“The one who hears the word and understands it”
One thing, even visitors to Quebec, notice, when they travel through the province, or travel to the province and stay, is that there are—shall we say—Christian radio stations, which are not Protestant, and which are not in English.  There may, of course, be Christian radio stations in English, and Protestant.  But there are also stations which are French-speaking, and come, primarily, from a Roman Catholic perspective.  One such station is Radio Ville Marie, which, of course, is based on Montreal; and we can pick it up at 91.3 on the FM dial.
On Thursday evening, on Radio Ville Marie, there is an hour entitled Les Chemins Protestants.  And so, this part of the radio broadcast is hosted by Protestant clergy—in particular, by two or three United Church ministers, and one soon-to-be ordained minister, within our own denomination, Richard Bonetto.
The other night, for the first time, I heard Les Chemins Protestants.  It wasn’t Richard who was speaking.   It was one of the United Church ministers, I believe, although I didn’t catch the first part of the programme.  He was basically noting the emphasis on the Word in Protestant liturgy.  And he made the point that for preaching to be true preaching, it has to be preaching of God’s grace.  I would have to say that I would agree—that, if we are to preach the gospel, which is “good news”, then, the “good news” must actually be there, expressive of God’s grace.
Now, recently, we have been looking at Matthew’s gospel.  Matthew’s gospel has a whole series of groupings of teachings of Jesus, which I have mentioned in the past—many of these with a very strong emphasis on, I would say, judgement.  In fact, there is a pattern in these groups of teachings, so that, at the end of them, there is a particularly strong emphasis on the reality of God’s judgement.  And so, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we hear Jesus’ parable of the Two Foundations.  Those who hear Jesus’ words and do not do them are like a person who builds his house on sand.  A flood comes, wind blows, and there is great destruction.  So that is the way the beginning collection of Jesus’ teaching ends—on that solemn and stern note.  The last group of Jesus’ teachings concludes with the description of the Last Judgement, where there is the separation of the sheep and the goats—the sheep representing those people who actually feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and those in prison.  And those who do not do these things are the goats; and they are banished from the Kingdom of Heaven.  There are other examples I could give of the way these groupings of teachings strongly emphasize God’s judgement, particularly at the conclusion of each of the five groupings.
Even the parable I read to you earlier, the parable of the Sower, can be heard in this manner.  And so, you heard that some seed fell on this compacted soil, on the pathway.  Some fell on ground that was very thin; there was a layer or rock underneath, close to the surface.  Some fell on soil that had a lot of weed seeds in it, or was weedy, and the crop was choked.  But some fell on good soil, and yielded a hundred-fold, or sixty-fold, or thirty-fold.  Now, on hearing that parable, if we look at our own lives, how many of us can say that we are the good soil, and we have yielded a hundred-fold, or sixty-fold, or even thirty-fold?  So, on hearing that parable, there is certainly a process of self-questioning that can go on, just as in the other teachings of Jesus that I mentioned.  But we can also hear that parable in terms of Jesus, as the truly good soil, who yields abundant life, and, as we put our faith in him, we also participate in that abundant life, by the power of the Spirit.
In fact, Matthew’s gospel, with its pronounced emphasis on judgement in several of the parables of Jesus, nevertheless has a framework which is anything but this way.  And so, I think that framework—the beginning and the end of the gospel—helps us to interpret the parables of judgement of Jesus in terms of the bigger picture of God’s grace.
Right at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, we hear that Jesus is the true descendant of Abraham—Abraham to whom God promised that God would bless all nations of the world through his descendants.  Jesus is that true descendant; and, through him, we ourselves are blessed.  He is the true descendant of David, as well, the son, whom God would raise up to sit on the throne of David; he is Israel’s Messiah, offering blessing to the ancient people of God, as well.
Jesus, we learn, is born of the power of the Holy Spirit, and has that Spirit to share with us as well, in that, Jesus, at the end of the gospel, commands his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We learn that this person who will be born will be called Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.  And, in fact, Jesus does just that with his disciples, who will forsake him and deny him.  The risen Jesus returns and goes before them into Galilee, and then commissions them to be apostles of his gospel to the whole world.
Also, we are told that this person will fulfil the words of the prophet Isaiah, “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel (which means God with us).”  Here is the message of God with us, a message which is also proclaimed right at the end of the gospel, when Jesus says, “Go, make disciples of all nations... and I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
So the framework of the gospel, as a whole, helps us to hear the words of judgement in the gospel in a light which is not merely a light of condemnation or of self-examination, but also in terms of the bigger grace which embraces us from God.
Now, looking at the parable of the sower—in the parable of the sower (or the interpretation of the parable given in Matthew’s gospel), the people who hear the word of God and understand it are those people who are like the good soil who bring forth abundantly—a hundred-fold, sixty-fold, thirty-fold.  So, “understanding” is the key word there.  The others hear the word, but do not yet understand it.  Those who hear and understand—they are like the good soil, in its productivity.
Now, the gospel itself provides some examples of people understanding, taking God’s meesage to heart, and then translating it into the pattern of their own lives.  And some of those examples come from these parables of judgement.
The first, though—and I choose all of these because of their connection with the word “wise” or “understanding”—the first example one could perhaps draw is the Wise Men themselves, who came, and greeted the one newly born as King of the Jews.   When they saw star come over Bethlehem, they rejoiced, and, as they came to the house, they presented gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
These people had apparently understood.  They had taken to themselves the fulfilment of God’s promises which were now applicable to them.  And the consequence for their lives was that they gave, they were generous in the gifts honouring this King.
Now, a second example is drawn from one of the parables of judgement of Jesus.   And this parable concerns the wise and faithful servant.  This particular servant was given the responsibility of looking after his fellow servants, when his master was away.  Now, he had the option of simply disobeying the command of the master, and beating up his fellow servants, or otherwise abusing them.  Instead, he provided for them, he fed them, we are told (Matthew 24:45-51).
Now, all of us have various responsibilities in life.  We are, perhaps, in a marriage relationship.  We have children in our care, perhaps.  We are members of a community.  We are neighbours to other people.  We have employment, in some cases.  In all these various circumstances, we could be neglectful; we could be unloving, uncaring.  But this parable of judgement calls us to respond in a careful and loving way in the various responsibilities we have to one another—in marriages, in families, in the community, in the church, in the world.
Jesus is the Emmanuel, God with us.  That same Spirit of God being with us, caring for us—by that same Spirit, we are to care for one another.
Now, another parable of judgement that Jesus uses is the parable of the various servants who receive money; and they are to invest that money.  They receive a talent.  Some receive multiple talents, and one person just receives a single talent.  In this parable, those who receive multiple talents actually invest it well.  They use their resources well, and multiply them, such that, the master, returning, congratulated them, and gave them greater responsibilities.  However, the one who received just the one talent decided to play it safe, and just hide the thing in the ground, so, when his master returned, the master was not at all happy with him (Matthew 25:14-30).
Now, that parable is a parable of our lives.  At times, we may think, well, we have just received these “x” number of gifts or “x” number of opportunities.  We’ll just live “inside the box”, so to speak.  We’ll just do the minimum, shall we say.  But God calls us to creativity in our lives, in the gifts we have received, in the circumstances that come our way, in our relationships with people whom we meet.  God calls us to be creative people, with who we are, and the circumstances, and the other people who are part of our lives.
And we can do that, thanks to the one who is born of the Spirit, who also gives us of the Spirit, the Spirit who opens us to a wide vista of life, who gives us inspiration on how we may use our lives in such a way that they may be fruitful and productive, and benefit others, as well as glorifying God.
And, finally, one other parable of judgement that I referred to last week could also be taken to heart.  It is the parable of the Wise and Foolish Maidens or Wise and Foolish Girls.  Here they were, they all had lamps.  They were to have oil in their lamps, in preparation for the coming of the bridegroom—not the bride herself, but the bridegroom.  Five of them were attentive to what was to happen; and they had the necessary oil in their lamps.  But five others did not have oil in their lamps.  And, when the bridegroom, and they were all to go into the feast, the five who didn’t have oil in their lamps were in an embarrassing situation, and asked the others whether they could have some oil from their lamps.  But that just didn’t “cut it”, and so, these five foolish maidens were left out in the cold, so to speak (Matthew 25:1-13).
Now that could be, of course, seen in a variety of lights.  But one way is surely that, in our relationship with God, we cannot simply rely on somebody else.  It’s our responsibility to take account of our lives, and where they are, and to seek God’s forgiveness as required, and to find that the One who was born of Mary is to be called Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.  God, who, in his grace, gives us the gift of repentance, also makes known forgiveness, and the fruit that come from that forgiveness.
So, in sum then, the teaching in Matthew’s gospel can sometimes hit very hard.  It can seem to be purely judgement.  We can identify very strongly with the foolish girls, in being unprepared.  We can perhaps identify with the servant who receives just the one talent, and wishes to play it safe, thank you.  And we can perhaps identify with the servant who, on being given a responsibility, essentially doesn’t do the job, is irresponsible.  We can, perhaps, identify with those individuals, and feel ourselves pointed out, singled out, in these parables.  And it is a good thing, because they call us to question ourselves.
But we need, on the other hand, to see all these parables, this teaching of Jesus, in light of the bigger picture of God’s grace, of Jesus, who is the fulfilment of God’s promises to the world, to Abraham and to David, now fulfilling those promises to us, who is born of the Spirit, who gives us of the Spirit, so that we may live creatively as well as joyfully, who is God with us, Emmanuel, and enables us to be people “with” others, caring for others, loving of others.  And he is also the One, in Christ, who saves his people from their sins, and so enables us to take responsibility for our lives.
There is, then, the sowing of the seed in various types of soil.  There is the sowing of the seed in the good soil which is productive.  As we put our faith, and respond, to God who has made himself known in Christ, may God indeed make us this good and productive soil.