 The river of God is full of water; *
you prepare the grain, for so you provide for the earth.
11 You water its furrows; you send rain into the little valleys; *
you make it soft with the drops of rain and bless the increase of it.
12 You crown the year with your goodness, *
and your paths overflow with plenty.
13 The fields of the wilderness are rich in pasture, *
and the little hills rejoice on every side.
14 The folds shall be full of sheep; *
the valleys also shall stand so thick with grain that they shall laugh and sing.
Or, “You saturate its furrows, and soak its plowed ground. With rain showers you soften its soil, and make its crops grow” (10, NET). In our worship, this line of the psalm will recall for us the Isaiah passage we will have just heard, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth” (Is. 55:10f). The key difference is that, while it is YHWH promising abundance to be poured out in Isaiah, it is “David” praising God for his wideness of mercy in the psalm. In these readings, God reveals his desire for his people in Isaiah and David responds “amen.”
Devotionally, in our worship, we too make our joyous “amen” to the truths God has spoken through the prophet. God declares, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways (Is. 55:8); we respond, “You, God, are to be praised in Zion” (1). God calls out, “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Is. 55:1); we respond, “You hear our prayer, unto you shall all flesh come” (2). God proclaims, “[My word] shall not return to me empty” (Is. 55:11); and we exult, “The folds shall be full of sheep; the valleys also shall stand so thick with grain that they shall laugh and sing” (14).
Let us not be sluggish in making your enthusiastic agreement with the revelation of God’s character and works. Today, Holy Spirit, fill us with awe in the church sanctuary, and every day in the sanctuary of our hearts, that, with David, we may make our immediate and wholehearted “amen” to the greatness of the Father and the Son.
If the Spirit Dwells in You (Romans 8:7-17)
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:7-17
There are multiple “if”s in this passage (six to be exact: 9,10,11,13a,13b,17). Now, please note this: all these “if”s are statements of fact concerning the ministry of Christ; not one is a condition directed to believers appealing for cooperation. Even v. 13, containing parallel “if you” statements, should not be taken in the first place as compulsion to produce change in “you” (plural: “you all”), but rather as knowledge of the work of God in our hearts for the increase of understanding.
And what is that understanding? That every good thing in the revelation of the gospel of God for salvation depends on Jesus Christ. Thus, it is not that you are “in the Spirit if, in fact” you are praying or going to church or keeping up with your tithes. Rather, “You are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Then, it is, “if Christ is in you…[then]… the Spirit is life [in you]… because of [his] righteousness”. And then, it is, “if the Spirit… dwells in you, then [the Father] will also give life to your mortal bodies.” The repetition of “if”s is a tactic by the apostle to corner his readers into complete dependence on God.
Devotionally, as an often-unsteady believer and a pastor of unsteady believers, I am greatly refreshed to fall under this method of persuasion. Paul retorts forcefully against our tendency to revert to the default mode of self-reliance, especially when the going gets tough. And, of course, with every return we make to works-righteousness, there arises the guilt from never being able to live up to the mark. Paul the pastor, with his “ifs,” yearns that the whole Christian body take to heart what God has shown him to be truth from the OT scriptures: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). Will you hear Paul’s words this week and believe it to your very core?
Today, Holy Spirit, help my unbelief so that, once and for all, I take to heart Paul on the matter of total dependence on God–and stop, once and for all, backtracking toward dependence on myself.
When Anyone Hears (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23)
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
The way this parable is told and explained by Jesus, the audience may be under the impression that the four types of soil receiving the word of God are four static types of people: that once a hardened path, always a hardened path; or once good soil, always good soil. For Christians, the effect of reading the parable this way is to categorize oneself as the “good soil” type because, well, we are Christians, and we have experienced incidents of God using us as believers in his service, bearing fruit” from the seed of God’s word. We may also be tempted to hold our noses to the other types. We say, “thank God I am not among that group anymore.”
Devotionally, we may do better to make the honest interpretation that we are in truth all four soils at once: One day we hear and disregard; the next, we hear, start, and stop; and on another day, we hear and obey and bear fruit for the kingdom. Here, we are better equipped to make a more humble presentation of ourselves as Christians in the world. Putting aside a disdainful tone toward those we have judged to be hopeless non-believers, we identify ourselves with the hardened or the weak-willed and become a sharper tool in the Lord’s hands to bring about a change in their situation.
In the memoirs of Charles Simeon, the renowned 18th-century Anglican pastor and preacher offers self-reflection along these lines:
There are but two objects that I have ever desired for these forty years to behold; the one is my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: and I have always thought that they should be viewed together; just as Aaron confessed all the sins of all Israel whilst he put them on the head of the scapegoat. The disease did not keep him from applying to the remedy, nor did the remedy keep him from feeling the disease. By this I seek to be, not only humble and thankful, but humbled in thankfulness, before my God and Saviour continually.
Today, by the Spirit, Lord, let me recognize clearly in myself the four soils of your great parable, and make me ever more humble in my testimony to others who struggle to apply the word of God you sow in the heart.
Today in the Spirit
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