12 th July - 7 th Sunday after Pentecost

He who has ears, let him hear

How we use language is important to us all: it helps us to be precise in expressing our ideas to people in such a way that they immediately understand our intentions or requirements. Sometimes, we are required to recount a sequence of events, which journalists may refer to as a ‘story’, or more realistically, as a narrative or descriptive item of news. Over the years our attitudes to religion, and in particular to religious storytelling, have changed immensely. Rather than stories sourced from the Bible, say, that of Daniel in the Lion’s Den, it is suggested that young children would prefer to hear about the escapades of Julia Donaldson’s “The Gruffalo” at bedtime!

I want to draw your attention to one particular parable of Jesus. ¹ Although the Bible is our primary source of information, often the poets and hymnwriters are able to distil the complicated theological ideas contained in them into language which can be understood by both young and old. Thus, consider the words of William Parker: ²

“Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear;

Things I would ask Him to tell me If he were here:

Scenes by the wayside, Tales of the sea,

Stories of Jesus, Tell them to me.”

I would suspect that many readers sang this hymn in their childhood, and possibly remember the words because of the gentle lilting melody of the tune by F.A.Challinor. This much-loved hymn of yesteryear is now omitted from most major hymnals, because it is perceived by some as sanitized Victoriana: that should in no way detract from its essential purpose as an evangelistic tool. However, the first line of the title, gives cause for concern: what are those ‘stories?’. Are they the words actually spoken by Jesus - or just second-hand reports of what He may have said and done?

The Gospel reading for this morning is about one of the parables which Jesus told: namely, the Parable of the Sower. A parable is defined as a ‘narrative of an imagined event(s) used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson’, and hence, therefore, it is ‘a story with a meaning!’. For those people who may be new to our faith, we must remark that it is one of the most famous stories told by Jesus, and perhaps one of the first of such stories heard by young children.

To understand the parable, one must be aware of the agrarian system prevailing at the time, and realise that the farmers used a traditional form of ‘strip’ farming. This involved ‘broadcasting’ the seed, so that as we have heard, the farmer sows his seed on the soil where it flourishes according to the quality of the ground: so that in some places it brings forth grain in abundance, and elsewhere the yield is disappointing, because of a variety of factors. But many people would suggest that the practice is archaic, and not representative of modern agricultural practices – and they would be right!

In this allegory, the seed is meant to represent the message of Jesus; the ground, and its ability to produce grain, pertains to the success of those who respond positively to the implicit stimuli given by Jesus. The conventional wisdom is that Jesus was preparing His disciples for His eventual departure and return to His father in heaven – and this is one of His teaching parables about the kingdom of heaven. When the disciples came to Him, seeking clarification as to why He taught the people in such a way, the response was to say:

“To you it has been given to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even that which he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” ^{[Mt 13:13]}

That last sentence is interesting: it presents a conundrum of Socratic or Aristotelian proportions. Jesus was a very perceptive teacher - and human nature has not changed much in two millennia! And so, we have Jesus explaining further, and telling people how fortunate they are to be in control of their faculties.

“Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” ^{[Mt 13:16-17]}

All of us have been pupils at one time in our life, and are therefore aware of the people who are determined that they are not going to participate in the lesson, and having thus made that decision, they make sure that no one else should either. The are the ‘disruptors’, and thus every teacher’s nightmare. These people who are those who are so blind that they cannot see: they are people whose minds are shut with prejudice; and who therefore exclude themselves from the possibility of entry to the kingdom of heaven. In other words, they represent the seed that falls by the way-side.

Then we have those people who embrace the new found learning with enthusiasm, but unfortunately fail to sustain their new interest or ‘fad’. They are the type of people who fail to think things through: and they are unable or reluctant to accept the moral imperative, and acknowledge that entry to the kingdom entails privilege and responsibility.

And of course, there are the people who become so distracted by the cares and obligations of daily living – so that Jesus remarked, these are: “As for what was sown amongst thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfaithful.” However, the seed which fell upon good ground represents those who will be admitted to the kingdom because they have open minds, and can translate that which is heard into action, thus advancing the work of the kingdom. And as for that sown on good ground, “. . . is he 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.”

The narrative, or the story, within the parable emphasises the need for consistency within our daily dealings with our contemporaries. Another word is perhaps more appropriate - and one which the BBC has borrowed from religious language for its successful reality game show - the Traitors: would you be a ‘faithful’ or a ‘traitor’ ? But we must return to our children’s hymn, and examine its sub-text carefully, for the last verse is not simply age-appropriate to any specific generation, but rather a statement of one of the essential facets of our faith:

“Show me the scene, in the Garden,

Of bitter pain;

And of the Cross where my Saviour

For me was slain.”

Amen.