Sermon for Sexagesima

2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9  +  Luke 8:4-15

Today’s Gospel is about the power of the Word of God. But it’s also about the condition of the heart of the one who hears the Word of God. Jesus compares the word that is preached to a seed, and the hearts of those who hear to various kinds of soil.

The Word of God, like a seed, always carries inside it the energy, and the ability, and the tendency to grow. For a normal plant or a tree, healthy growth looks like the seed being embedded in the soil, sending down more and more roots, so that the plant gets the moisture and the stability it needs. As the roots go down, or even before, a stalk begins to spring upward, putting out leaves to catch the sun’s rays, which is converted into more energy. It gets taller and bigger until, when it’s mature, it produces flowers, and then fruit that ripens until it’s finally ready to be picked. But the conditions matter, don’t they? The seed may be healthy, and the dirt itself may be the right kind of dirt. But if the conditions are poor, the seed may not sprout at all, or, even if it does, it won’t mature and produce the desired fruit.

What does growing look like for the seed that is God’s Word? Well, ideally, under healthy conditions, the Word of God is preached, accusing everyone of being a sinner, who hasn’t loved and worshiped God as he ought, who hasn’t loved his neighbor as he ought, who stands under God’s eternal condemnation and will be judged by God on the Last Day and sentenced not only to death but to eternal death in hell. This preaching hits home with the hearer. It strikes fear and dread into his heart. He realizes that, it’s true, God is real, and he hasn’t given God the honor He is owed. He deserves this threatened punishment and God’s righteous wrath.

But the seed of the word of God contains more than this. It contains a message of hope for the poor sinner, a message that centers on Jesus Christ, whom God the Father sent into the world to redeem sinners. It’s a promise that God holds out to the world, inviting all men everywhere to look to Christ Jesus for salvation. The sinner draws hope from that promise. He looks to Christ in faith, confident that God will keep His promise, that his sins will be forgiven, that he will be accepted by God because of Jesus and will escape eternal death, and just like that, the seed has sprouted!

But the word of God is not done. It contains more. It teaches the newly sprouted plant, the new believer, to come to the water of Holy Baptism, to stay close to the preaching of the Word and to the Lord’s Supper, which are, together, like the life-giving water that a plant needs. It teaches the believer to grow in the grace and knowledge of God, never to be content with knowing just the basics of the Christian faith. It teaches the believer that he must daily take up his cross and follow Jesus, being willing to suffer for the name of Christ, and bearing up under suffering with the patience and strength that God will give. It teaches the believer to live each day in contrition and repentance, to set his heart, each day, on leading a holy life, completely devoted to God, and to keeping His commandments. And it offers the continual comfort and strength necessary to do this, not just once, but until the believer has grown to full maturity, in faith and love, and has, with God’s help, weathered every storm, and has, by God’s power, produced a lifetime of good works.

That, dear friends, is the Christian life, start to finish. It’s not flashy. It’s not necessarily exciting. It’s like a plant growing in a field. It’s a slow and steady process. But, at the end of the process, what is produced is something wonderful, something beautiful, something astounding.

In today’s parable, Jesus describes how that process is often disrupted. He gives three examples of the disruption. There’s seed that falls along a dirt road. The seed is good, and the dirt itself is fine. But the conditions aren’t right for a seed to grow there. The soil is far too compacted, too trampled upon (or driven over, in a modern setting), so the seed would just sit there on top and would eventually be either crushed or snatched away by the birds. This is what happens very often when the Word of God is preached. Instead of listening to and pondering the message, people tune it out, think about other things, or immediately reject whatever is said because it challenges what they currently believe. It happens out there in the world. It can happen right here during the sermon. The hearers hear but don’t really listen.

Then there’s seed that falls on rocky soil. There are some softer spots on top. The seed can germinate and begin to grow quickly, but it doesn’t get very far, because the rocks keep the roots from going downward and outward, so there’s not enough moisture to keep the process going. The hot sun soon overpowers the growing plant, and it withers and dies. This is what happens very often when the Word of God is preached. A person believes, and is excited about the Gospel, but there’s no deepening of the roots, no ongoing watering with Word and Sacrament, no struggle to resist temptation or to bear the cross. And so faith dies. It happens all the time.

Then there’s seed that falls among thorns or weeds. The soil itself may be fine. The seed itself is potent as ever. But a plant that has to compete with weeds almost always loses, because part of the curse of this sinful world is that the weeds grow faster than the good plants, they’re hardier than the good plants, and they end up choking the good plant, stealing its moisture, blocking its sunlight, tangling up the roots and the leaves of the good plant, until its growth is stunted, so that it never reaches maturity or puts forth edible fruit. This is what happens very often when the Word of God is preached. A person begins life as a Christian, grows for a while, goes to church for a while, but then the cares, riches, pleasures, and concerns of this life take over. God and His Word become less and less important as other things become more and more important, and so they don’t finish the process of the Christian life, meaning, they don’t finish life as Christians. What makes this disruption of the Christian life so insidious is that it’s sometimes a slow process that goes unnoticed until it’s too late, until the person is left with nothing but an outer husk of faith, without its saving power.

