12. Feb 2023
Sexagesima
Luke 8:4-15
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God… the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Jesus’s Word belongs in your heart, contemplated by your mind, and spoken by your mouth. You were remade in the waters of Baptism to be the dwelling place for Jesus and His Word. The Father wants Jesus to be with you daily, everywhere you go, in everything you do, and behind every word you say. By hearing preaching and receiving teaching, Jesus is sown, takes root, grows, and flourishes in you to bear fruits of faith toward God and active love for one another.
The old Adam treats the Word of God like an invasive species. The flesh and the world and the devil prefer to live by lies. We would hear any word, whether it springs up from our hearts, from the mass delusions of clown world, or is straight-up demonic, satanic deceit. These false, lying words make us comfortable, tell us what we want to hear, permit and encourage our heart’s desires, and don’t confront a damned thing about us. You don’t need a sower or a seed, nor does the soil even need to change for the bitter, poisonous fruit to grow.
St. Paul writes, “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.” (Gal 5:19-21, paraphrased).
None of this toxic fruit needs to be planted. It grows in you because sin has been part of your life since birth. The flesh, with its passions and desires, needs no inspiration, watering, nurturing, or sustenance. It is not alien to you but has been with you all the way. It’s a parasitic infection, the foul breath of the Serpent’s deceit infecting and passed on from generation to generation. According to the Scriptures, the Old Man, the flesh, is so corrupt that without God’s intervention, you are walking dead, intoxicated with sin, drugged to death, and held captive by the devil.
But the Word of God is an invasive species. Jesus isn’t waiting for you to wake up and smell the disgusting rot of your fecal deities. Jesus isn’t standing by idly, hoping you’ll notice that you’re already dead. Jesus isn’t a passive God who lives afar in a palace in the sky, hoping that you’ll follow Him and choose to go His way. No! God the Father sows His Son, the Word, breaking the hardness of your hearts, invading your mind and conscience with good words, and working the soil with the blade for planting, cultivation, and harvest.
“Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.’”
His Spirit works by His means of a crucified Christ, a saving flood, a meal for betrayers, and the peace of forgiveness declared to those dead in their trespasses and sins. This is another way of saying that for you to live, you must first die.
There’s the spiritual death to the old gods, your idolatrous lives, and your affinity with living by lies. Then there’s the physical death, when all the rebellion, hopeless wandering, and lusting hearts are finally buried in the earth. But there’s also the spiritual birth of Holy Baptism, where the new life is begun in you, the Spirit working faith in God, and with faith, hope, and love. With Baptism comes the frequent and repetitive watering and feeding of God’s Word, “teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.” And there’s the physical life, when Christ Jesus will call you from your quiet resting place, resurrecting you from the dead and giving you the eternal life, new earth, and new heavens you’ve lived your baptismal life anxiously hoping, waiting, and looking forward to.
Even now, the implanted Word that saves you is bearing fruit. “He brings gifts into our lives like fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely” (Gal 5:22-23, paraphrased.)
It’s incredible what God has already done through His Word and Spirit for you. Jesus invaded your life of death, breathing your poisoned air, working the polluted soil of your heart. Jesus, the Word of the Father now in the flesh appearing, sticks with you through all the sufferings, trials, temptations, and difficulties of this mortal life, preparing you in faith and love for the life everlasting. Even now, He gives to you to live as the redeemed, the resurrected, and the everlasting, despite all appearances to the contrary. You are baptized in the Word, forgiven by the Word, fed by the Word, and kept in the Word until that Word finally makes all things new.
Jesus’s Word belongs in your heart, contemplated by your mind, and spoken by your mouth. You were remade in the waters of Baptism to be the dwelling place for Jesus and His Word. The Father wants Jesus to be with you daily, everywhere you go, in everything you do, and behind every word you say. By hearing preaching and receiving teaching, Jesus is sown, takes root, grows, and flourishes in you to bear fruits of faith toward God and active love for one another.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School – Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin