Christopher Thomas
Sermon for Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A – 7/12/20
Genesis 25:19-34
Psalm 119:105-112
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
“…grant that we may know and understand the things we ought to do, and be given grace, and faith, and power to accomplish those things…” – From the Collect for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, BCP p. 231
I would be remiss, I wouldn’t be your pastor, if I didn’t start off by telling you the Great Good News of the Gospel this very day!
“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!”
If that seed falls on fertile soil, so to speak, and takes root, what else is there to say? We ought to be done for the day. The news doesn’t get any better. Head on over to Luby’s and get your LuAnn Platter! It’s all good!
“Wait! Hold up Pastor! Not so fast!”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m a good “do-er,” and not so much a good “be-er.” I like to “do” stuff. I get really excited about making “to-do” lists and checking things off the list. I like agendas, because I can mark things off as they get accomplished. I love “oughts,” because “oughts” usually refer to the “doing” of something or some things. This is the part of my constitution that makes me a reasonably good business manager and probably the part of my constitution that gives me the greatest anxiety and even now is making my hair fall out!
“Shoulds” and “oughts” are the things we regularly (hopefully) profess to confess weekly, or daily, if you pray the offices, when we say:
“Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned (broken relationship with you),
by the things we have done,
and the things we have left undone…”
Our confessions center on doing, around actions, those things done or left undone. All that stuff we exercise some level of control through or over, perceived or real, ticking off boxes, and checking off lists.
“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!”
I confess that I must not be fertile soil. This “do-er” must not be the most fertile soil for Paul’s seed to take root, because, apparently, I do not understand.
“That which I want to do, I do not do; that which I do not want to do, I do!”
It would seem there is something about my “do-ing” that is interfering with this equation, that is causing the sinfulness, the brokenness in relationship with God, and with others.
Jesus, I want to be good soil. I want to be fertile ground. I want to understand all these riddles, and analogies, and parables. In short, I want to follow you. I want “to be” in you.
“To be.”
“To be” is something that there are no “to do” lists set forth to accomplish. Grace and faith, it seems, are required to accomplish “to be,” in ways that my own actions of “to do” will never be adequate to ascend. Grace and faith are those two things for which we prayed in this morning’s collect that God would give us so that we might accomplish this “to be.”
I wonder why we don’t do some confession around our “being” in our daily and weekly confession time? It’s all action stuff we confess to having done or left undone, not loving God or our neighbors enough. It’s our actions, or lack thereof, that lead us into sin and out of relationship. We don’t ever confess to not “being” in Jesus Christ.
So, what does it mean, to be “in Christ Jesus?” How do I, you and me, we get to be “in Christ Jesus?” I want to be good soil that listens, hears, understands, and bears fruit that yields hundredfold!
And I go back to that Great Good News. By virtue of nothing that we have done, or can do, other than stepping up and claiming the identity of Christian, Christ-follower, the rest being done by that loving, liberating, life-giving God that I acknowledge Sunday after Sunday, we are in Christ Jesus!
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!”
Death has been overcome!
Through the personhood of God, God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the work of salvation has been accomplished; God has triumphed over sin and death, eradicating the central problem of the human condition, separation from God and others, otherwise known as sin.
Is my fruit bearing hundredfold that Great Good News? Is it reflecting a life lived in, being “in Christ Jesus?” Is the awareness of who and whose I am somehow permeating every aspect of my life?
If that hundredfold fruit that I am hoping to bear forth is the result of not having sin, that life lived “in Christ,” in communion with God and with others, then it would seem that the fruit would be evident in relationships, plentiful, harmonious relationships!
Some, yes, and some, not so much!
In a culture that prizes autonomy and independence, rights and privilege, in a society that understands that “We the people” are self-made “do-ers,” it is a bit more difficult to be “in Christ,” to be in relationship, to subjugate self to other, and to remember that “rights” always come with “responsibilities.”
The soil in these instances gets a bit more rocky and sparse. The seed has little place or chance to take root and grow. It’s much easier for weeds and nettles and thorns to take hold.
It strikes me that being “in Christ,” is about a state of awareness, an awareness that I live in sometimes, and sometimes not. When I am aware of my Christ-identity, the Christ that permeates my DNA, then I am much more likely “to do,” to act from that place. The fruit which I bear resembles that which is part of the hundredfold harvest. The relationships I nurture and strengthen and grow, with God, and with others, feel more Godly and loving and harmonious, because they tend to be infused with mercy and grace and faith. All of my “doing” just comes from a different axis mundi, center of focus. The soil which is me seems so much more fertile!
It seems to me that as we move through this ever-lengthening season of Corona-tide, we are all going to need to access this sense of awareness, awareness of our lives lived being “in Christ.” We are living through unprecedented times in which our coping skills are being stretched and strained in directions never before imagined. Never (in my lifetime) has it been so critical to be aware of being “in Christ.” We need now more than ever to be those people filled with grace, and mercy, and forgiveness, and faith, and hope, and love. Those are the God-given gifts that will see us through the sin of separation to the other side of this crisis.
I want to be fertile soil. I want to be the soil that bears fruit and yields hundredfold! Don’t you?
“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!”
Hallelujah!
Amen!