But, finally, sometimes, the seed falls on good soil—those who hear the Word with a good and noble heart, keep it, and bear fruit with patience. In them, the process of germination and growth and bearing of fruit is allowed to continue, until it’s finished, until it’s time for the harvest, and the farmer and his family, and the whole village that he feeds with his crops, rejoice together in what that tiny seed has now become.

Now the question that really matters: What kind of soil are you? Or, maybe a better question, where are you in this process? What are the conditions like around you? You’ve all heard the Word of God. You’ve all confessed your faith in the Lord Jesus and your commitment to follow Him, to follow His teachings, so His Word has penetrated into your hearts. But do you still hear His Word sometimes without really listening, without pondering what you hear? It can happen. Are you continually deepening the roots of your faith through regularly hearing and learning God’s Word, so that you’re ready to face temptation and persecution when they come? Are you watching out for those annoying cares and riches and pleasures of this life that threaten to creep up on you and choke the faith God has given you, that threaten to keep you from doing all the good works God created for you to do, to keep you from finishing your lives as Christians? Are you hearing the Word with a good and noble heart? Will you hold onto it, and bear fruit with patience?

No one can fully answer all those questions until all the obstacles and disruptions have been overcome, until you reach the end of your life with your faith still intact and with the harvest of works God is seeking from the seed He has sown in you. But the questions, like the parable itself, are there to help you, to guide you, so that you don’t take the Word of God for granted when it’s preached, because, if you’re prepared for the conditions that you know can come along and adversely affect your faith, and disrupt your growth in the Christian life, then you’ll guard against those conditions. You’ll recommit yourself to hearing God’s Word fruitfully and to putting it into practice. And you’ll remember that you must keep doing this, slowly and steadily hearing and growing, hearing and growing, throughout your whole life. But God Himself will see to the growth. The power for you to grow is not in you but in the seed, where it’s always been. It’s in the powerful Word of God, which is like the rain and snow that come down from heaven and water the earth, making it bud and flourish. Such is My Word, God says, that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish that which I purpose, and will succeed in the thing for which I sent it. May God’s Word always find, and create, in you a good and noble heart. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Amen.

Source: Sermons

Sermon for Sexagesima

2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9  +  Luke 8:4-15

According to Jesus, God’s word is like seed. And your ears are the soil in which it’s planted. Since the service began, God’s word has already been falling like seed in our midst. Were you paying attention to it? Did it fall on good soil or other soil? Are you ready to receive God’s word in the sermon? I ask, because Jesus indicates in today’s Gospel that most people aren’t ready to hear God’s word, really hear it and ponder it and consider it and put it into practice after they hear it. So as you hear God’s word this morning, think not only about what you hear, but how you hear.

Most of the people who heard Jesus tell the parable of the sower and the seed probably didn’t know what He was even talking about. For the most part, Jesus’ spoke in parables that ‘Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. That’s a reference to the commission that God gave long ago to the prophet Isaiah, who was sent to speak the word of God to a people of Judah who were already almost ripe for judgment. Isaiah spoke the truth, but he spoke it in prophecies and riddles, in symbols and in visions, so that only those who really cared to hear what their God said to them would pause to ponder the meaning of what he said. So, too, with Jesus. The people of Israel were almost ripe for judgment again, so until His crucifixion and resurrection, it was still time to speak in parables, so that only those who had ears to hear, who really cared to listen, would actually learn.

Jesus’ twelve apostles were such hearers. They didn’t understand this parable, but they wanted to. So they asked! And Jesus revealed its meaning to them, and now to us and to all who have ears to hear.

The seed is the word of God. Which word of God? It’s the whole counsel of God, everything God has said and inspired to be recorded in Holy Scripture. But that “everything” centers on the Gospel of Christ Jesus, like spokes on a bicycle wheel pointing to the center, or radiating out from the center, either way you look at it. The Gospel is the heart of the seed. And, in a nutshell, the Gospel is that God loved this sinful, filthy, wicked world and didn’t want to condemn it to eternal death and punishment, but, instead, sent His eternal Son into human flesh in order to redeem all men from our sins by His righteous life and innocent death in our place. Christ Jesus then rose from the dead and now continually sends His Spirit into the world to work through the preaching of His word and the administration of His Sacraments in order to gather His Church, to bring people to faith, to sanctify us in love, and to preserve us in the faith until Christ comes again for judgment. That’s the seed that is sown, the word that is preached and that has the potential to take root and grow and produce a crop a hundred times more than what was sown.

The word is sown liberally, generously. It goes out into the world like a farmer who takes a handful of seed and simply scatters it abroad. The word that’s preached just here at Emmanuel has gone out into all the world through the internet. We’re not aiming it at anyone in particular. We’re scattering the seed far and wide. And some are guided to it and helped by it. But you’re here this morning so that I can sow the word in your ears, and so that you can hear it, and, as you hear it, you need to be aware that there are many obstacles preventing it from producing fruit in you, and you’ll need to overcome them, by God’s grace and with His help, so that you receive the word with a noble and good heart, so that it does produce the fruit God is looking for: the fruit of a living faith, a humble spirit, a heart that loves God above all things and that reflects the love of God toward our neighbors.

This is what happens, Jesus says, when the word is sown: Some of it falls like seed on a path, where two tragic things happen to that seed. It’s trampled by men, and the birds of the air devour it. These are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. How have you done so far this morning, during the whole service up to this point, with all the prayers, chants, hymns, Scripture lessons? Have you been distracted by other things, with other thoughts and other priorities? That’s how the seed gets trampled, and the devil happily snatches the word away so that it does you no good. It produces no repentance, or faith, or awe in the presence of God, or appreciation for His goodness, or thankfulness for His benefits, or learning, or growth, or anything. This is one thing that happens when the word is sown. Watch out for it, every time the word is preached!

This also happens, Jesus says, when the word is sown: Some of it falls on rocky soil. It penetrates a little, but only a little. It sprouts up quickly, but the tender shoot soon withers and dies for lack of a root system, for lack of moisture. These, Jesus says, are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. You hear the word of God. You agree with what you’ve heard. You believe it. You rejoice in it, even. For example, “God is love! God loves you!” But then you’re satisfied. No need to learn. No need to study any further, dig any deeper. Why spend time reading through the Bible, reviewing the Small Catechism, much less the rest of the Confessions of the Church? Leave the theology to the theologians! Leave the deeper doctrines to the pastors! What you’re left with is a superficial faith. Then along come the temptations, as they always do, especially the temptation to cave in in the face of persecution. When troubles strike, when faithfulness to Christ makes your life harder in your family, in your job, in society, when the world turns against you for saying the simplest of things or living according to the simplest truths: for example, the only true God is the God of the Bible, all other gods are false gods and idols; sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ Jesus; there are only two genders, and you can’t switch; marriage is between one man and one woman and is supposed to last until death; sex is supposed to be reserved for marriage, and children should be raised by a father and a mother, and certainly never killed in their mothers’ womb. Homosexuality is always sinful and wrong. Simple things. Basic Christian truth. But the world pushes back if you speak this way or live this way. So if the seed of God’s word has only sprouted shallowly in the rocky soil of your heart, the persecution and the troubles that come with confessing Christ will cause the plant to wither and die. This is another thing that happens when the word is sown. Watch out for it, every time the word is preached!

This also happens, Jesus says, when the word is sown: Some of it falls among thorns. It starts to grow, but its growth is stunted as it’s choked by the weeds, a pathetic little plant that doesn’t produce any fruit. These, Jesus says, are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. You hear the word here in church. But then “life” takes control of your thoughts and your decisions and your heart. Cares, like relationships you want to focus on, or societal issues that consume your thoughts; riches, like making money and saving money and spending money and all the things that have to do with a career; pleasures, sinful ones or innocent ones like enjoying retirement, vacations, movies, food, drink, etc. How can God’s Spirit produce His fruit in your heart and life if His word is pushed to the backburner, if earthly things take over your heart, if they’re choking His word? This is another thing that happens when the word is sown. Watch out for it, every time the word is preached!

But there is another thing that happens when the word of God is sown: Some of it falls on good soil where it springs up and yields a crop a hundred times what was sown. These, Jesus says, are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Now, there is nothing inherently noble or good about any human heart. As Jeremiah says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? That applies to all of our hearts. But since the Holy Spirit is always working when His word is preached, to soften hearts and to open ears, that means He’s enabling you to hear, to listen with a noble and good heart, to ponder the word that’s preached, right here, right now. The seed is just as good, just as powerful wherever it falls. So if you’re choosing to focus on other things right now, if you’re choosing to let the seed sit at the surface of your heart without any effort to deepen your faith and understanding, if you’re choosing to make the word nothing more than your Sunday morning routine so that it doesn’t affect your thoughts and words and actions throughout the week, that’s not the seed’s fault. The seed is powerful to work in you, to change you, to give you a faith that can move mountains, to make you abound in works of love, to give you comfort, to make you joyful, to give you patience and strength to face whatever comes, to keep Christ crucified always before your eyes.

Some of the seed of God’s word always falls on good ground and produces much fruit. Pray to God that that may be the case with you, and not just today. We won’t hear this parable again for another year, so let its message stay with you, grow inside you, so that every Sunday and throughout the week you’re thinking about how you hear God’s Word, so that it may have its intended growth in you. Amen.

Source: Sermons